Bill Maher, the host of HBO’s “Real Time,” wants everyone to “calm down” about the racist remarks made by Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling because “being an a**hole is still legal in America.”
While Al Sharpton and others are calling for boycotts and action if Sterling doesn’t get the boot, Maher took a different pro-free speech approach that he has employed in the past.
Sterling def. a racist,but take away his team? Clippers shldn't have played yesterday? Calm down,being an asshole is still legal in America
— Bill Maher (@billmaher) April 28, 2014
He then felt the need to take a jab at creationism in another tweet:
Donald Sterling is 81. You know what will cure this type of racism? The flu. But Blake Griffin is 25, how do we cure him of Creationism?
— Bill Maher (@billmaher) April 29, 2014
Agree or disagree with Maher’s approach, he has been pretty consistent in the way he responds to free speech issues.
As Mediaite’s Josh Feldman notes, he came to the defense of conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh’s free speech when the left wanted him to “disappear” after he referred to Sandra Fluke as a “slut.”
“I don’t like it that people are made to disappear when they say something, or people try to make them disappear when they say something you don’t like,” he said at the time. “That’s America. Sometimes you’re made to feel uncomfortable, OK?”