John Oliver Scorches Trump’s ‘Threats to the Free Press’ in Fiery 28-Minute Rant
HBO’s John Oliver devoted nearly his entire show Sunday to what he termed “threats to the free press” by President Donald Trump and his allies.
In a scorching rant on Last Week Tonight, Oliver touched on many of the administration’s battles with media outlets — starting with Trump’s latest standoff against ABC News. Last Monday, Trump fumed at ABC correspondent Rachel Scott over a question she asked about the $400 million luxury plane the Defense Department accepted from the royal family of Qatar.
“What do you say to people who view that luxury jet as a personal gift to you?” Scott asked Trump — who responded that Scott “should be embarrassed asking that.”
Oliver called that an “entirely legitimate question,” and proceeded to play what he called a “chilling” comment from Trump in March at DOJ headquarters.
“I believe that CNN and MSDNC, who literally write 97.6% bad about me, are political arms of the Democrat party,” Trump said. “And in my opinion they’re really corrupt, and they’re illegal. What they do is illegal. And it has to stop. It has to be illegal.”
Oliver called that comment “obviously extremely bad,” and argued the president’s rhetoric and actions toward the media has let to “some owners of press outlets [getting] more submissive.” Specifically, Oliver called out Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos for killing the paper’s endorsement of former Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of the election, and for facilitating the Post‘s “noticeably gentler” coverage of Trump. Oliver slammed Bezos for Amazon shelling out a reported $40 million on a documentary about Melania Trump, and for standing directly behind Trump at his inauguration in January.
“Come on!” Oliver said. “That’s not just bending the knee. That’s bending both knees, arching your back, and relaxing your holes!”
The HBO host added, “As threats to the free press seem to be on the rise resistance to them seems to be waning.” Among several examples, he called out Paramount boss Shari Redstone for entering settlement talks with the president over his lawsuit against CBS over the editing in its 60 Minutes interview with Harris last fall. The sale of Paramount to Skydance Media will require approval from Trump’s FCC — a fact which is widely believed to be moving Redstone to settle Trump’s lawsuit.
Oliver played comments Redstone made several years ago in which he said she “had the nerve to position herself as a defender of a free press.”
“Press freedom is never guaranteed,” Redstone said. “It must constantly be defended. And… it often comes at a significant cost both personal and professional.”
“If media owners enjoy the applause they get when they say things like that,” Oliver said, “now is the time to pay for it.
Watch above, via HBO.
