On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher reacted to the California Coastal Commission rejecting a proposal from SpaceX to increase rocket launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base where some on the Commission cited CEO Elon Musk’s political beliefs by stating that “the right thinks that the left is in a very different place with free speech than they have been before, and they’re not wrong,” and the rejection is “arrogant.” He also said, “they’re far too willing to stifle freedoms, including speech, for the sake of safety or misinformation…or just power, it’s just power.”
After criticizing some of Musk’s tweets, Maher stated, “He’s suing the twelve-member commission, the California Coastal Commission. He launches his rockets from Vandenberg Space Force Base…he wanted a proposal to expand the number of launches. Okay, again, one of the most impressive companies, an American company, he wants a little more, give it to him. No. The commission — some bureaucrat said, nope, and this is the reason why: Commissioner Caryl Hart, saying, ‘[W]e’re dealing with a company the head of which has aggressively injected himself into the presidential race, and made it clear what his point of view is[.]’ Yes, because he lives in America and he can do that. It has nothing to do with this, and the right thinks that the left is in a very different place with free speech than they have been before, and they’re not wrong, they’re not wrong. This is arrogant. You don’t punish somebody — it would be like if we stopped Henry Ford from making the cars because we didn’t like –.”
Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company co-founder and billionaire Mark Cuban cut in to say that while he agrees with Maher’s criticism of the commissioner, it’s just one example of someone stupid. Maher countered that the example he cited isn’t from a random person, it’s from a government official with power and Cuban responded that idiots having power isn’t an unusual thing.
Later, Maher stated, “But it’s just the attitude that I find scary, that — far too willing to stifle freedoms, including speech, for the sake of safety or misinformation — sometimes, which is coming from everybody. It’s — no one has a monopoly on it — or just power, it’s just power.”
Later in the show, Cuban said Musk is a hypocrite on free speech because he hasn’t said anything about threats to free speech from 2024 Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump and Maher stated, “Whenever they talk about free, free, free, it just means free for the people we like.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
