Bill Maher: NPR’s Katherine Maher Is a ‘Portlandia’ Character’

MAHER: “I think we’re going to hell in a handcart, and one reason I think that is because the story that came out this week about NPR. NPR is, to them, what this country would be if it was a permanent Democratic governorship. And if you missed a story on NPR, it’s it’s pretty interesting. A guy named Uri Berliner came out, he wrote — he had been there for a long time, 25 years. This guy, by the way, went to Sarah Lawrence and was raised by a lesbian peace activist, so he’s — “
MEACHAM: “Very, very Sean Hannity.”
MAHER: “Yeah. Well, very Sean Hannity? (Laughter) He said, ‘I’ve been at NPR for 25 years. Here’s how we lost America’s trust.’ And it’s just about how this place, which, you know, the show was called — the big show is called ‘All Things Considered.’ It’s not all things considered. He’s not wrong. And pointing out, for example, that of the 87 people working at editorial positions there, 87 are Democrats. Even if you’re a Democrat, you can’t think this is good.”
Ferguson: “I think one of the saddest things about the increasing sort of row, you know, the NPR row was just the latest. We’ve seen it also within the newsroom in The New York Times. And there’s really, like, no major news organization in the United States that hasn’t had some sort of newsroom uprising recently, or critique. The saddest thing about this is that he ended up quitting. And back in the past, you know, there’s always — I don’t know which is better. What we have now, where people go public and talk about these newsroom issues and say, ‘Listen, there’s not enough diversity of opinion, there’s way too much pushback, this is not fair, or in the past where, you know, what we’ve seen over the years is that people just quit, they’ll leave one news organization and gravitate towards another, and so people just become siloed and then the newsrooms become siloed and completely sort of tribal in that way. I think that’s the saddest thing, to see that he had had actually left afterwards.”
MAHER: “Okay. So, did you read the tweets from the person who is — this never happened before on the show. I have a namesake in the news, Katherine Maher is her name. I think that’s her — how she pronounces it. Although I kind of wish she pronounced it differently. (Laughter) And Andrew Sullivan wrote a column today called ‘Katherine Maher is not a liberal,’ and I agree. I mean, she’s a ‘Portlandia’ character. I mean, she’s — (Laughter) — she says things like, ‘I mean, sure, looting is counterproductive, but it’s founded on treating people’s ancestors as private property.’ Yeah, I mean, c’mon, man, a long time, ago. And I mean, this is just — she says, ‘As someone with cis white mobility privilege...’ — I mean, this is the kind of white woman who says, you know, she’s beyond, say, spirit animal. I just — (Applause) — I’m going to continue this discussion on NPR, but I have to take a break because we’re on CNN now so I have to hit these marks. So let’s do the desk piece.”