Talk show host Bill Maher suggested last weekend that conservative media — including the Drudge Report, Fox News and The Daily Caller — inspired Dylann Roof to massacre nine people in an historically black Charleston church last week.
The Daily Caller reports that on his HBO show Real Time with Bill Maher, the host and his panel, which included Daily Caller senior contributor Matt Lewis, were addressing the topic when Maher said,
We can never know why someone snaps, but I bet you I know where he got his news. I looked at your website [the Daily Caller] the last week. There were a lot of stories about black people. A lot of stories. Same with Matt Drudge. I think they present a really twisted view. I’m not surprised this guy thought "they’re taking over the country.”
Maher then compared Fox News to Anwar al-Awlaki, the influential American imam killed in a 2011 drone strike who had helped radicalize terrorists for al-Qaida:
I wouldn’t say we should be droning Fox News, but we did drone Anwar al-Awlaki because he inspired people. He didn’t do any terrorist acts, but he did inspire people.
