Back in June, news broke that Murray Energy Corporation CEO Bob Murray filed a lawsuit against John Oliver and Last Week Tonight after the HBO show aired a segment about Murray and the coal industry. In the lawsuit, Murray – who has a history of being very litigious when he’s covered negatively in the press – claimed he was the victim of “ruthless character assassination” and that Last Week Tonight “obviously and grossly overstated the actual conclusions” regarding an accident that killed nine miners working for Murray’s company in Utah. Murray’s lawsuit even addressed parts of Oliver’s segment where he compared him to Dr. Evil and had someone dressed in a squirrel costume say “Eat shit, Bob!” to the camera:
Yesterday, the ACLU filed a legal brief defending Oliver, and while the HBO host has been pretty tight-lipped about the lawsuit, this new document from the ACLU is the next best thing. Even the “Table of Contents” is entertaining, Bob:
“Anyone Can Legally Say ‘Eat Shit, Bob!’”:
“John Oliver was mean to you, Bob. So what?”
Even the footnotes are funny:
On the whole Dr. Evil thing:
Read the full brief from the ACLU here.
