The CEO of America’s largest privately owned coal company wants to silence HBO host John Oliver while a lawsuit he brought against the comedian makes its way through court.
Robert Murray, CEO of Murray Energy Corp., sued Oliver for defamation earlier this month after Oliver mocked the coal company on his show, “Last Week Tonight.”
According to the Daily Beast, Murray’s lawyers filed a motion in Marshall County Circuit Court in West Virginia on June 28, asking the judge to bar HBO from re-airing the June 18 episode of Oliver’s show, and to prevent the comedian and the other defendants (including the show’s writers) from discussing the lawsuit in public.
.. Murray Energy Corp. has a history of issuing lawsuits against the media, including a recent one against the New York Times for defamation.
Trump’s Italian Prototype
But the most important – and the most worrying – qualities they share is an ability to substitute salesmanship for substance, a willingness to tell bald-faced lies in pursuit of publicity and advantage, and an eagerness to intimidate critics into silence.
Berlusconi’s policy platforms, even his fundamental ideology, have always lacked consistency. During his successful campaigns, he said whatever it took to win votes; during his three terms in office, he used the same tactic to form coalitions. His only agenda was to protect or advance his own business interests.
.. Berlusconi’s greatest successes – especially during his 2001-2006 and 2008-2011 terms (he also served in 1994-1995) – lay in the manipulation of media and public opinion.
.. He somehow lulled Italians into believing that all was well in their economy and society, even in the wake of the 2008 global economic crisis, when plainly it was not. Under his leadership, Italy lost many years when its government should have been pursuing critical reforms.
.. How did Berlusconi achieve this? For the most part, he used the joke, the lie, and the smile. When that didn’t work, he resorted to bullying, including through libel suits.
.. In fact, few media tycoons – Berlusconi owns Italy’s main commercial television channels and several daily newspapers (either directly or through his family) – have ever been as freewheeling in their use of libel litigation to silence journalists and other critics.
.. (Full disclosure: As Editor of The Economist, I was the target of two libel suits by Berlusconi.)
.. All of these tactics are in Trump’s inventory. Trump is aggressive with his opponents, especially in the media. Throughout his business career, he has frequently invoked libel laws. If he wins the presidency, he has said, he will seek to control media criticism. And yet his essential message is optimistic, delivered with a joke and a big smile.
.. What is important is that both Trump and Berlusconi are ruthless and willing to resort to any means to achieve their (self-serving) ends.
Can Libel Laws Be Changed Under Trump?
There is also the possibility that loosening libel laws could affect him in unexpected ways.
“Changing the laws to make it easier to sue would essentially be used to harm him,” said George Freeman, the executive director of the Media Law Resource Center and a former assistant general counsel of The New York Times. “He’s more likely to be a libel defendant than a libel plaintiff.”