'News is newstainment': Internet split as Bill Maher criticizes media's coverage of student protests, says they blew it 'out of proportion'

MANHATTAN, NEW YORK CITY: Bill Maher hasn't been fully supportive of the protests against Israel's conduct in Gaza during the conflict with Hamas but, during the May 10 episode of 'Real Time', Maher sided with the protesters to some extent, criticizing how the media has exaggerated the coverage of these protests and stating that "they blew the whole thing way out of proportion."

Reportedly, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block has stated that over 200 individuals were arrested for refusing to disperse from the now-dismantled unauthorized encampment on the University of California, Los Angeles campus.

President Joe Biden reiterated his support for peaceful protests on college campuses but stressed that activities like vandalism, violence, hate speech, and other forms of "chaos" are unacceptable and have no place in peaceful demonstrations.

Bill Maher mocks media's Gaza protest coverage

During the show, Maher said, “Because as always with media these days, they don’t cover what’s most important, just what’s most fun to watch. There are 15.2 million college students in the US and 2300 have been arrested. That’s 167th of 1%. And half of the ones in New York weren’t even students.”

However, the host said, “We were given the false impression that these protesters are the voice of their generation, having found a cause for which they were willing to go to the tents and to the barricades. Oh please, these kids are more violent when their team wins a championship.”

Maher referenced a recent Harvard youth poll indicating that the Gaza issue is among the less important concerns for young voters.

He humorously remarked, "The vast majority just want to do what they went to college for in the first place: To experiment with being a lesbian."

He then playfully mocked a common protest slogan, "The whole world is watching," not because of the slogan itself but because he joked, "Only because you jerks with the cameras won't show anything else. Isn't there a bear in a swimming pool you should be covering?"

“So I thought as a public service, since it’s so hard to find reliable news these days tonight, I would provide a few rules of thumb for trying to follow the news in our modern age, starting with if the headlines in your preferred news outlet routinely feature words like ‘treads', ‘destroys', ‘pummels', ‘bashes', your outlet is a partisan piece of s**t. Either that or you’re reading a Batman comic,” Maher said.

"Ditto with 'obliterates', 'roasts', 'annihilates', and 'owns'," Maher remarked, highlighting that news should provide information rather than emulate Nikki Glaser's style at the Tom Brady roast.

Bill Maher slams media's profit-driven approach, urges audience to care about truth

Maher continued on this theme, eventually arguing that "every problem in the world isn’t caused by the President. When that train derailed in East Palestine, it wasn’t because Trump deregulated the brakes and the containership didn’t hit the bridge because of Biden’s woke DEI agenda. These aren’t news stories. They’re storylines pumped into your bubble."

“Once the news became a profit division of media companies, they stopped being in the news business and are now in the audience stroking business,” Maher continued.

He added, "The goal is no longer to inform opinions. It’s to reinforce them."

“You have to care about the truth. The media doesn’t care about it, because they know you don’t care, but you just want to hear your side. So at some point, you need to take a step back, look around and be really honest. Are you actually as f—ed as your newsfeed tells you? You are? Are you miserable? Some people are and we should help them,” Maher said later.

“Are you destitute? Some people are, we should help them. But most people who talk this way get to work alive. Most don’t fall out of a plane with a missing door,” the host added.

The HBO host highlighted that "Narrative first" is the approach taken by Fox News, then criticized NPR by saying, "They stop bashing the rich long enough only to beg for money. Jamaica is a paradise and Nebraska is a no-go zone. NewsNation reported this year that the US was on track for nearly a 300% increase in measles cases. 300% wow. That sounds like it could be millions. It was 35 because they just want to manipulate you into clicking."

Internet rallies behind Bill Maher's claim

Maher, taking a somewhat supportive stance toward the protesters by criticizing the media's coverage of the protests, got divided reactions from social media users. 

One viewer articulated, "Even though Bill says these protests aren't that intense, they're still in tents."

Another viewer chimed in, "So he spends months making an issue of student protests on campuses but now says don't worry about it, its just media hype!"

One comment noted, "Love the fact that this clip is Bill Maher DESTROYS the media."

Another comment remarked, "The media is too concerned about survival or profit, good journalism takes a back stage."

"Spot on. Couple decades late, but spot on. This is why nearly everyone has already abandoned the main stream media. Journalism died a long time ago," elaborated an individual.

"Something I never thought I would say is, Bill nails it again. The news has now become newstainment," a follower remarked.

This article contains remarks made on the internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.