John Oliver Sued By CEO Of Murray Energy

[Initech]

Robert Murray, the CEO of one of America's largest coal companies, filed a defamation lawsuit against Oliver on Wednesday. The lawsuit claims the HBO comedian executed a "meticulously planned" and "ruthless character assassination" designed to boost TV ratings and hurt his mining company.

The lawsuit named Oliver, the show's production company, his senior news producer Charles Wilson, HBO and Time Warner (TWX) (which owns CNN). The complaint alleges that Oliver's "Last Week Tonight" episode on Sunday "incited" viewers to "do harm to Mr. Murray and his companies." It also claims the miner's website was hacked as a result of the segment, and that Oliver's statements constitute "false light invasion of privacy" and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

During his June 18 show, Oliver lambasted President Trump over his promises to bring back thousands of coal mining jobs, a pledge the comedian says is a false promise to an industry that's been in a steep decline for decades.

The segment, which has been viewed 4.5 million times on YouTube, devoted several minutes to Murray, the CEO of Murray Energy, and a vocal champion of the coal industry. Oliver told the audience that Murray had warned him he would sue and bring the case all the way to the Supreme Court if he failed to "cease and desist" any effort to "defame, harass, or otherwise injure Mr. Murray or Murray Energy."
http://money.cnn.com/2017/06/22/media/john-oliver-coal-king-murray-lawsuit/

Want to take it to SCOTUS? Bring it on! You will lose that fight!

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[Yavin4]

1. Say it with me kids, "DISCOVERY".

"Subpoena". "Depositions". Oliver is going to love this.

[PoliticAverse]

2. "Lawyer's Fees". n/t

[Yavin4]

3. Meh. Lawyers fees will be minimum. HBO probably has insurance for this sort of thing.

Besides, a lot of top lawyers would take Oliver's case pro bono just for the publicity.

[Warpy]

4. Yes, he read the warning letter

and dared them to sue him. You bet he's going to have fun being sued by that bastard, winning, and sticking the bastard with all the legal expenses.

[Jim Lane]

6. The legal expenses won't be significant.

In the U.S. it's unusual for the loser to have to pay the winner's attorney's fees. Even if Murray loses, he probably gets out for a four-figure sum. For example, when Oliver and HBO depose Murray (take his pretrial testimony), they have to hire a court reporter to prepare a transcript. That's a few hundred bucks, depending on how long the deposition goes. If the case is eventually resolved against Murray, he has to reimburse them for that expense. He does NOT have to reimburse the defendants for what it cost them for their lawyer to prepare and conduct the deposition -- which would be, shall we say, a little bit more than a few hundred bucks.

[suffragette]

5. Mr. Nutterbutter has murray's check ready, complete with an appropriate memo.