Join Fox News for access to this content
Plus special access to select articles and other premium content with your account - free of charge.
By entering your email and pushing continue, you are agreeing to Fox News' Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, which includes our Notice of Financial Incentive.
Please enter a valid email address.
By entering your email and pushing continue, you are agreeing to Fox News' Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, which includes our Notice of Financial Incentive.

"Real Time" host Bill Maher had a tense exchange with "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane over media trustworthiness, with MacFarlane being way more trusting of news organizations. 

While discussing the toxicity of social media, MacFarlane began by railing against the comments sections on news sites, citing The New York Times as an example where the reader's impression of an article is "radicalized one way or the other."

"It's like this reporter took the time to research this, to fact-check it, oversight from an editor," MacFarlane said. "And if they got it wrong, then they have to print the retraction."

"Or it's just slanted," Maher chimed in. "What if it was just slanted? What if it was not wrong, it's just slanted? That's what somebody's pointing out in the [comments]."

"Then write to the editor!" MacFarlane exclaimed. "Do your research, and formulate your argument."

"But that appears a week later," Maher fired back. "By then, I would've forgotten it, or I don't see it."

BILL MAHER CHIDES DEMS FOR ANTI-TRUMP STRATEGY IN 2024: YOU CAN'T JUST RUN ON ‘HOW CAN THEY LIKE THIS GUY?!’

Seth MacFarlane Bill Maher

"Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane and "Real Time" host Bill Maher clashed over media trustworthiness during a panel discussion. (Screenshots/HBO )

The "Ted" producer went on to assert "we take for granted" when the work of journalists is put on the "same shelf" as "everyone else's spur-of-the-moment bulls---."

"You seem to trust journalists more than I do," Maher said.

"I trust certain journalists, yeah," MacFarlane responded.

"Certain ones I do, not a lot," Maher replied.

"Not a lot?" a shocked MacFarlane asked. 

"No," Maher doubled down. "Everything I read, whatever source, it's only half the truth. They print the narrative. They don't print truth."

MAHER PANEL DEBATES NIKKI HALEY AS TRUMP'S VP: SHE MAKES ‘DICK CHENEY LOOK LIKE THE DALAI LAMA’

"Real Time" host Bill Maher

Maher insisted the media only prints the "narrative" rather than the truth. (Screenshot/HBO)

"That's a generalization though, isn't it?" MacFarlane followed.

"Well, it is because it's generally true," Maher said, sparking laughs and applause from the audience. "They print the side of the story that-"

"By the way, that's exactly what Donald Trump wants… ‘Don’t trust the reporters. Don't trust the journalists,'" MacFarlane interrupted. 

"Well Hitler was a vegetarian. Doesn't mean I like Donald Trump," Maher pushed back. "They print the half that they want that is gonna make people like you who are a partisan, very partisan, you want to read something that ‘Oh, that makes me feel good.’"

"I read John Bolton's book, for f--- sake. I'm not partisan," MacFarlane quipped.

BILL MAHER URGES PALESTINIANS NOT TO BELIEVE ‘MYTH’ OF ‘FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA’: ISRAEL IS GOING ‘NOWHERE’

Seth MacFarlane

MacFarlane said bashing the media is "exactly what Donald Trump wants." (REUTERS/Danny Moloshok)

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Fellow panelist, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., went on to tell Maher that people "tune into the news they want to hear to reinforce the views they already have."

"They're in the audience-stroking business. That's what the media does," Maher added.