John Oliver Rips Into Alex Jones’ Dishonest Funding Tactics

“The Walter Cronkite of shrieking batshit gorilla clowns.”

John Oliver returned to Last Week Tonight on Sunday with a segment dedicated to the president’s favorite conspiracy theorist, Infowars host Alex Jones. But rather than focus on Jones’ promotion of pernicious, baseless claims—a quality viewers are likely familiar with by now thanks to the president—Oliver centered the segment around an often overlooked feature of Infowars: its shady funding tactics. 

As Oliver points out, Jones reliably uses each of his four-hour radio shows to push his own products, which offer a range of questionable items including a “Bill Clinton rape whistle” and dubious diet pills. Jones’ strategy counts on telling his base he desperately needs their funds to keep the broadcasts running—an appeal that doesn’t quite align with the expensive sport jackets and Rolex watches he wears on the show.

“It’s like an NPR pledge drive for people who hate NPR,” Oliver said. 

Watch the segment below to see how Jones blatantly lies to his audience to explain the disconnect:

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

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