John Oliver's relationship to AT&T, HBO's parent company, has been strained.
The joke about their phone signal and internet recently turned serious when the company's position on Texas' abortion ban was revealed. Things escalated again during Sunday's Last Week Tonight.
"Yep. "Yep.
"You are a horrible company. You do terrible things, and you make the world even worse."
Oliver said, "Now I must tell you AT&T states that no senior executive suggested that Robert Herring [OAN founder] create another conservative network with the carve-out of'senior" there being quite striking." They also claimed that they have no financial interest in OAN’s success and don’t fund it, which is not 100 percent of the issue. They claim that OAN was only on Direct TV because AT&T had sued them. It happens, the largest telecom company in the globe was robbed by a band of fascists in a lawsuit.
Oliver continued to explain that an OAN accountant had reportedly stated under oath to Herring Networks that AT&T provided 90% of the income for Herring Networks, which is OAN's media company. When Oliver asked about OAN’s content, AT&T said that editorial independence was important. Oliver clearly enjoyed this explanation.
He said, "If you allow me, I'd love to use some of the generous editorial independence to give some constructive feedback to AT&T." Take this campaign, "More for Your Thing, That's Our Thing," which is, respectfully, gibberish. It's almost like Yoda selling a penis-enlargement device. It seems so absurd that I must assume some communication was lost. This would actually be a more appropriate slogan for this company.
Oliver then addressed AT&T directly after pitching some other slogan ideas. He didn't hesitate to address AT&T directly.
The host stated, "You're an awful company." You do terrible things and make the world more miserable. You don't need to keep in touch with AT&T after the merger is complete. Your messages won't go through, but it's unlikely.
Watch Oliver's address on the latest episode last week Tonight. It is streaming live on HBO Max.
