Seth MacFarlane to Maher: You’re Doing ‘Exactly What Trump Wants’ by Not Trusting the Reporters

MAHER: “The Florida House, they passed a bill banning children — like, young children under 16 from using social media, and in New York. About as different as you can get from Florida politically, Mayor Adams, the first to declare social media a mental health crisis.
(Applause)
Wow. I found a way to unite the country.
(Laughter)
So, any comments on these developments in the social media world?”
MacFARLANE: “There was — there was — I’m trying to remember the name of the book, I think it was called ‘The Chaos Machine’ — “
MAHER: “Yeah.”
MacFARLANE: “Yeah.”
MAHER: “You gave it to me.
(Laughter)
Remembr?”
MacFARLANE: “Yeah, by Max Fisher that talked about the fact that when you read an article on social media, like, let’s say you follow The New York Times on Instagram, and you read one of their articles and you process it a certain way, the second you start reading the comments, your initial impression of that article is radicalized one way or the other. And, first of all, I have no idea what these outlets gain by allowing comments on their on their sites. It’s like this Reporter took the time to research this, to fact-check, oversight from an editor. And if they got it wrong, then they have to print a retraction — “
MAHER: “What if it’s just slanted?”
MacFARLANE: “What if it’s what?”
MAHER: “What if it’s just slanted? What if it’s not wrong, it’s just slanted. That’s what somebody is pointing out in the column.”
MacFARLANE: “Then write a letter to the editor. Do your research and formulate your argument.”
MAHER: “But that appears a week later.”
MacFARLANE: “So what? What’s a week?”
MAHER: “Because by then I’d forgotten it or I don’t see it.”
MacFARLANE: “There’s this thing we take for granted now, that the journalist who did the work gets to have their piece put on the same shelf as everyone else’s spur of the moment to bullsh*t.”
MAHER: “You seem to trust journalists more than I do.”
MacFARLANE: “I trust certain journalists, yeah.”
MAHER: “I do, certain ones I do, not a lot.”
MacFARLANE: “Not a lot?”
MAHER: “No. And everything I read, whatever source, it’s only half the truth. They print the narrative, they don’t print truth.”
MacFARLANE: “That’s a generalization though.”
MAHER: “Well, it is, because it’s generally true.”
(Laughter)
MacFARLANE: “Really?”
MAHER: “Yeah. They print the side of the story — “
MacFARLANE: “By the way, that’s exactly what Donald Trump wants. What you just said is exactly what he wants.”
MAHER: “It doesn’t matter.”
MacFARLANE: “Don’t trust the reporters, don’t trust the journalists.”
MAHER: “Okay, well, Hitler was a vegetarian.
(Laughter)
Doesn’t mean I like Donald Trump. They print the half that they want that is going to make people like you who are partisan, very partisan, you want to read something that, ‘Oh, that makes me feel good.’”
MacFARLANE: “I read John Bolton’s book, for f**k sake, I’m not partisan, I slogged through that thing. Jesus Christ!”
Schiff: “You have my condolences. My God.”
MAHER: “I don’t know why you would do that.”