What To Know
- Bill O’Reilly praised Bill Maher for calling out NPR.
- Maher, during an NPR interview, expressed surprise at being invited on and argued that NPR now represents the “far extreme of the left.”
- O’Reilly disagreed with Maher’s characterization of Donald Trump’s behavior as a “mental disorder.”
Bill O’Reilly praised Bill Maher for calling out “boring” NPR during an interview with the independent, nonprofit media organization.
On the July 16 episode of his weekly interview show We’ll Do It Live!, O’Reilly, 76, lauded the Real Time With Bill Maher host, 70.
“He’s right, anybody who thinks that NPR and PBS are fair brokers of information is just a lunatic! They’re not,” O’Reilly said. “And they don’t even have to compete for money, because they’re donation-driven now.”
O’Reilly continued, of NPR, “It’s boring to me. Boring, OK? There’s nothing on there that I want to listen to, because I know what they’re gonna say and what they’re gonna do. They never surprise you.”
His remarks came after Maher appeared on NPR’s Newsmakers podcast on July 15 for an interview with Steve Inskeep. Maher called out NPR as “far extreme of the left,” admitting that he was “surprised” they invited him on the show.
“Because I just think of this place as so different than what it used to be,” the stand-up comedian explained. “And what I always want people to do, but it’s so hard to get people to do these days, is just engage with the argument. You can hate me, for whatever your reasons. You know, I’m too old, whatever I am.”
Maher added, “Are you engaging with the argument? Tell me if I’m wrong about something. And then we’re going to be cool. But that’s not what either extreme does in this country anymore. And, maybe I’m wrong, but I think this place is like on the far extreme of the left.”
However, O’Reilly did push back at one part of what Maher said about President Donald Trump.
“He just speaks his interior monologue,” Maher said on Newsmakers, “Which is just, you know, that is a certain type of mental disorder. But it seems to come out when he feels in any way attacked, which is, like, outside of his comfort zone.”
To that, O’Reilly insisted, “This is not a mental disorder. This is real. It’s real that the president of the United States is attacked every day. Every day, by media that loathes him. That is reality.”
Real Time With Bill Maher, Fridays at 10/9c, HBO