Apparently, the statements John Oliver made about Murray Energy Corporation CEO on his talk show, Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, has gotten him into a bit of legal trouble. And it shouldn’t come as a surprise, after Oliver himself pointed out that CEO John Murray is well known for filing defamation lawsuits against anyone who speaks ill of him or his corporation.
John Oliver: “Bob Murray, I didn’t really plan for so much of this piece to be about you, but you kind of forced my hand on that one. And I know you’re probably going to sue me over this. But, you know what? I stand by everything I said.”
To sum it up, a few weeks ago, Oliver did an expose on the coal industry, where he made some rather revealing statements about the dying coal industry. Oliver conducted an accurate assessment of the industry’s dying nature, wherein he isolated Bob Murray because of his commentary about the coal industry being rather misleading. Check out the whole segment below:
According to Murray, it’s the former president’s fault for coal miners losing their jobs. Murray asserts that Obama’s regulations to cut the amount of coal mining done in the United States has resulted in countless employees losing their jobs. But what Murray fails to acknowledge is that the number of coal jobs has been decreasing since before Obama’s administration began. Surveys have shown that the coal industry has been in a decline for years, yet Murray and other advocates of coal continue to promote the idea that there’s still life in the industry.
More to the point, John Oliver’s stance on the state of the coal industry was an accurate assessment of where it stands, and how quickly coal is going to die out in the coming years. Oliver probably shouldn’t have framed Bob Murray’s name so heavily in his report on the coal industry, but he had the right intentions when he did so. Nevertheless, Oliver is embroiled in a lawsuit that’ll be resolved when it goes to court.
For now, Oliver can’t speak on the matter because of the lawsuit being filed. But, that hasn’t stopped HBO and Time Warner from emphasizing where they stand. Nor has it stopped the proprietary owners of Last Week Tonight With John Oliver from defending the comedian. HBO even issued a statement in Oliver’s defense:
HBO: “We have confidence in the staff of Last Week Tonight and do not believe anything in the show this week violated Mr. Murray’s or Murray Energy’s rights.”
While most assume HBO would immediately turn their back on Oliver for making potentially damaging comments, they’re standing by Oliver. And they’re right to do so. Because it doesn’t seem like Oliver twisted any facts around, nor did he lie about the coal tycoon in his expose. Oliver gathered accurate information and surveys on the coal industry, used testimonies made by Murray himself. Oliver even got a hold of personal accounts from the families of victims who died in an accident at one of Murray’s coalmines. An accident which Murray claims was the result of an earthquake, but geological surveys taken on the date of the accident showed no signs of an earthquake being the cause.
So, when it comes down to Oliver’s word against Murray’s, it appears as though the truth was spoken during Oliver’s expose of the coal industry. Bare in mind that the manner which Oliver used to reveal these overlooked facts still had the unintended side effect of damaging Murray’s reputation, mainly because millions of people were shown facts previously “swept under the rug”. That said, it’ll be interesting to find out if the court which this lawsuit goes to deems Oliver / HBO innocent of the defamation claims being held against them, or if they decide Oliver’s actions constituted an act of defamation. Either way, all eyes are on Bob Murray and John Oliver. Murray more than Oliver, seeing as how his actions are now under the close inspection of the public.