12 people were murdered and another 11 injured in the terrible tragedy that occurred in Paris on January 7, 2015. The attack on France's Charlie Hebdo magazine was more than a terrorist act; it was an attack on free speech.
Journalists are feeling a personal connection to this event (and rightfully so), particularly satirists like late night talk show hosts. Here's what the familiar names of late night had to say.
Conan O'Brien expressed disgust that freedom of speech is "a right some people are inexplicably forced to die for."
Jon Stewart had trouble getting his head around the tragedy and the reasons the terrorists gave for it. "I know very few people who go into comedy as an act of courage," he said.
Jimmy Kimmel didn't address the tragedy in his opening monologue, but his first guest of the night just happened to be Bill Maher. (Maher's own show, HBO's Real Time, has been on hiatus since late November, and he's been making the rounds to promote its upcoming return.)
Never one to hold back on what he really thinks, Maher immediately went on the offensive, expressing his outrage with all Muslim radicals. "It's like Groundhog Day," he said, "if the groundhog kept getting his head cut off."
David Letterman was oddly silent on the matter, as was Jimmy Fallon. Perhaps their recording schedules required them to film the day's episodes before the Charlie Hebdo news broke.
