Bill Maher unloaded on news organizations for shying away from the word “terrorism” during his Sept. 11 broadcast.
The comedian, 69, devoted a chunk of his HBO program “Real Time With Bill Maher” to the 25th anniversary of the attacks that killed 2,977 people, taking particular aim at style guides and journalism associations that he said want the term put in quotation marks. “Now a lot of media outlets don’t even want you to say the ‘T-word’ on the 25th anniversary,” he told his studio audience.
Maher held up a photo of the 19 hijackers and noted what they had in common. “They shared something. Oh, let’s call it a worldview — and it wasn’t astrology,” he said.
He singled out the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for guidance, later rescinded, that had urged against calling the attacks terrorism. “What should we call it then — unruly passengers,” he quipped.
“A wrong turn, taken at the Chrysler Building,” he continued, drawing applause from the crowd.
The BBC also caught his fire for stating that the word terrorist can be a “barrier rather than an aide to understanding.”
“You know, it’s really a barrier to understanding lying,” Maher fired back.
He framed the shift as a broader cultural reversal. “There was a war on terror, and we won. And yet, so much has changed since 9/11. For example, back then, we were against the terrorists,” he said.
Maher mocked the rationale that “terrorism” is emotionally and politically loaded. “Yes, so is the World Cup, but we don’t put soccer in quotes,” he cracked.
It was not clear from his monologue which specific U.S. Journalism associations he had in mind.
The outlet Stylebook, widely used in American newsrooms, counsels that AP “generally avoids labeling someone a ‘terrorist’ on its own, preferring to cite competent law enforcement officials or other credible authorities. Instead, we describe the specific actions we are reporting on and what we know about the perpetrators’ motives.” The Poynter Institute, a nonprofit media outlet, summarized several approaches to the term after the FBI called a New Orleans attack that killed 10 an “act of terrorism.”
Maher’s remarks landed amid a fraught anniversary that also saw political figures including Rudy Giuliani and Zohran Mamdani cross paths at memorial ceremonies in New York, and debates flare over how institutions mark the date.
The original 2001 attacks, carried out by 19 hijackers affiliated with al-Qaeda, destroyed the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers, damaged the Pentagon, and crashed a fourth plane in a Pennsylvania field after passengers fought back. The death toll made it the deadliest terrorist attack in world history and launched wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that would stretch across two decades.
Maher himself faced career fallout in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 when his previous show “Politically Incorrect” was canceled following controversial remarks he made about the hijackers. His return to politically charged commentary on HBO years later established him as one of television’s longest-running opinion hosts, though his views have frequently drawn criticism from across the political spectrum.
Maher’s next “Real Time” episode airs Friday on HBO.