Tag: Bob Costas

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That Time When Bob Costas Sat Down With Bill Maher

Clip description: Bob Costas joined Bill Maher tonight to talk politics, guns, and the politically correct “bullshit” that both of them are getting tired of.

Maher brought up Costas’ infamous Sunday Night Football commentary about American gun culture, which Costas completely stood by. He told Maher that of course there are limits on what kind of weapons civilians should get access to, like “cop-killer armor-piercing bullets” or bazookas or tanks.

Maher then asked Costas if he thinks politically correct culture is “kind of out of hand,” citing President Obama‘s reluctance to say “Islamic extremism.” Costas said, “You need people on the left to call this bullshit out.”

Costas also said conservatives need to be calling out right-wing bullshit too, and lamented the selective nature of cable news where people just stick to their partisan corners. He asked, “Why can’t people with common sense hold two truths in their head at the same time?”

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NBC’s Bob Costas addresses LGBT discrimination in Russia – finally

During NBC’s coverage last night, Bob Costas finally took a moment to comment on the state of human rights in Russia, one the first times during the Sochi Olympics wherein the network has acknowledged the issue on air.

Bob Costas on NBC:

The Sochi games have gone much better than many feared and predicted. So far security has held fast, venues have been praised, athletes and spectators have almost unanimously cited the warmth and hospitality of their hosts. All of which is truly wonderful but should not serve to obscure a larger and more lasting truth.

While in many significant ways, Russian citizens have better lives than Soviet citizens of a generation ago, there’s is still a government which imprisons dissidents, is hostile to gay rights, sponsors and supports a vicious regime in Syria – and that’s just a partial list.

The Sochi games are Vladimir Putin’s games, from their inception to their conclusion, and all points in between. And if they are successful on their own terms, as appears to be the case, then at least in some corners it will help to burnish the image of a regime with which much of the world takes significant issue. No amount of Olympic glory can mask those realities any more than a biathlon gold medal, though hard-earned and deeply satisfying as it is, can put out the fires in Kiev.