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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