‘No Bleeps!’ Jake Tapper Promises His Interview With Bill Maher Will Air Uncensored
“No bleeps!” That was the promise made by CNN anchor Jake Tapper Tuesday afternoon as he promoted his interview with Bill Maher that will air later that evening, joking that while on a cable network like CNN, he and Maher were not governed by the Federal Communications Commission’s restrictions on indecency and obscenity.
CNN Newsroom anchor Abby Phillip brought Tapper on to discuss various news stories of the day and then mentioned his “interesting sit-down interview” with Maher, calling the comedian “a pretty controversial figure.”
Tapper agreed with Phillip’s assessment of Maher as an “interesting” figure, calling him someone who “describes himself as a liberal, generally speaking, but he’s obviously annoyed a lot of people on the left, those that he would describe as part of the ‘woke team,'” even to the point of getting booed or hissed at by some of the people in his audience.
In a clip from the interview, Maher dunked on people who complained about his comedy. He jested they should “stop groaning, get the stick out of your [bleep]!” — with that last word censored as it aired on CNN — before remarking that his audiences were better in the last few years since “they think like me, they have open minds, they’re not woke, they’re generally liberal, but they can be conservative, too — and we have a great time.”
Tapper told Phillip that he and Maher also discussed cancel culture, the current state of comedy, and the two major political parties today.
Maher is “somebody that has something to say that will piss off everybody,” Tapper added, and “one of the preeminent political comics of our time,” noting that Maher’s show aired on CNN’s sister channel, HBO Max.
The interview would be “a really interesting conversation,” said Tapper.
“I’m looking forward to it,” said Phillip. “I do wonder how much bleeping we’re in for tonight.”
“No bleeps! I said no bleeps!” Tapper retorted with a laugh. “We’re not governed by the FCC. We’re cable, Abby! We can say what the — whatever the ‘F’ we want to. We can!”
“It’s 1:00 in the afternoon,” Phillip jokingly admonished her colleague.
“Fair enough,” said Tapper.
To be clear, FCC regulations are significantly more lenient for cable television as compared to broadcast networks but do still restrict the showing of “obscene” content. Fortunately for CNN, Maher’s penchant for salty language will not run afoul of these rules.
Watch above via CNN.
