https://archive.org/details/LegalGeekEp112
John Oliver has done well since spinning off from his role as lead British correspondent on Jon Stewart's The Daily Show. Last Week Tonight is his news and commentary show that plays weekly on HBO. In addition to covering current events, Oliver uses this platform to put together interesting satirical pieces on industries and organizations that may have things not quite right with them. His targets this summer season have included the Border Patrol, the dialysis industry, anti-vaxxers, and the coal industry.
And it's that coal topic that brings us to this lawsuit. Oliver focused on what he deemed an industry in decline for decades as a counterpoint to President Trump's repeated promises to bring back thousands of coal mining jobs, a critical promise in some of the blue-collar states that made the difference in the election. Apparently during research for preparing the segment, Robert Murray, the CEO of leading coal companies like Murray Energy, came to loggerheads with the comedian and his show runners. Murray threatened before the coal segment aired to sue Oliver and HBO for any defamation, harassment or other injury caused by the segment.
Of course, that threat did not deter Oliver. If anything, it made him go after Murray even more directly than originally intended. He called the coal executive a geriatric Dr. Evil when covering some of the lowlights of Murray's career, including a 2007 mine collapse in Utah and a questionable explanation of the reasons why. Oliver also recounted a silly story about Murray telling his workers that the idea for starting a mine company came to him from a squirrel. The segment ends in Oliver's typical over-the-top silly fashion, with a man in a squirrel costume holding a check made out to "Eat [BLANK] Bob!"
So while Oliver wanted to make a point about having an honest conversation about the realities of the coal industry, he ended up poking the bear. Murray did sue in West Virginia court, claiming that the segment was a planned ruthless character assassination intended to incite viewers to do harm to Mr. Murray and his company, as well as claiming that the statements made served as false light invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress. That's a lot to cover, but it all can be essentially boiled down to what is basically a slander or defamation claim against Oliver.
A first volley in the case did not go Oliver's way this week, as a motion to remove this case to federal court instead of local state court in West Virginia failed when a federal judge decided that the alleged defamatory statements made by Oliver about Murray would also likely negatively impact Murray's business based on Murray's high visibility and deep ties to the coal industry and this company. Thus, Oliver and HBO will now need to fight this out in a jurisdiction that very well may not be favorable to them.
However, Oliver does have the national spotlight on this case and it invokes interesting questions of how far free speech protection goes. The ACLU, always ready to defend free speech, has filed a hilarious amicus brief that you can find online if you want a good laugh at a legal document with section headings like "Anyone can legally say Eat [BLANK] Bob." The ACLU makes strong arguments in defense of political satire and critical reporting, while also noting that Murray has unsuccessfully sued many other outlets for defamation type suits in the last decade when he didn't like what was expressed about him. So this high profile case could help define just how far free speech protection goes when it comes to these types of shows.
The Bottom Line is, it really should come as no surprise that the strong comedic commentary of Oliver and other similar comedians sometimes leads to lawsuits like this one. Oliver probably pushed the envelope a bit by pointing his ire so directly at Murray, but it's hard to see how a context like this is not protected by the broad free speech protections in the U.S. If this case happens to go against Oliver, it could mean significant changes for many similar shows, and likely cause a chill in the commentary that most find valuable, even if we don't always agree with the views of the commentary.
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