By DAVID EDWARDS AND DANIEL TENCER - THE RAW STORY
Added: Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:00:00 UTC

Thanks to Mark for the link.
http://rawstory.com/2010/02/maher-haiti-disaster-porn/

'We don't have a progressive party in this country," Maher says

Comedian and HBO talk show host Bill Maher had some harsh words for the news media on CNN's Larry King Tuesday night.

The host of Real Time with Bill Maher said the US media turned coverage of the Jan. 12 Haiti earthquake into "disaster porn," and accused the major broadcasters of ignoring other large catastrophes in its focus on Haiti.

"When the nightly news ... covers one story for three or four nights in a row, no, they're not doing their job. At a certain point, people are not learning about Haiti any more than they can. I mean, you know, at a certain point, you're just wallowing in it. It's just disaster porn, honestly," Maher said.

Host Larry King responded by pointing out that actor-activist Sean Penn, among others, has said coverage of Haiti should never stop.

"Well, he's wrong," Maher replied. "It's not the most immense. Nicholas Kristof did a great article a few weeks ago about what's going on in the Congo. There's a war that's been raging in the Congo for a lot of years. It's killed like four to five million people -- million."


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