5 posts tagged with lastweektonight and alexjones.
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Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Monkeypox  Season 9, Ep 19

This--last--okay two weeks ago: a French scientist posted a picture of a slice of chorizo (MeFi) and called it a distant star, and Alex Jones was found liable in three lawsuits brought by families of Sandy Hook victims finally. And Now: Some Thoughts From CSPAN's Most Frequent Caller. (Walter, from Butler, Indiana) Main story: Monkeypox, what it is, the stigma attached to it, and its unfortunate echoes of the AIDS crisis. On YouTube (23 minutes) And Now: Walter From Butler, Indiana Has Some Thoughts On Mortality.
posted by JHarris on Aug 26, 2022 - 1 comment

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Misinformation Among Immigrant Communities  Season 8, Ep 26

This week.... Idaho's Lieutenant Governor issued an executive order forbidding vaccine mandates, even though the Governor is opposed it. It turns out OAN, which has been covered by the show before, owes a lot of its existence to AT&T, the same AT&T that's Last Week's Tonight's abdicating business-daddy, which John Oliver cuts them no slack over. And Now: "Fox & Friends'" Brian Kilmeade Likes Christopher Columbus Way, Way Too Much. Main story (YouTube, 20 minutes) : Misinformation as it spreads through immigrant diaspora communities, for although more than 90% of Facebook monthly users are outside the U.S. and Canada, only 13% of hours the company has spent on monitoring information is focused outside the U.S. LWT made some memeable pass-around videos to try to spread the word about not spreading misinformation on the internet, available at bettermorningmessages.com. [more inside]
posted by JHarris on Oct 11, 2021 - 3 comments

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Cononavirus Testing  Season 7, Ep 10

This week: the show once again comes to us from the Blank White Void of Sad Facts. Alex Jones solemnly states on air "I'll admit it... I will eat my neighbors." The Coronavirus has, in three months, killed more Americans than the entire Vietnam War yet with no end in site, yet Jared Kushner essentially declared victory over it on Fox News. Ubiquitious testing is our only real way out of this problem, with current testing levels falling far short of what is needed despite having had months to improve the situation, so the main story tonight is: what happened? On YouTube (23m) And Now: Even During a Pandemic, Florida Just Can't Help But Be Florida. Finally, for some reason cats seem to love Last Week Tonight, so they decided to pander to them with a short spin-off show, "Cat Week Tonight." Contains Martin Sheen. [more inside]
posted by JHarris on May 5, 2020 - 14 comments

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Alex Jones  Season 4, Ep 19

Okay, so there were these seven days, and during them, this happened:
  • President Trump announces--via Twitter--a blanket ban on transgender individuals serving in the US military. Oliver: "We may already be entering the Mad Libs portion of Trump's presidency, where he just persecutes groups at random."
  • The Republicans' efforts to repeal the ACA, aka Obamacare, failed on every level, as Senator John McCain, the deciding vote, voted NO in dramatic fashion.
  • Scaramucci's ascent to White House Press Secretary, an auspicious reign that will certainly last forever.
  • And Now: More Newscasters Desperately Trying Not To Say The Words "Suck My Own Cock"
  • Main story: Alex Jones, favorite talk host of Donald Trump and the "Walter Cronkite of shrieking batshit gorilla clowns," his show, and the vast array of merchandise, sold on his web storefront, that keeps it afloat, much of it medical supplements and other supplies ("nutri-ceuticals") of dubious benefit. Warning: contains images of the "perineal area." (shudder) YouTube (22m)
[more inside]
posted by JHarris on Aug 3, 2017 - 12 comments

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Trump vs. Truth  Season 4, Ep 1

The first episode of season four! And so let's get right on to THIS WEEK....
  • The inauguration of Donald Trump, and his whirlwind of activity, which Oliver describes as "the tip of the shitberg."
  • AND NOW: Donald Trump Can't Shake Hands Right.
  • MAIN STORY: Trump vs. Truth (24m, NSFW). While just over a quarter of Obama's statements rated Mostly False or worse by Politifact.com, nearly 70% of Trumps rate so. In the process of covering this rich topic, we visit a Fox News commercial with a "cowboy," Breitbart, Alex Jones (apparently a primary source of information for him). They cover the history of the "three million voted illegally" lie from Twitter rando to President-Elect Trump to clueless person parroting it, creating a hideously self-reinforcing echo chamber that is currently driving policy in the United States.
At the end LWT, noting that Trump gets a disturbing amount of his news from certain programs, has put together a number of short commercial bits with useful information in them (like what the Nuclear Triad is, how the Unemployment Rate is derived, and "Tiffany"), and paid to put them into ad time in those shows. [more inside]
posted by JHarris on Feb 13, 2017 - 6 comments

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