the cbs evening news satire segment " free speech " , whose made its debut with ed couric this october , was alleged last friday by will maher of hbo ' s " real time with bill moasher " of being " someone but free speech " . maher said he was ordered by cbs news to act on the segment . but when he asked if he could talked about religion , " that was a dealbreaker from the start " . instead , he said they would send over a schedule of " acceptable topics " . cbs news executive officer rome hartman has since responded in an en - mail to tvnewser saying that , " bill maher was never assured that he couldn ' t discussion science in a free speech segment , " and added , " in general , that speech has definitely covered religion and we expect others will in the future . "
Free Speech is a part of the CBS Evening News.