WAS MAHER TOO INCORRECT?
Wednesday, September 26 2001
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Raising new questions about the future of Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect, Sinclair Broadcasting on Tuesday confirmed that it had "suspended" the telecast on its seven ABC affiliates. Citadel Communications, which operates ABC stations in Des Moines and Sioux City, IA and Lincoln, NE, also pulled out. Two regular advertisers on the late-night talk show, Sears and FedEx, withdrew last week after Maher agreed with a panelist on the show that it was wrong to refer to the Sept. 11 terrorists as "cowards." "We have been the cowards lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it's not cowardly," Maher remarked. He later apologized and has made a steady round of talk shows to explain his remarks since. Today's (Wednesday) New York Times quoted one ABC executive as saying, "It's obviously a big thing." In her syndicated column, Arianna Huffington came to Maher's defense, writing, "What becomes of a country when opinions considered perfectly legitimate -- and indeed uttered by hundreds of academics, journalists and members of Congress -- suddenly become a crime worthy of the media death penalty?"
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