Contact: Press Office, The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, 212-371-3191, pr@catholicleague.org

NEW YORK, Dec. 19, 2013 /Standard Newswire/ -- Bill Donohue wonders why Bill Maher has not been fired:

Phil Robertson is suspended from A&E for comments he made about homosexuality. Martin Bashir is fired from MSNBC for comments he made about Sarah Palin. But Bill Maher, who weekly insults Pope Francis, and his predecessors, as well as 40,000 American priests, bishops, and cardinals, keeps his job at Home Box Office (HBO is owned by Time Warner).

Newspapers can print, and TV news broadcasters can say, what Bashir and Robertson said, but they cannot, and will not, print or say what Maher repeatedly says about the pope and priests. In fact, CNN, a responsible Time Warner holding, wouldn't repeat what Maher says.

To be sure, more leeway is understandably given to pay-for-view channels, but are we to expect that if Maher used obscene language to denigrate other segments of the population -- doing it over and over again -- that he would still be employed by Time Warner?

Many bishops have responded to our call for Time Warner to dump Maher, and so have countless others. There is simply no defensible reason to keep this foul-mouthed bigot on Time Warner's payroll any longer. His show should be cut now, before the new season is slated to begin January 17.