Bill Maher closed Friday’s HBO Real Time by faulting news outlets for how they now handle Islamist terrorism. He said attitudes have reversed since the 2001 attacks, when the public simply opposed the perpetrators.

Four journalism groups issued anniversary guidance that the word terrorism belongs only in quotation marks because it carries emotional and political weight. Maher observed that the nineteen hijackers that morning shared a common outlook, yet later coverage stopped identifying that outlook or stating who sought American deaths and for what reason.

He described the resulting stance as treating both sides of such attacks as equally respectable.