USA TODAY
John Oliver, HBO and Time Warner have been sued for defamation for allegedly executing a “maliciously planned attempt to assassinate the character and reputation” of an Ohio coal company and its boss during a long-form story about the industry on Last Week Tonight‘s June 18 episode.
The piece sought to determine what measures actually help out-of-work miners.
“Donald Trump insists that he’s helping miners by reducing regulations on coal miners,” Oliver said during the segment.
“But too often, people conflate coal, coal miners and coal companies and imply that when you help one, you help them all. But they are not all in the same boat.”Murray Energy, an Ohio-based coal company, and its CEO, Robert Murray, filed the suit Wednesday in Marshall County, W.Va., accusing Oliver and HBO of a “callous, vicious and false” attack on the coal industry, part of their “most recent attempt to advance their biases against the coal industry and their disdain for the coal-related policies of the Trump administration.”
Murray Energy employs about 5,400 people, about half of those in West Virginia.
The lawsuit describes Murray, 77, as a man who needs a lung transplant who does not expect to live to see the case’s outcome. Murray is seeking financial damages and a court order barring rebroadcasts of the Sunday segment’s “defamatory statements.”
Oliver’s Last Week Tonight segment lampooned the Trump administration’s effort to revive the coal industry, saying coal has declined over decades as other energy alternatives have advanced. He also jokingly likened coal to “cocaine for Thomas the Tank Engine.”
Murray’s claim that President Trump “gets” the coal industry was caustically dismissed by Oliver on the show.
“Uh, hang on there, Bob, no he doesn’t. He barely gets what mining is,” Oliver said.He ribbed Murray, describing him as a “geriatric Dr. Evil,” and noted that the company had fought against coal safety regulations while blaming President Obama’s efforts on mine safety for damaging the industry.
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