FanFare

This week... Ron DeSantis claims he doesn't wear lifts in his shoes. Main story: the fight to preserve abortion access in US states. "[...A] truly horrible thing to have to add to the list of things that pregnant women are not safe to do. So it's now officially: ride a roller coaster, eat sushi, dye your roots, and simply exist in the State of Texas." It's on Youtube (23 minutes). And Now: It Was Halloween, And Local TV Hosts Did What They Always Do. And finally, New Zealand is having a poll to decide their "Bird of the Century," and Last Week Tonight is waging an "alarmingly aggressive" campaign on behalf of the Pūteketeke, a.k.a. the Australasian crested grebe. The website of their campaign is here. [more inside]
posted by JHarris on Nov 7, 2023 - 3 comments

valkane had an idea: showing a horror movie in the MST Club room every night in October, AT 8 PM Eastern! We use that room for other things on Thursday and Sunday nights, but the other nights should work out! valk's doing this by the seats of his pant, and we're worried by sudden Youtube takedowns (where we're getting our films, we've been stung before), so we're not announcing movies ahead of time. Drop by if you want to! [more inside]
posted by JHarris on Oct 1, 2022 - 28 comments

This week.... Facebook announces their company is now called "Meta." (MeFi). Congress is hammering out Biden's final spending plan. And Now: Once Again, Our Annual Look At What Happens When Local News And Halloween Collide. Main story: Homelessness (25 minutes), and how our institutions make a bad situation for a lot of people worse.
posted by JHarris on Nov 2, 2021 - 6 comments

The main subject was a return to the opioid crisis, and the role of big pharmaceutical companies in causing it. Specifically one Richard Sackler, who pushed Purdue Pharma into heavily marketing Oxycontin. LWT created the website Sackler Gallery, which features a number of actors reading transcripts of court appearances by Sackler. On YouTube (21m). Other topics: Brexit gets pushed back to Halloween, and Julian Assange was thrown out of Ecuadorian embassy and brought into police custody for extradition.
posted by JHarris on Apr 21, 2019 - 0 comments

This week (11/7):

• The final pre-Election 2016 segment! Contains a couple of old Daily Show clips, of John Oliver 1. begging Donald Trump to run for the comedy potential, and 2. claiming the Cubs will never win.
• And Now: The Inevitable, Sad Consequences of Morning Shows Celebrating Halloween
• Main story: Multilevel marketing companies like Herbalife, Kyäni and "Nu Skin," and their suspecious similarity to pyramid schemes. With LWT's own pyramid scheme at the end -- money isn't involved, but passing a video around to five of your friends is. Because MLM companies are now targeting the Latino community, the segment is offered on YouTube with Spanish subtitles. English - Spanish subs (both about 32m))

[more inside]
posted by JHarris on Nov 7, 2016 - 3 comments