In a riveting segment of HBO’s “Real Time” on Friday, host Bill Maher took a bold stance against the pervasive culture of exploitation and sexual misconduct in the entertainment industry, specifically targeting the treatment of child actors within networks such as Nickelodeon and Disney.
Bill Maher took aim at both Nickelodeon and Disney, linking them to recent allegations of child abuse and exploitation highlighted in the Max documentary, “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV.”
“Nickelodeon, it wasn’t a studio. It was Neverland Ranch with craft services,” Maher lamented on his show, comparing the children’s network to the infamous residence of Michael Jackson.
“It is just scene after scene, clip after clip of the child stars of their day being subjected to obviously inappropriate, highly sexualized degradation and quite a few pickles going through glory holes. I was grossed out,” he said.
Maher called out the industry for turning a blind eye to such issues when politically inconvenient.
“It also exposed hypocrisy because it must be pointed out that when the ‘evil governor of Florida‘ was saying the exact same thing about kids and creepy stuff at Disney that liberals now find went intolerable at Nickelodeon, he was dismissed as a hick and a bigot.”
Maher cited past incidents, referring to a 2014 CNN report that uncovered a disturbing number of Disney employees arrested for sex crimes against children and the public confessions of former child stars like Allison Stoner and Cole Sprouse, who spoke out about the sexualization they faced.
“The reason we find pedophiles in the Boy Scouts, the rectory, and kids’ TV is that’s where the kids are. DeSantis wasn’t wrong. The left will overlook child f***ing if the guy from the wrong party calls it out,” Maher said, pointing out the double standards in Hollywood and the political sphere.
He criticized the hiring of Brian Peck by Disney after the former Nickelodeon actor served prison time for molestation charges.
“After Brian Peck, who was one of the lead creeps at Nickelodeon, served 16 months in prison for the molesting he did there, Disney hired him, naturally, to work on a children’s series. For pedophiles in Hollywood, it’s a small world after all,” Maher said.
Maher didn’t stop with Hollywood studios. He also targeted what he termed “sharenters,” parents who sexualize their children on social media for fame and profits.
“They’re called ‘sharenters,’ a hybrid of sharing and parent. I call them pimps, a hybrid of pimp and ***. People who believe in social justice have agreed this is wrong and this is bad in exposing kids to an adult world of lured costumes and garish makeup borders on abuse.”
Maher also questioned the appropriateness of certain educational and entertainment strategies for children, such as Drag Queen Story Hour, suggesting they might serve adult interests over those of children.
“Jeez, can’t we just go back to the good old days when kids were read simple stories with simple morals…” Maher said before delving into criticism of what he calls ‘wokeness gone too far,’ particularly around discussions of gender to young children.
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