I like it near the end when Oliver says that people need to stop lying to these coal miners about their jobs coming back. I seem to vaguely recall someone, maybe a politician or somebody, being honest about that last year during all this election stuff. Maybe I just dreamed that, though. Yeah, it was a dream, I’m sure. Or a nightmare, maybe.
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I love Oliver, but I kind of wish that hadn’t been used to describe the actions of a man. I dunno. It was kind of a nice for a phrase like that to be associated with women.
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Well, see, LIBRUHLS, don’t deserve safe spaces, because they didn’t have enough $$$$ to bend the criminal justice system to their whims! Cucks! /s
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Nah… those Gawker assholes deserved it, man! I mean they totes outed Thiel, didn’t you hear? /s
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Damn. Suddenly I don’t feel so clever.
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It isn’t about winning, it’s about imposing large legal bills on anyone who criticises Murray.
HBO have chosen to spend the money this time, but they’re viewing it as a promotional expense. They won’t do it every week, and most people can’t afford it at all.
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…he filed at least nine lawsuits against journalists and news outlets that published a negative advertisement from an activist group, claiming they maligned his character and threatened his employees’ jobs…
“How dare you criticise my lethal leaky toxic waste dumping and climate destroying business?! You are endangering my employees’ jobs!”
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I live in Australia and we have just signed a deal to export coal to India.
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I’m not sure it is. Oliver really doesn’t run a comedy show that deals in news, he’s closer to a news program that uses comedy as a device for news delivery. It’s not like he’s the Onion, creating entirely satirical fake news.
It shouldn’t matter in the end if the courts do their job. I wonder if Murray will even really follow through or just let the lawsuit die on the vine.
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Yes, I love his show. Funny, but also well researched and generally well balanced. I usually only get to see the one segment he posts on Youtube, but I catch it every week.
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Is this the Murray who blows goats, the one who wrote the Bell Curve or some other asshole?
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HBO could do it every week if it wanted to. Murray’s lawsuits are so boilerplate frivolous that they can be swatted down by in-house counsel without much expense even if there were no promotional value.
Your larger point is the more important one. Putting aside individuals and activist groups, most smaller newspapers and media outlets don’t have the legal budgets to fight these kinds of suits in court. For example…
Also, Gawker made a terrible mistake by allowing their arsehole former editor AJ Daulerio on the stand without proper coaching. There were ways to fight (esp. around Hogan’s conveniently shifting definitions of when he was in and out of character) and end things in a reasonable settlement and public apology. Once Thiel took the suit on as part of his stupid* personal vendetta against Gawker, though, it was going to trial no matter what.
[* as if your typical Gawker reader saw being gay as a bad thing]
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Somebody smack this gentleman with an anti-SLAPP motion forthwith, please!
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It’s a late-night talk and news satire television program. That it is grounded in satire is important in that subjects of satire cannot successfully sue unless the comments contain a provably false fact and public figures like Robert Murray have to prove that the statement was made with actual malice. So, when we consider the additional protections granted satire and comedy, the fact that he is not an actual news program makes all the difference.
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This is a key point. This is the same reason for why the court jester was such an important role in medieval days. The arts matter, kids, we must continue to support the arts!
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From Wikipedia: “In 2014, HBO had an adjusted operating income of US$1.79 billion, compared to the US$1.68 billion it accrued in 2013.” Murray’s also suing Time Warner, whose Wikipedia entry says “It is currently the world’s third largest entertainment company in terms of revenue, after Comcast and The Walt Disney Company” with a net income in 2015 of $3.8 billion. Those are much deeper pockets than Gawker had (the figure I found online for the total net worth of Gawker and Nick Denton was $200 million.)
Plus according to a quick Google search suggested that John Oliver has a net worth of $5 million on his own. While I don’t know if that’s accurate, I think it’s safe to assume he could afford a couple hours of billable time for an attorney to defend against this suit even if HBO didn’t have his back.
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You never know what some talking squirrel is going to say.
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