On Friday night's Real Time, Bill Maher blasted the media for “hope-shaming” with its barrage of pessimistic headlines about the coronavirus crisis, warning that it would lead to Donald Trump's reelection.
“Now that we're starting to see some hope in all this, don't hope-shame me,” said Maher. “You know the problem with non-stop gloom and doom is it gives Trump the chance to play the optimist. And optimists tend to win American elections.”
To prove his point, Maher flashed the iconic Obama Shepard Fairey HOPE poster.
“News sources have to rein it in,” Maher added. “Everyone knows Corona is no walk in the park because you literally can't walk in the park. But at some point the daily drumbeat of depression and terror veers into panic porn.”
“Enough with the ‘life will never be the same' headlines and stop showing us this,” he said, showing a magnified image of the COVID-19 virus.
“Everything looks scary if you magnify it 1,000 times,” he said, showing another magnified image. “Here's a pubic hair, BOO!”
“Giving a proper perspective on the truth isn't covering up the truth, it is the truth,” Maher said, denouncing headlines containing variations on the word “apocalypse.”
“We need the news to calm down and treat us like adults. Trump calls you ‘fake news,' don't make him be right.”
