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John Oliver on Reports That FOX "News" Doesn't Even Trust FOX "News"

On HBO's Last Week Tonight, John Oliver addressed reports that some at FOX "News" called into question FOX News' own 2020 election reporting.

Published Mon, 20 Feb 2023 10:49:11 -0600

by Ray Flook

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Of course John Oliver was going to go after FOX "News" during the opening to the 10th season of HBO's Emmy Award-winning Last Week Tonight. Especially when excerpts from sealed court filings by Dominion Voting Systems showed that (shocker!) a number of familiar FOX faces didn't believe the stuff they were spreading across the airwaves, either. In case you hasn't heard, electronic voting hardware and software Dominion Voting Systems has a a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit filed against FOX "News" and Fox Corporation. In the lawsuit, Dominion claims that folks who work for FOX "News" passed off false claims about the company changing votes in the 2020 election to favor President Joseph Biden over Donny Trump. In addition, FOX "News" provided these folks with a soapbox to spew their conspiracy theories. On Fox Crop's side, the company's legal team is claiming First Amendment/Freedom of Speech protection.

In its court filings, Dominion offered example of how Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, and others had serious doubts about what attorney Sidney Powell and Trump supporter Rudy Giuliani had been claiming on various shows throughout the "news" network. Noting that the "very name is a lie in that it provides neither news nor, indeed, foxes," Oliver noted at the opening of his rant that he felt for FOX "News" viewers, adding, "Wow, if I were a Fox viewer, I'd feel pretty betrayed by that. It's like finding out that Big Bird regularly texts Elmo, 'Fuck them kids,' and Elmo agrees." As Oliver sees it, the court filings showed "the extent to which Fox News hosts did not believe the shit that they were selling, which is completely fine if you work for QVC and you have to fill an hour on why a bejeweled Squatty Potty will save your life, but it's a bit more concerning when you pretend to be the news."

But Oliver did pause for a minute to have a little self-deprecating fun, showing images from HBO's Game of Thrones, Succession, and The Last of Us while joking about how it's not hard to keep viewers by doing things the right way. "We do it the old-fashioned way by having integrity, self-respect and the blind fortune of airing right after hit prestige dramas that people actually want to watch," Oliver joked when responding to the report that FOX "News" folks were concerned about losing viewers if they reduced their Dominion coverage. "It's not difficult."

To further drive home his point, Oliver aired a clip from a CNN report, noting as he did that "multiple Fox hosts seem to see telling the truth as a potentially existential threat." In the clip, it's alleged that Carlson texted other FOX "News" folks, "Please get her fired. Seriously….What the F***?… It's measurably hurting the company. The stock price is down." The communication was referencing FOX "News" reporter Jacqui Heinrich fact-checked a tweet from Trump regarding votes being destroyed. "As egregious as that is, it does definitely track, as the list of fireable offenses at Fox News seems to be 'making stock price go down' or 'being a sexual monster for decades (but only if people outside the company find out about it).'"

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