“You know the problem with non-stop gloom and doom is it gives Trump the chance to play the optimist. And optimists tend to win American elections,” Maher says

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During the “New Rules” segment of this week’s “Real Time,” Bill Maher took issue with how people have been reacting to the coronavirus pandemic. Expressing the worry that “panic porn” will cede any optimism about this crisis to Trump, Maher also complained about how news organizations have covered the pandemic, saying media should “calm down and treat us like adults.”

“Now that we’re starting to see some hope in all this, don’t hope-shame me,” Maher began. “You know the problem with non-stop gloom and doom is it gives Trump the chance to play the optimist. And optimists tend to win American elections.”

As an example, Maher cited FDR’s famous ‘the only thing we have to fear is fear itself,’ then said he worries that “as s— as he is, I can see Trump riding that into a second term. And then there will be no hope left for you to shame.”

Then he turned his attention specifically to the media. “So look. if this insanity happens, again, news sources have to rein it in. Everyone knows Corona is no walk in the park because you literally can’t walk in the park. But at some point the daily drumbeat of depression and terror veers into panic porn,” Maher continued. “Enough with the ‘life will never be the same’ headlines and stop showing us this,” at which point the screen displayed a common graphical rendering of coronavirus.

Maher then said that anything “you magnify a thousand times” looks scary, and to illustrate that point he showed an extreme close-up of a pubic hair. Then he noted a recent Washington Post headline, ‘It Feels Like a War Zone,’ which included a photograph of a supermarket stocker unloading boxes in a store’s eggs and deli meats section. “This is not a war zone. This is a man with a box of eggs. And I’ve never seen a war zone with this much bacon,” Maher joked.

Then Maher noted another headline, “Horrifying simulation reveals the dangers of jogging during the coronavirus pandemic.” “Look, this virus is easy to catch but if you can’t avoid it jogging, you can’t outrun much,” Maher said.

“Two weeks ago ‘Inside Edition’ said 76,000 in the world had died so some are making comparisons to the apocalypse. The apocalypse? Really? Because most of us are sitting at home smoking delivery weed and binge-watching a show about a gay zookeeper,” Maher continued. “Unless you’re a front-line health care worker for whom the phrase ‘above and beyond the call of duty’ doesn’t even begin to cover it, this is not the apocalypse.:

“And I know, I know, you expect ‘Inside Edition’ to be over the top but The New York Times?” Maher added. “They used the same word last week. ‘Braced for Apocalyptic Surge, New York Avoids Worst So Far.’” (That NYT headline was later changed to “Virus Deaths Mount, but N.Y. Avoids Predicted Surge at Hospitals So Far.”)

“And this was an article about how much better the city was doing than expected… Still bad, but you don’t have to put hot sauce on a jalapeno. Jeez you sound like Lindsay Graham talking about ISIS when Obama was president.” Then Maher rolled a clip of Graham saying “This president needs to rise to the occasion before we all get killed back here at home.”

Maher cited another New York Times headline, “‘It’s Terrifying’: Millions More Out of Work,” adding “what the f— is ‘it’s terrifying’ doing in a headline? Granted, it’s a quote, but who are they quoting? Trump? Fauchi? Stephen King? No, they’re quoting an event planner in North Hollywood. No offense to the event planners of the world, it’s amazing what you people can do with pinecones and silver spray paint.”

More to come…

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