Watch John Oliver explain how a coal industry giant failed to sue him in to silence
by Mark Frauenfelder from on (#4TZWQ)
The most recent episode of Last Week Tonight is John Oliver's celebratory victory lap over the end of coal giant Bob Murray's lawsuit against the show. Murray was suing for a 2017 episode calling Murray a "geriatric Dr. Evil" and for running a scene of a man in a squirrel costume holding a large bank check that said "Eat Shit Bob."
Oliver said the lawsuit was a "bullshit effort to silence us" -- in other words, a SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation), which is a way for rich creeps to abuse the legal system to silence anyone who says anything negative about them. (In 2010 Boing Boing was hit with a SLAPP and the plaintiff ended up having to pay us more than $50,000 in legal costs.)