This was a doozy.
If you’ve ever watched an episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, then you probably already know that he tends to take aim at some of the most rich and powerful people and businesses around the world, entirely without fear of consequences.
The show has made fun of everyone from Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin, but on this week’s episode, Oliver revealed that the show has been sued for defamation by the subject of one of the episodes from over two years ago.
Bob Murray is the CEO of a mining company that Last Week Tonight did a deep dive on and after the episode focused on Murray and his company aired (which included Oliver calling him “a geriatric Doctor Evil”), Murray sued the show.
He has since dropped the lawsuit, which now allows Last Week Tonight to legally talk about it and it ties in nicely with the topic of Oliver’s show this week: SLAPP Suits.
Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, the lawsuits are effectively used to silence people into not discussing or questioning those in a position of power, or more likely, those with enough money to issue the SLAPP Suit in the first place.
While John Oliver and Last Week Tonight have the power of the Home Box Office (HBO) and their parent company behind them, when SLAPP Suits are issued against those without that support structure in place, that is where things can become hugely problematic.
Watch Oliver discuss the lawsuit and the phenomenon of SLAPP Suits, right here:
Clip via LastWeekTonight
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