Blake Farenthold

Randolph Blake Farenthold (born December 12, 1961) is an American politician who has been the U.S. Representative for Texas's 27th congressional district since 2011. He is a member of the Republican Party.

Early life and education

Farenthold was born and raised in Corpus Christi, Texas, the son of Mary Sue (née Ogg) and George Randolph "Randy" Farenthold. His paternal grandfather, George Edward Farenthold, was a Belgian immigrant who was the descendant of an aristocratic industrialist family and worked in the oil industry in Texas. Farenthold attended Incarnate Word Academy and the University of Texas at Austin where he received a bachelor of science degree in Radio, Television, and Film. He also graduated from St. Mary's University School of Law in San Antonio.

Radio career

Farenthold's pre-political career includes working as a radio disc jockey in high school and college, seven years of practicing law at the Kleberg Law Firm in Corpus Christi, and founding Farenthold Consulting LLC, a computer consulting and web design firm.

Bill Maher

William "Bill" Maher (/ˈmɑːr/; born January 20, 1956) is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, media critic, and television host. As a television host, he is well known for the HBO political talk show Real Time with Bill Maher (2003–present). Maher previously hosted a similar late-night show called Politically Incorrect, originally on Comedy Central and later on ABC.

Maher is known for his sarcastic attitude,political satire and sociopolitical commentary. He targets many topics including religion, politics, bureaucracies, political correctness, and the mass media.

Maher supports the legalization of cannabis and same-sex marriage. His critical views of religion were the basis for the 2008 documentary film Religulous. He is a supporter of animal rights, having served on the board of PETA since 1997, and is an advisory board member of Project Reason. In 2005, Maher ranked at number 38 on Comedy Central's 100 greatest stand-up comedians of all time. He received a Hollywood Walk of Fame star on September 14, 2010.

HBO

HBO (Home Box Office) is an American premium cable and satellite television network that is owned by Home Box Office Inc., the cable flagship division of Time Warner. HBO's programming consists primarily of theatrically released motion pictures and original television series, along with made-for-cable movies and documentaries, boxing matches and occasional stand-up comedy and concert specials.

It is the oldest and longest continuously operating pay television service (basic or premium) in the United States, having been in operation since November 8, 1972. In 2014, HBO had an adjusted operating income of US$1.79 billion, compared to the US$1.68 billion it accrued in 2013.

Overview

As of July 2015, HBO's programming is available to approximately 36,483,000 households with at least one television set (31.3% of all cable, satellite and telco customers) in the United States (36,013,000 subscribers or 30.9% of all households with pay television service receive at least HBO's primary channel), making it the second largest premium channel in the United States (Encore's programming reaches 40.54 million pay television households as of July 2015). In addition to its U.S. subscriber base, HBO broadcasts in at least 151 countries, covering approximately 122 million subscribers worldwide.

Real Time with Bill Maher

Real Time with Bill Maher is a talk show that airs weekly on HBO, hosted by comedian and political satirist Bill Maher.

Much like his previous series Politically Incorrect on ABC (and before that, on Comedy Central), Real Time features a panel of guests who discuss current events in politics and the media. Unlike the previous show, guests are usually more well-versed in the subject matter: more experts such as journalists, professors and politicians participate in the panel, and fewer actors and celebrities are included. Additionally, many guests appear via satellite. Also, Politically Incorrect was produced four days a week and was pre-recorded, while Real Time only produces one episode a week which is broadcast live.

Real Time is an hour-long program with a studio audience, airing live on Friday nights at 10:00 PM (ET). It originates from Studio 33 ("The Bob Barker Studio") at CBS Television City in Los Angeles. Prior to 2009, approximately 12 new weekly episodes aired from February to early May, followed by another such set of new episodes from late August to November. In 2009, the show began airing as one continuous season. Because of the live, current-events nature of the show, HBO does not re-air old episodes between breaks, though occasionally a repeat will be shown when the program takes a week off during the season. In late August 2012 the talk show peaked at 1.4 million viewers on Friday, marking the biggest audience for the show in almost eight years.

The Young Turks

The Young Turks (TYT) is an online American liberal/progressive political and social commentary program hosted by Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian; the show has an associated network of online shows and is owned by a company of the same name (The Young Turks LLC). TYT was founded in 2002 by Uygur as a talkshow on Sirius Satellite Radio.

The Young Turks claims to be "the world's largest online news show"; YouTube video views for the TYT Network stood at a total of 2 billion as of July 2014. The show offers internet-only video content via their YouTube channel, which in April 2012 averaged 750,000 views a day, and by November 2014 over 1,400,000 views a day. The Young Turks also have a network of other affiliated shows on separate YouTube channels, known collectively as the TYT Network.

From 2011 to 2013 a second show, called The Young Turks with Cenk Uygur aired on Current TV. After Current TV was acquired by Al Jazeera America, the TV show was discontinued.

History

The Young Turks as a show began when Cenk Uygur started a talk show similar to a public-access television cable-TV show he had done previously called The Young Turk. With the help of friend Ben Mankiewicz (with whom he had previously worked), his childhood friend Dave Koller, and Jill Pike, he began The Young Turks as a radio show in 2002 on Sirius Satellite Radio. The show's name derives from the English-language phrase "Young Turk", meaning a reformist or rebellious member of an institution, movement, or political party.