China Blocks HBO After John Oliver's Last Week Tonight Mockery of Xi Jinping (scmp.com)

Posted by msmash on Monday June 25, 2018 @08:30AM from the not-for-the-faint-of-heart dept.

News agency AFP reports: After mocking censors working overtime to delete comparisons of Chinese President Xi Jinping with the cartoon bear, comedian John Oliver and now the website of TV giant HBO have fallen victim to Beijing's censorship machine. Chinese authorities blocked HBO's site in China, just days after Oliver took Xi to task, anti-censorship and monitoring group GreatFire.org said on Saturday. The website was still not accessible on Monday. HBO joins a long list of Western media outlets that have had their websites blocked in China including The New York Times, Facebook and Twitter.

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Re:It'll take a show with a larger audience to mat by Colourspace · 2018-06-25 09:12 · Score: 0, Offtopic

The problem with John Oliver is that he is very much one of the back-slapping media types who think just because they have a 'platform' and an audience that are told to laugh at their jokes, that they have an actual point. Sometimes they really do, sometimes they don't. Being constantly 'virtuous' does not necessarily make you right, and acting in a smug way on camera will also lose you the people you really DO want to win over. You end up with an echo chamber because everyone you pander to stays and no-one else does.