Bill Maher takes on Jon Stewart's "Sanity Rally"

The Huffington Post:

Bill Maher discussed Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's rally last, saying it should have had a point. During a long "New Rule" Maher disputed the idea that the Left is just as much to blame for the level of discourse in this country as the Right.

"The message of the rally, as I heard it, was that if the media stopped giving voice to the crazies on both sides, then maybe we could restore sanity. It was all nonpartisan and urged cooperation with the moderates on the other side forgetting that Obama tried that and found out...there are no moderates on the other side. When Jon announced his rally, he said the national conversation was dominated by people on the Right who believe Obama's a Socialist and people on the Left who believe 9/11's an inside job, but I can't name any Democratic leaders who think 9/11's an inside job. But Republican leaders who think Obama's a Socialist? All of them."

Maher noted that Colbert and Stewart are his friends, but bemoaned the idea that the insanity is equally distributed in both parties. "Keith Olbermann is right when he says he's not the equivalent of Glenn Beck. One reports facts the other one is very close to playing with his poop. And the big mistake of modern media has been this notion of balance for balance's sake. That the Left is just as violent and cruel as the Right...there's a difference between a mad man and a madman," he said, referencing Olbermann's tweets. Maher went on to poke holes in Jon's arguments, saying "Martin Luther King spoke on that Mall in the capital and he didn't say, 'Remember folks, those southern sheriffs with the fire hoses and the German shepherds, they have a point too.' No, he said I have a dream, they have a nightmare...Liberals, like the ones on that field, must stand up and be counted and not pretend that we're as mean, or greedy, or short-sighted or just plain bat-shit as they are. And if that's to polarizing for you, and you still wanna reach across the aisle...try church"