VAST WASTELAND :

Economically Incorrect : The real reason Bill Maher got canned. (Matthew Nisbet, 6.3.02, American Prospect)

Last week, ABC officially announced what many industry watchers had expected for several months: The late-night talk show Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher would be canceled, and replaced in the fall by a new entertainment program hosted by Comedy Central's Jimmy Kimmel. When the news broke, most media reports pegged Politically Incorrect's demise on Maher's "unpatriotic" remarks in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Yet while there's some truth to the notion, this interpretation ignores other, more powerful market forces that have worked to replace an important televised forum of political dissent with the latest incarnation of "must-sleaze" TV.

Strange how when conservatives ask them to clean up television, we're told it's a business and the market decides. But when that skunk Maher's show tanks, liberals shriek about him being censored. This essay gets it mostly right, though the author seems to think PI was some kind of public service program. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 6, 2002 8:06 AM