<p>Bill Maher, host of HBO&#8217;s &#8220;Real Time,&#8221; on Friday blasted the media as purveyors of &#8220;panic porn&#8221; with their breathless daily coronavirus pandemic coverage.</p>
<p>The host urged all news outlets to &#8220;rein it in,&#8221; saying their coverage could be creating a path for President Donald Trump to win re-election.</p>
<p>&#8220;Now that we&#8217;re starting to see some hope in all of this, don&#8217;t hope-shame me!&#8221; Maher said. &#8220;You know, the problem with nonstop gloom and doom is that it gives Trump the chance to play the optimist. And optimists tend to win American elections. FDR has said, &#8216;The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. You know, as full of sh*t as he is, I could see Trump riding that into a second term. And then there will be no more hope left for you to shame.&#8221;</p>
<p>Maher blamed the media for the &#8220;daily drumbeat of depression and terror veers into panic porn.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Enough with the &#8216;Life will never be the same&#8217; headlines!&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Maher, who describes himself as a libertarian, ripped the liberal Washington Post for a headline that said &#8220;It feels like a war zone,&#8221; a quote pulled from a shopper in a grocery store. He also blasted The New York Times for its headline, &#8220;Braced for Apocalyptic Surge, New York Avoids Worst, So Far.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;This was an article about how much better the city was doing than expected,&#8221; Maher said. &#8220;You don&#8217;t have to put hot sauce on a jalapeño.&#8221;</p>
<p>The host cited another Times headline that said, &#8220;&#8216;It&#8217;s Terrifying&#8217;: Millions More Out of Work,&#8221; with the quote coming from a Hollywood event planner.</p>
<p>&#8220;What the f*ck is &#8216;It&#8217;s terrifying&#8217; doing in a headline?&#8221; Maher asked. &#8220;How about this: Just tell me millions are out of work without the flashlight under the chin and I&#8217;ll decide how I feel about it.&#8221;</p>
<p>The media is wading into new waters, he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;There was never headlines like this before. There was no, &#8216;It&#8217;s Terrifying: Planes Hit World Trade Center.&#8217; There was no, &#8216;It&#8217;s Sad&#8217;: Titanic Sinks After Hitting Iceberg.&#8221;</p>
<p>Maher also hit the media for being &#8220;obsessed&#8221; with the number of people who have died from COVID-19 while ignoring the far higher death toll from the flu last  year.</p>
<p>&#8220;So all of this social distancing did some good. Can I be happy about that?&#8221; Maher complained. &#8220;Death is terrible, of course, no matter how it comes &#8230; but giving the proper perspective isn&#8217;t a cover-up of the truth, it is the truth. Sudden dramatic deaths like plane crashes, shark attacks, tornadoes, mass shootings, terrorism, awful as they are, kill far less than seasonal flu. Even hospital-acquired infections may very well kill more people than the coronavirus &#8212; 99,000 of them last year! Fifty-thousand died from nephritis last year and I don&#8217;t even know what that is!&#8221;</p>
<p>Then the HBO host did something he doesn&#8217;t often do: He warned the media that they are making Trump appear correct in his charges against them.</p>
<p>&#8220;We need the news to calm down and treat us like adults,&#8221; he told the media. &#8220;Trump calls you &#8216;fake news,&#8217; don&#8217;t make him be right.&#8221;</p>

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Maher Says Media’s ‘Panic Porn’ Coronavirus Coverage Could Create Trump Reelection Path

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Maher Says Media’s ‘Panic Porn’ Coronavirus Coverage Could Create Trump Reelection Path