Comedian and podcast host Bill Maher called out The New York Times (NYT) for having biased coverage during an episode of “Club Random” released Sunday.
Maher told actor Martin Short he doesn’t watch cable news anymore but rather reads newspapers and independent journalists, before taking a swipe at NYT. “It’s just not the paper it was when I was a kid, and it’s annoying in a zillion different ways,” Maher said. (RELATED: New York Times Admits Hasty And Biased Coverage Over Gaza Hospital Blast)
“They write stupid things today,” Maher said, describing how NYT has changed since the ’90s. “It’s a completely different generation that has a completely different idea about journalism. And the opinion page is every page. That is a fundamental difference, I did not change, Mr. Short, they changed. The front page used to be just the news. Just give me the facts, the headlines, today, it was something like ‘Trump’s victory, something the nation’s psyche.'”
“What the fuck are you – that’s not a headline! That’s your lead. It was like Trump’s – He just won Iowa. Trump’s victory, like, something, I forget what, something in the nation’s psyche.”
Short said he understood what Maher was saying in that it was no longer straight facts.
“That’s just somebody’s thought!” Maher exclaimed. “That’s different and fucked up.”
Maher said he trusts writers like former Times reporter Bari Weiss and others. The duo also discussed the current political climate and Hollywood.
Maher took a swipe at NYT in 2023 for their slanted coverage of Democratic presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in which the outlet said Kennedy was pushing “misinformation.”
Maher said the article was written like an editorial even though it was under the news section.