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China Blocks HBO After John Oliver's Last Week Tonight Mockery of Xi Jinping (scmp.com)
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.
John Oliver is great at attacking straw men. It's basically his shtick. He isn't funny and he actually encouraged Trump to run for office, only to regret it later. I say all this to make the point that we do need to protect free speech and Oliver should be able to say whatever he wants, but it's going to take a show with more than just a cult following to enable change in China.
He addresses a real, actual issue on every show.
Only one? Sounds about right. The rest are made up faux outrage..
This is accurate for some of his pieces, but not for most. The problem is mostly the right, but sometimes also the left, insists 'alternative facts' are on the same footing as actual facts, and that opinions based on alt facts, and positions based on "lets hurt people", are just as worthy. Its not always the case. Like "Global warming is a fake Chinese conspiracy to hurt the US" is not a side with as much merit as the other. Donald Trump is a stupid, ignorant, egomaniacal buffoon who incessantly lies is also an objectively true assessment, even if you agree with his posititions, and saying he's smart and well informed just isn't accurate; its not an equally valid side.