26 minutes 24 seconds
🇬🇧 English
Speaker 1
00:00
-♪ ♪ -♪ ♪ Lawsuits. The reason the sentence, Greta Thunberg allegedly killed Jeffrey Epstein, has the word allegedly in it. And, look, we'll get to the main substance of our story in a little bit, but before we do, I actually need to give you a quick update on something. You may remember that in 2017, we aired a piece on the coal industry that touched on this man, Bob Murray, the then CEO of Murray Energy, the largest privately held coal company in America.
Speaker 1
00:27
In our piece, we discussed his closeness to President Trump, his company's lawsuits to block a rule intended to limit miners' exposure to coal dust, and his insistence that a deadly 2007 mine collapse was the result of a naturally occurring earthquake, something decidedly at odds with a government investigation which found that it was caused by unauthorized mining practices. Now, before the show went out, Murray's attorneys had sent us 2 separate letters warning us that if we aired the story, he would sue. And threatening that, Home Box Office is in for the fight of its existence. Which, look, might actually be true, but not because of his lawsuit.
Speaker 1
00:59
It's because Game of Thrones prequels, including Game of Thrones The College Years, Game of Thrones Winterfell Valley High, and Throne Babies Battle for the Rattle, won't be out for at least a year. HBO's gonna be fine. It's gonna be fine. -♪ It's gonna be fine ♪ -♪ It's gonna be fine ♪ Well...
Speaker 1
01:15
Well, you may know, we went ahead with the story anyway, and this happened.
Speaker 2
01:21
Comedian John Oliver is the target of a lawsuit by 1 of the country's largest privately owned coal companies. Oliver strongly criticized Murray Energy Corporation and CEO Robert Murray Sunday on his HBO show Last Night Week... Last Week Tonight.
Speaker 1
01:35
It's true. Bob Murray sued us after that episode of Last Night Week, Last Week Tonight's aired. Although, and this is true, that's not the title of our show.
Speaker 1
01:43
And frankly, I expect better from an esteemed program like CBS Morning Night This Morning. Hey, you fuck up our name, we fuck up yours. Now, that was over 2 years ago, and ever since, because the case has been in litigation, we haven't been able to discuss it. But Recently, Murray actually dropped the lawsuit.
Speaker 1
02:02
So I have some good news. I can finally tell you exactly what happened, which is honestly worth doing. Not only because it's a crazy story, but because it actually points to a much bigger problem here. But first, a little background on the lawsuit itself.
Speaker 1
02:16
In it, Murray listed what he found objectionable in our piece, including that we described him as someone who looks like a geriatric Dr. Evil, which we did, and he does. And also that we arranged for a staff member to dress up in a squirrel costume and deliver the message, -"Eat shit, Bob." -$HITBOB. And I actually don't even remember that happening.
Speaker 1
02:35
Can we just quickly, can we just for a moment check the tape?
Speaker 3
02:38
It's made out to... Eat shit, Bob! -$HITBOB.
Speaker 3
02:42
-$HITBOB.
Speaker 1
02:43
Fair enough, my mistake, we did it. It's funny, the things you forget. That...
Speaker 1
02:48
That eat shit check was actually a reference to a real thing that 1 of Murray's miners wrote on a bonus check that he received. The background to that story was that Murray had implemented a bonus program to his miners based on the amount of coal they extracted. His workers' union objected to that, believing it would have an adverse impact on safety in the mines. And when Murray did it anyway, the miner returned his bonus check, off, by the way, $3.22, with the words, -"Eat shit, Bob," written on it.
Speaker 1
03:17
-$8. And the company tried to fire him for that, which seems pretty excessive. Maybe that message was just an invitation to eat at Shit Bob, the Airport Express version of Bob Evans. Need a slick biscuit and some soggy sausage slop before your flight, then you have got to...
Speaker 1
03:33
♪
Speaker 3
03:33
Come on
Speaker 4
03:34
down and eat shit, Bob
Speaker 1
03:35
♪ -♪
Speaker 4
03:36
Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit... ♪ -♪ Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit...
Speaker 1
03:37
♪ We've all heard the jingle. Anyway, Murray's lawsuit against us asked for damages because he claimed that nothing has ever stressed him more than our, quote, vicious and untruthful attack. Which is an odd thing to say, given that, as I just mentioned, he oversaw a company whose mine collapse in Utah resulted in the deaths of 9 people.
Speaker 1
03:56
It went on to say that we attacked Murray in a forum in which he had no opportunity to defend himself, which is just not how anything works. And besides, after launching his lawsuit, Murray did defend himself, and very publicly.
Speaker 5
04:10
We'll pursue it to the fullest. This is a tragedy, and American businessmen had better take note as to what they are trying to do with me, a guy who's done nothing in his life, but follow the law, create jobs, and do everything I could, as best I could for our country. These people are evil.
Speaker 5
04:30
They are very evil.
Speaker 1
04:32
Hey, hey, hey, Bob, I think evil is a bit much there. Look, you can say a lot of things about me. For instance, that I look like a toucan who can't sleep without a nightlight.
Speaker 1
04:41
Or that my voice sounds like Jude Law if he had a kazoo stuck in his throat. But Evil seems like a bit of an exaggeration. Now, obviously, the lawsuit was a bullshit effort to silence us, perhaps best exemplified by a motion that Murray filed to try and get a gag order to prevent us from rebroadcasting the story or even having it up online. And for the record, the piece is still on the Internet, big time, and you can actually find it at stillontheinternetbigtime.com.
Speaker 1
05:07
So... So, it was... Yeah. Just a useful shortcut.
Speaker 1
05:13
So, it was no surprise when the case was dismissed by the West Virginia judge who heard it last February. And at that point, we figured this whole saga was over, right? Well, wrong. Because Murray then filed an appeal to the West Virginia Supreme Court.
Speaker 1
05:27
And here's a fun side note. 1 of the judges set to hear our case was Justice Alan Loughrey. And that name, weirdly, rang something of a bell for us. And then we remembered that in 2015, we actually did a segment on elected judges that commented on 1 of his campaign ads.
Speaker 1
05:42
Here is a clip from that show.
Speaker 3
05:44
Hi, I'm Alan Loughrey, and I'm running for our Supreme Court. It's Loughrey as in law and free. This is my house.
Speaker 3
05:51
Come on in. There's the kitchen. Something smells good. And my family room.
Speaker 3
05:58
My wife, Kelly Loughrey, and our son, Justice Loughrey. That's right. Justice Loughrey.
Speaker 4
06:03
Yes, sir.
Speaker 1
06:05
Yep. I call my son Justice, I call my dog Preamble, and I call my penis the gavel. Vote for me. Boom.
Speaker 4
06:12
Boom.
Speaker 1
06:15
Oopsie! I mean... As far as things to say about a judge before he makes a ruling on your case goes, claiming that he calls his penis the gavel is maybe not the best choice. Even though, look at him, he clearly does.
Speaker 1
06:31
So, we were naturally pretty concerned at this point, but then in a bizarre twist, all 4 justices of the state Supreme Court, including Justice Loughrie, were impeached in a scandal over inappropriate spending. So our case wound up just sitting there for over a year until a few months ago when, out of nowhere, Murray's team offered to drop their lawsuit. In possibly related news, Murray Energy recently announced it will be reorganizing under bankruptcy, though you should know Bob Murray will remain the company's chairman. But we did wonder, what was the point of him putting us through all of this in the first place?
Speaker 1
07:06
Well, I would argue it's because winning the case was never really his goal. And that brings us to the larger issue that we're gonna talk about tonight, SLAPP suits. SLAPP is an acronym that stands for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. These are frivolous suits with no legal merit, specifically designed to stifle public debate or dissent.
Speaker 1
07:26
And these happen all the time. And Murray is not alone in seemingly using lawsuits to punish and intimidate his critics. In fact, 1 of his good friends has openly called for changes that would make it easier to file them.
Speaker 4
07:39
I'm gonna open up our libel laws, so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money. So we're gonna open up those libel laws, folks, and we're gonna have people sue you like you never got sued before.
Speaker 1
07:55
It's true, Trump has been as enthusiastic about opening up libel laws as he's been unenthusiastic about opening up a birthday present from Tiffany. Look, I know it's a tie, you know it's a tie, the only thing that isn't a tie is how much I love my daughters. Now...
Speaker 1
08:11
Trump... Trump is famously litigious, and has launched a number of what I would argue are slapsuits. For instance, when journalist Tim O'Brien reported in a book that sources close to Trump claimed his net worth was much lower than he claimed and only somewhere between 150 to 250 million, Trump did not take that well.
Speaker 6
08:31
When the book came out, he didn't feel very good about it, and he ultimately sued me for defamation. I think it's the biggest libel lawsuit in U.S. History.
Speaker 6
08:39
He sued me for 5000000000 dollars.
Speaker 1
08:42
It's true. Trump sued that man for 5000000000 dollars. And think about that.
Speaker 1
08:47
That means if Trump had won that lawsuit, he would have been worth 5200000000.0 dollars. That's a lot of money. He'd be a billionaire. But look, Trump lost, of course, and afterward, he openly admitted that he knew he couldn't win, saying, I did it to make his life miserable, which I'm happy about.
Speaker 1
09:06
Which honestly makes sense, doesn't it? Because in Trump's heart, he's just a vindictive bad man. He's the kind of guy who thinks the movie Sophie's Choice is about a woman who got to give up 1 of her children. But Trump's statement there actually gets to the key characteristic of slapsuits.
Speaker 1
09:22
The whole point is to put the defendant through a difficult, painful experience. And even if cases fail in lower courts, as they often do, The plaintiffs can find ways to extend them through intensive discovery requests, depositions, and appeals that drain the target's time and resources. And alarmingly, journalists are not the only ones targeted with slapsuits. In some cases, they can be used to silence citizen activists.
Speaker 1
09:46
Take the residents of Uniontown, Alabama. After a waste disposal company agreed to store toxic coal ash in a landfill near their homes, some members of a local group posted about their concerns on their Facebook page. But in 2016, the company behind the landfill sued 4 members of the group for $30 million, which is a ridiculous amount to sue anyone for, let alone people living in a community where the median household income is just $14,000. Although, to be fair, the attorney representing the landfill claimed that that $30 million figure wasn't actually as bad as it sounds.
Speaker 7
10:22
The $30 million, I think, has been... It's actually was 15. There were 2 counts, but they each contained 15.
Speaker 1
10:30
Oh, that's okay, then. Yeah, it's not $30 million. It's 2 counts of $15 million.
Speaker 1
10:36
Or you could say it's 5 counts of $6 million. Or 30 counts of 1000000. Or 3000000000 counts, each containing 1 cent. The point is, math is fun.
Speaker 1
10:47
Now, thankfully, after the ACLU stepped in to help the residents defend themselves, the company voluntarily withdrew the lawsuit, but the experience clearly left its mark on the community.
Speaker 8
10:57
It has scared a lot of people in this area for speaking up. Because those individuals are afraid to get their backlash, not knowing that that's just a scare tactic to get you to leave things alone so they can continue their power and control to do what they want to do.
Speaker 1
11:11
Yeah, she's exactly right. But the problem with scare tactics is that they work. Because things that could hurt you are scary.
Speaker 1
11:19
The only people who aren't scared of anything look like this. And look at that smiling idiot. Able to feel joy because he believes, more than literally anything in the world, that his soul has been liberated from 75 million year old alien spirits that a psychiatrist helped paralyze under the pretense of income tax inspections. Seems nice, Tommy boy.
Speaker 1
11:38
Seems real nice. -♪ ♪ -♪ The thing is, pretty much everyone, from judges to legal scholars, agrees that slap suits are a scourge. That is why 30 states have some form of anti-slap laws, which vary significantly, but broadly, can enable defendants to force plaintiffs to justify their claim early on. And if they can't do that, the case is not only dismissed, but in some states, the defendant is then awarded attorney's fees.
Speaker 1
12:04
Now, when they are well-crafted, these laws can strike an important balance between protecting legitimate claims and deterring time-wasting bullshit. The problem is, 20 states don't have those laws. And with no federal anti-SLAPP legislation, plaintiffs can simply file a suit in 1 of those states. 1 of which is West Virginia.
Speaker 1
12:24
And that is actually where Bob Murray sued us, despite the fact that neither he nor I live there. And we are far from the only critics that he's sued over the years.
Speaker 9
12:34
It's not the first time Murray has sued a journalist for coverage he saw unfavorably. According to The Washington Post, he's filed at least 9 lawsuits against journalists and their news organizations between 2001 and 2015 for reports they saw as critical.
Speaker 4
12:47
Since Murray likes to sue, we're not gonna say another word about... About him as a journalist? Here.
Speaker 4
12:54
Ah.
Speaker 1
12:54
Now, I get, I get that he is clearly joking there, but that is also the exact culture of fear that Murray may be trying to create here. Lawsuits like his make people think twice before reporting on his business, or pointing things out, like the fact that Bob Murray's general facial expression answers the question, what would it look like if an egg was mentally undressing you? And...
Speaker 1
13:17
And I would argue... Eyes up here, egg. And I would argue some of Murray's suits have clearly been attempts to bully people into silence, sometimes over incredibly trivial slights. He sued an editorial cartoonist over this unflattering cartoon of him, which is just pathetic.
Speaker 1
13:37
Who sues a cartoonist? You think I'm gonna go to court over this thing that I found online? Which appears to be me presenting a teared cake made with syringes, condoms, and broken glass. I can only assume that's a metaphor for this show, in which case, nailed it, no notes.
Speaker 1
13:54
-♪ No notes ♪ -♪ No notes ♪ Murray... Murray has also sued this couple, James and Lisa Ciocia. In 2012, they held a short protest outside Murray Energy's Ohio headquarters with only about 20 people marching around. It looked like this.
Speaker 1
14:11
And that has to be the least intimidating protest I have ever seen. 1 sign calls him Mr. Murray, and another is in serif font. It's less a protest and more an inter-office memo.
Speaker 1
14:24
But Murray nevertheless sued not only the Seauseas, but also a local newspaper, the Chagrin Valley Times, for their coverage of it. Now, both the C.O.C.I.A.'s and the newspaper beat Murray's claims for defamation, but he tied them both up in appeals for years. And the newspaper's defense cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. In fact, the appellate court judge even explicitly wrote in his decision that Murray's suit shows why Ohio should adopt an anti-slap statute, pointing out that the paper had completely removed all their coverage of Murray from their site, which the judge said was an example of the chilling effects a suit like this has.
Speaker 1
15:00
And that is the point here. Lawsuits are like famous Instagram pugs. They don't have to work to be considered very, very successful. -♪ ♪ -♪ Laughter ♪ And by cultivating a reputation for being aggressively litigious, Murray may have actually got what he wanted and successfully applied a chokehold on how he is covered.
Speaker 1
15:20
And while it is hard to show you an unreported story, in researching this piece, we did actually stumble on 2 ongoing lawsuits involving Murray that have got almost no press, which is honestly strange, because once you hear the details, I think you'll agree that they probably should have. Now, in 1, Murray discloses that 2 women who had worked for him had alleged harassment and the perpetration of a hostile work environment by Mr. Murray, and while he denies those claims, he also admits paying those women considerable sums of money in confidential settlements. In a separate ongoing lawsuit, a different former employee alleges there were numerous attempts by Murray to kiss her on the lips, pulling her into him to quote, cop a feel, and calling her into his office on 1 occasion to give him hot water with lemon while he was wearing nothing but his underwear.
Speaker 1
16:05
And what possible thought process could have led to that? Well, let's see. I'm horny. I've got, a little bit of a sore throat.
Speaker 1
16:15
I'd really like to solve both problems in a way that makes a female employee feel subhuman. Wait a minute, I think I've got it. Bob, you've done it again, you clever little coal goblin. --LAUGHTER --But wait, wait.
Speaker 1
16:27
Because it gets worse. The same complaint also claims that Murray had the plaintiff, on more than 1 occasion, get on her hands and knees to locate or pick up items for him, including 1 time when she was required to find a small, hard object he had dropped, and he only told her after she found it that it was a kidney stone he'd fished out of the toilet after passing it. And yeah, yeah, yeah. I know that that is absolutely nauseating, but remember, you chose this.
Speaker 1
16:51
You all chose to be here. Everyone in this audience could have gone to see Stomp tonight instead. -♪ STOMP THEME MUSIC ♪ -♪ STOMP THEME MUSIC ♪ Tickets are now available from $50. That's a great deal for a classic New York show.
Speaker 1
17:03
And sure, it's not gonna blow your mind, it's stomp. But, but it's been around for nearly 30 years for good reason, and that reason is, at no point did they force their audience to imagine this man fishing out his own kidney stone from a toilet. It's a good show! Now, now...
Speaker 1
17:20
Now, I have to tell you, Murray denies all of those allegations, which he says are concocted, and claims that the woman is using the litigation as a vehicle to harass and publicly embarrass him in an attempt to strong-arm him into a settlement. Although, I will also tell you that 1 of her colleagues backed her up in a separate deposition, saying she told her the kidney stone story at the time, and it described Murray as screaming at her to, find it, find it. And what was possibly the rush there? Was Murray honestly worried that someone else was gonna find his pea pebble first?
Speaker 1
17:53
I got it! I got Bob's cock rock! I'm gonna be a millionaire! And It's genuinely hard to find the right response to all of that once you've heard it.
Speaker 1
18:04
Although, I do think a seven-foot squirrel quoting a justifiably angry minor may have actually said it best.
Speaker 3
18:12
Eat shit, man!
Speaker 1
18:14
Exactly. Beautifully put. The point is, it's a little weird that these lawsuits didn't get wider coverage. These are serious allegations of workplace misconduct involving the chairman of the country's largest private coal company, a highly public figure who constantly brags about his closeness to the president and his role in shaping energy and environmental policy.
Speaker 1
18:34
And I would argue that 1 reason might be that organizations are justifiably wary of getting sued by Murray. Because even if they are baseless, his lawsuits can do major damage. Ours wound up costing over $200,000 in legal fees. And even though our insurance covered part of it, and we were lucky that HBO stood by us, this lawsuit was infuriating, took up a lot of time and resources, and resulted in a tripling of our LIBOR insurance premiums.
Speaker 1
19:02
Despite the fact that, to reiterate, we fucking won this case! Look... Look, here's the thing. We badly need effective anti-slap laws nationwide to deter powerful people like Bob Murray from using the courts to shut down people's legitimate dissent.
Speaker 1
19:21
And I know that after tonight, Murray will probably sue us again. Even though everything I've said has been rigorously vetted by our lawyers, who may I add, are getting very tired with us. Because when we reached out to Murray last week to review the details that we plan to include in this piece, he wrote a letter back, not addressed directly to us, but to our bosses at AT&T and HBO, saying we were falsely vilifying him, launching scurrilous attacks, and arguing that none of his lawsuits are slapsuits, which they absolutely are. So I guess, here we go again.
Speaker 1
19:56
It is yet another Bob Murray attempt to bully people into silence. And he's been doing this for decades. But you know what? I will stand behind our first piece, and I'll stand behind this 1.
Speaker 1
20:07
And as for the jokes that we made about him, we are more than covered there. The judge in our case pointed out that the Supreme Court has consistently protected loose, figurative language that cannot reasonably be understood to convey facts about someone. Basically, jokes are fine. And I've got to say, it would be really tempting to say a bunch of loose, figurative things about Bob Murray right now, and not just on our behalf, but on behalf of every small newspaper and individual that he sued, and on behalf of every employee who's felt ill-treated by his company, and who may have wanted to tell him to say, eat shit, but couldn't.
Speaker 1
20:45
And here is where I actually have some bad news and some good news for you. The bad news is, the last 2 years have honestly just been too exhausting, so I'm afraid I am not going to say anything more about Bob Murray tonight. The good news is, Why would I, when I can simply sing it instead? Maestro, please.
Speaker 1
21:08
-♪♪ -♪ We went to court against the world's worst sport ♪ ♪ And learned important lessons on the way ♪ ♪ We spoke with perfect candor and got accused of slander because Bob Murray wants to make us pay. So even though he'll threaten legal Armageddon, we have just 1 tiny thing to say. Bob Murray can go fuck himself today Ladies and gentlemen, to help me better respond to Bob Murray's complete bullshit please welcome to the show the Suck My Balls Pop dancers Murray, Murray, Murray,
Speaker 4
21:48
Murray Hey Bob, watch this He went to the Louvre and spit in Mona Lisa's face. Filled a rocket with puppies and he shot it into space.
Speaker 1
22:00
He bludgeoned Nancy Kerrigan and watched her cry for fun He murdered Ashok Ferdinand and started World War I That's right, if we discuss Bob Murray in a way no reasonable person could strew as factual We can say whatever the fuck we like So come on everyone, let's head to the streets!
Speaker 4
22:24
He'll stroll into a stranger's home and chis right in their wheatie He watches still magnolias and roots for diabetes He wrote the Macarena And he dots his eyes with hearts
Speaker 1
22:36
And even worse, he likes to play Malala for his farts Hey!
Speaker 4
22:40
What's the big idea?
Speaker 1
22:41
We using protected speech to tell Bob Murray to eat shit
Speaker 4
22:44
Bob Murray? Is that the guy who dipped his balls in my hot dog water?
Speaker 1
22:48
That's exactly who I'm talking about.
Speaker 4
22:50
Can I bring my car?
Speaker 1
22:51
It's not ideal.
Speaker 4
22:52
You'll be fine if I leave it here, right?
Speaker 1
22:54
I don't know!
Speaker 4
22:59
Burry, bury, he doesn't like Tom Hanks He caught up and goes here Told Hitler to quit painting and to find a new career He masturbates to Schindler's List Paul Geller makes him part He was Cosby's drug supplier, Jeffrey Epstein's prison guard. Stop, everybody, please!
Speaker 1
23:10
Stop,
Speaker 4
23:12
stop, stop, Stop! John, as HBO's legal counsel, please stop. I have something very important to say.
Speaker 4
23:30
1 day at the M&M's store, Bob Murray walked through the door. He wasn't wearing pants that day, his dick and balls on full display. Full display! He grabbed M&M's from a bowl and crammed them up his anal hole.
Speaker 4
23:41
He spread his buttcheeks far and wide. He told the tourists to look inside. Look inside! He said, my rectum's full of treats Reach in there and grab some sweets Grab some sweets!
Speaker 4
23:52
These are all real things Bob Murray did See you in court, fuckface!
Speaker 1
23:57
Look! It's Mr. Nutterbutter! We're singing about Bob Murray.
Speaker 1
24:01
I believe you've heard of him.
Speaker 3
24:03
You mean the Zodiac Killer?
Speaker 1
24:04
That's the 1.
Speaker 3
24:05
Well, my friends and I
Speaker 4
24:06
have a
Speaker 3
24:06
little something to say about him.
Speaker 4
24:12
Bob, Bob Murray is a furry Putting aside our personal quarrels The Man Fox Swirls The Man Fox Swirls He's a furry Hey, I know where we should go! Hey! Hey, Farmington, this is bad news to me Yeah, it doesn't count as slander Cos it's way too near We made up these anecdotes, they're silly and insane We could go on and on and on And on And on and on and on And on and on and on and on But we will stop this talking, though, So you better find your peace So eat shit!
Speaker 4
25:16
Bye! Yeah! Oh
Speaker 1
25:30
♪♪ ♪♪ ♪
Speaker 4
25:45
CE THEME MUSIC
Speaker 1
26:00
♪ ♪♪
Speaker 4
26:15
you
Omnivision Solutions Ltd