The Salon Interview: Bill Maher

The political satirist talks about the 9/11 quote that got him fired from ABC, his new HBO show and why Bush is losing the war on terror.

By Jake Tapper

Dec. 11, 2002 | Bill Maher's back. And who would've guessed so soon?

Last year, on the first episode of his "Politically Incorrect" show since the Sept. 11 attacks, he infamously compared the bravery of American politicians with that of al-Qaida terrorists. "We have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly," Maher said on the Sept. 17 episode. "Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it's not cowardly."

It was classic Maher, as infuriatingly un-p.c. as ever. But the times, at least momentarily, had changed. And few wanted to hear -- or defend -- Maher's comments. Enemies of Maher, on both the left and right, seized the opportunity and called him unpatriotic. A protest ensued. Even the Bush White House (a frequent Maher target) stoked the outrage, with spokesman Ari Fleischer calling Maher's remarks "a terrible thing to say" and the subsequent contretemps a reminder "to all Americans that they need to watch what they say, watch what they do. This is not a time for remarks like that; there never is."

Maher apologized for his statements to "anyone who took it wrong," but the damage was done. Major advertisers pulled their commercials from the ABC show; 17 ABC affiliates dropped the program from the air. It was canceled May 14.

And yet here we are, scarcely a year after the White House deemed Maher Public Enemy No. 2, and he's back on the scene with a stand-up tour, a book -- "When You Ride Alone You Ride With bin Laden: What the Government Should Be Telling Us to Help Fight the War on Terrorism" -- and the announcement of a pending weekly talk show on HBO. And he seems as uninhibited as ever. His new book takes swipes at President Bush, Al Gore, the war on terrorism, Muslims, the media, Madonna, Christmas lights and Julia Roberts. He spoke with Salon by telephone.

You'll be starting your new weekly HBO series in February. What will it be like?

I know it will be an hour at the end of the week, kind of a "That Was the Week That Was" wrap-up about what happened. There will be a round-table element, with more of a permanent group, as opposed to four different faces every night like we did on "Politically Incorrect." I'm just thrilled to be finally at a place where I think I'll be appreciated and not in any way have my style cramped.

Did ABC cramp your style?

Not terribly, but they did ultimately fire me. I was always able to say what I wanted -- and I did. But ultimately it got me kicked out the door. I never really changed when I came to ABC but that was the ultimate, and many would say inevitable, upshot of it. I'm just hoping it won't be like that with this show.

ABC was in a tough spot, though, right? Advertisers like General Motors pulled their ads; 17 affiliates pulled your show. Some estimated a $10 million loss for the network.

That may be true. But what was not true was that our ratings declined; our ratings were quite good, especially considering they never promoted us and -- especially after 9/11 -- acted like we didn't exist. I was laughing my head off when ABC was going after David Letterman, and he was kind of whining about how CBS didn't give him enough promotion. I was like, "Hey, Dave, try none. If you don't get enough at CBS, you're going to love it over here at ABC."

Advertising did pull out -- absolutely. And if that's what they want to put it on -- absolutely. But I get upset when I read in a paper -- again, the lazy media -- that our ratings went down. That wasn't the case.

Your old time slot will soon be filled by a show starring Jimmy Kimmel, who recently said that "Maher's controversial stuff is serious, important stuff. My controversial stuff is nonsense. It's showing a monkey's penis on TV."

[Laughs] And I think we all feel the same way when we read a comment like that: "Of course! The perfect companion to 'Nightline.'"

Look, I like Jimmy. I used to love "The Man Show." I always watched it and I was even on it once -- with a chimpanzee, as a matter of fact. I'm close to those guys. But with Jimmy -- it's funny, I feel about it the way you'd feel about a friend of yours marrying your ex-wife. It's like, "You'll see. Go ahead. You take her for a while." I wish him the best. I like him and I think he's funny. But if we weren't serious enough for Ted Koppel to ever utter the title of our show even though we came on right after him, I don't know what kind of cooperation Jimmy Kimmel's show is going to get.

Next page: Good guests (the Baldwins) and one very cowardly one (D'Souza)