S4 E18: Sinclair, Wax Presidents & Trump Travel Ban: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

[Music] w welcome welcome welcome to Last Week Tonight I'm thank you so much for joining us and let us Dive Right In with President Trump The Bachelor in Paradise of American presidents and unfortunately we have to start with the fact that on Thursday the president sent a series of disgusting tweets about mourning Joe's Mika brazinski tweets that were absolutely indefensible and yet White House Press Secretary Sarah hakabe Sanders the least amusing cast member in a director DVD faith-based romantic com gave it her very best shot I think that the president has been attacked mercilessly on personal accounts by members on that program and I think he's been very clear that when he gets attacked uh he's going to hit back you know what she's kind of right about that Trump is basically a walrus wearing a t-shirt that says I have diarrhea he's pretty open about how grossly shitty he can be so we can't really be shocked when he suddenly is but that news actually overshadowed a development regarding the president's travel ban which the Administration has long maintained is not a ban despite what you may have heard from biased mainstream media Outlets like the president of the United States and the dictionary you you may you may remember Trump's original executive order halted all Refugee Admissions and temporarily barred people from Seven Muslim majority countries it was met with widespread protests and dozens of lawsuits resulting in courts placing both the ban and Trump's subsequent revision of that ban on hold and this week the Supreme Court got to weigh in the US Supreme Court has ruled to partially reinstate the president's highly controversial travel ban before hearing arguments on the case in October yes at first the ban was banned but now the court has partially banned the ban ban instituting a partial ban pending the possibility of a future partial ban ban now now the court did impose some restrictions saying it couldn't apply to anyone with a credit claim of a Bonafide relationship with a person or entity in the United States so the natural question there is what constitutes a Bonafide relationship and the Trump Administration took a swing at answering that the state department has narly defined that as a parent or child including in-laws a sibling or a spouse the guidelines for who is considered close family does not include grandparents aunts or uncles nieces or nephews cousins and brothers or sisters-in-law whoa whoa whoa grandparents aren't close family good luck telling them that because that would require calling them which would mean a 12 or 13 minute conversation at minimum a conversation that would inevitably involve being asked whether you remember Jerry flaxman you know Jerry flaxman who used to live down the street Jerry flaxman you remember him he had the daughter with the internet business and she's gay now flaxman what was her name Jamie either Jamie or Amanda right right Samantha flaxman anyway her father is Jerry flaxman and well he's dead now and and look while the definition of the ban is ridiculous the impacts of it are very real particularly for refugees since the administration decided that being assisted by a refugee resettlement agency does not constitute a Bonafide relationship which means thousands of desperate people who've gone through exhaustive vetting and have been approved to come here have now left in the Lurch which is absolutely shameful and yet for some it's actually no big deal an attitude best exemplified by human lacr Tucker Carlson who asked # Tucker why does America benefit from having tons of people from failing countries come here a question that made the Statue of Liberty give up and drown herself in the Hudson River and if I if I may just point out tux just because a nation is failing doesn't mean it can't produce some amazing people just as and I think we all know who exhibit a for this is a successful Nation can produce some truly failed human beings # Tucker and look look this this ban is cruel it's unnecessary and it undermines our standing in the world so you would think the president would at least be justifying its existence instead he keeps derailing the conversation with his barrage of and there is simply no better example of this than the fact that just this morning ABC's this week had a Homeland Security advisor on to discuss the ban but they never got around to it because they had to address yet another unhinged tweet and just watch the guy's face as he realizes what he's about to have to talk about I want to get to security questions and security concerns but we've just had the president tweet a gif that I I want to you to take a look at you can see it right there [Applause] oh my God obviously president Trump has taken some video and put a CNN mic logo on who he's beating up you know at this point I have no choice but to admit that Trump was right there is at least one grandparent who poses a grave and immediate threat to America unfortunately it's the grandparents currently in charge of it and now this and now CVS 2 meteorologist John Elliot engages in a bit too much self-deprecation I have been cast as the wacky redhead for years I'm just kind of stuck ah yes Diary of a Wimpy Kid that was the working title of my autobiography for years and then he had great success with it okay I'll get in trouble here I did not like homecoming dance I had to beg Janet aseltine to go with me and then Sarah Crowder you she couldn't get a dress the second year when the package is this boring no one cares what's inside when they tested me for TV the first time they said I was Stern unapproachable and had no future in the business H gravity I'll get you every time take it from me the leprechaun you know what I like to do in the elevator total strangers what are they going to do they they can't leave so yeah have some fun and just say hi to folks uh my wife can't does not like my cargo shorts moving on our main story tonight concerns local news it's mostly known for informative and hard-hitting segments like this one police say one of the mass suspects armed with a handgun got out of his car walked up to the victim's window pointed the gun right at her face and told her he wanted her purse her money and her cell phone holy you have got to hand it to him that is a great way to make people pay attention to a story they may not be interested in and with that in mind our main story tonight concerns the potential problems in corporate consolidation of local news don't you dare change the channel now National cable news gets a lot of attention with their big budgets and their fancy Graphics packages meanwhile local news often has to do a lot more with a lot less the black bear was roaming through Tina Morrison's backyard Tina was too stunned to get a picture but this is what the bear probably looked like except real this Recreation had identifies how Witnesses say the bear escaped into the woods you know what whoever is hiding behind that tiny bear cutout deserves a pullitzer oh sure sure he could have stood up straight and just walked the bear across the garden it would have been exactly as convincing but he didn't do that he hunched down because he cares that man is a journalist and look it's easy to make fun it's easy for me to make fun but local news fills an important role finding stories that the national news is missing this show uses local news all the time our civil forfeiture piece used outstanding reporting from Tennessee's News Channel 5 uh and our piece on problems with 911 used great work from Atlanta's 11 alive in fact a Pew Study last year found that local news is trusted more than national news people absolutely love it so yes when you watch local news you may see some something silly uh but you also may see something great and there's actually a third option because in some parts of the country you might see this I've got a message for certain students listen up closely snowflake yes I'm talking to you you the social justice Warrior who whes for trigger warnings and safe spaces not grown up enough to deal with the facts then hunkered down in your room and Snapchat the day away with other social justice Warriors College isn't a babysitting service it's time to grow up snowflake now that man is Mark he with one in what I presume is a series featuring titles like wake up libtard cut much you little beta baby and knock knock sheeple it's me truth with Mark Heyman Heyman is a commentator and former executive at Sinclair broadcast group and Sinclair may be the most influential Media company that you've never heard of not only are they the largest owner of local TV stations in the country they could soon get even bigger Sinclair will pay about $4 billion for Tribune media and its 42 local stations the combined companies will create the largest single group of television stations in the nation wow it is a little disconcerting to learn that something you've only just heard of is throwing around $4 billion it's like finding out that Exon Mobile just got bought and it was by the little twerp who plays the new Spider-Man what how how's that possible how does spider twerp have the resources to do that I only just found out he existed now this this acquisition still needs regulatory approval but it is widely assumed that that will happen at which point Sinclair's reach could expand dramatically we did some math and we found out that when you combine the most watched nightly newscasts on Sinclair and Tribune stations in some of their largest markets you get an average total viewership of 2.2 million households and that is a lot it's more than any current prime time show on Fox News including five idiots have the most intolerable dinner party ever and that guy from College everyone hated has a talk show now with Tucker Carlson and the Fox News parallels don't stop there because Sinclair's content tilts noticeably conservative remember that snowflake guy Sinclair produces those segments and sends them to their Affiliates and that in itself is already unusual as best we can tell no other major owner of TV stations distribute its own commentary segments to run during local news and Hyman's opinions Hugh hard right we are threat by a nasty cancer epidemic it's a danger to our nation it is political correctness and multiculturalism words that were once acceptable in polite conversation are no longer handicapped and are now off limits there is one step that's proven to dramatically reduce domestic violence marriage I am now a proud Washington Redskins fan and the opinion that only black people can legitimately have an afro someone should tell that to American folk singer Art Garfunkle what are you you talking about as I believe Paul Simon once said there's no need to involve art gar funkle in any of this and and the thing is Hyman is not Sinclair's only conservative voice just recently they they hired a man named Boris Epstein a former Trump adviser who you may remember from multiple TV appearances last year where he made wild claims like this one Barack Obama may have won in 2008 North Carolina due to Illegal voting go ahead Jake sorry bis where where are you getting that from Barack Obama won in North Carolina because of voter fraud 5% of voting in North Carolina may have been by people who are non-citizens who should not have been voting and swung North Carolina to Mr Obama now obviously that is nothing even resembling a fact the claim he's making received a pants on fire from PolitiFact and even if it were true which again it isn't Obama still would have beat McCain by 162 electoral votes which raises the question do Trump surrogates even know what why they are lying or are they driven by some vague Instinct like when a cat sits inside a box why are you doing that I have no idea there's just something inside me that tells me I should and yet and yet Epstein is now Sinclair's Chief political analyst and has a regular segment called bottom line with Boris let me show you a recent one concerning a retracted story on CNN the bottom line is this CNN along with other cable news networks is struggling to stick to the facts and to be impartial in covering politics in general and this President specifically oh come on that could not be more pots calling the kettle black if he said the bottom line is CNN is a rejected extra from The Sopranos in a JC Penny's tie whose voice sounds like Sylvester Salone with a mouthful of bees but but Sinclair doesn't just lean right with its commentators even its ad breaks sometimes put a thumb on the scale in 2010 Sinclair's Pittsburgh affiliate pulled a 30-second Democratic ad off the air after they received a complaint and found that some claims in the ad were unsubstantiated and look that's a good thing it is good that they were willing to take a stand to ensure nothing inaccurate made its way on air although just a few months later that exact same station and multiple other Sinclair Outlets aired a 25 minute attack ad on Democrats featuring assertions like this during his presidential election wound up with a record shattering $750 million in his campaign to this day he refuses to report from whence it came one reason might be that some of it originated from the terrorist group Hamas oh my god look look if you are going to make up scary donors to the Obama campaign why stop with Hamas just keep going he won't say where the money came from one reason may be that it originated with this gang of coyotes that has made billions selling human babies to other hungrier coyotes and look if the opinions were confined just to the commentary or to the ad breaks that would be one thing but Sinclair can sometimes dictate the content of your local newscast as well and in contrast to Fox News a clearly conservative Outlet where you basically know what you're getting with Sinclair they are injecting Foxworthy content into the mouths of your local news anchors the two people who you know and who you trust and whose onscreen chemistry can use best be described as two people and the thing is you you may not realize it's happening because Sinclair and its digital news subsidiary Circa not only produce and send packages to their stations they even write scripts that local anchors can use to introduce the pieces for example just this Tuesday night anchors at Sinclair stations all over the country introduced a story about Michael Flynn like this did the FBI have a personal Vendetta in pursuing the Russia investigation of President Trump's former National Security adviser Michael Flynn did the FBI have a personal Vendetta in pursuing the Russia investigation of President Trump's former National Security adviser Michael Flynn did the FBI have a personal Vendetta in pursuing the Russia investigation of President Trump's former National Security adviser Michael Flynn did the FBI have a personal Vendetta in pursuing the investigation it could very well be true uh yeah but you could say it could very well be true about anything anything are all Peanut M&M's just snake eggs painted different colors do foxes walk on their hind legs when no one is looking is there really only one Olson twin who's moving back and forth at superhuman speed to trick the human eye into seeing two of them all of those things could very well be true and aside from that one about the olon twins none of them are now now the story they were teasing was that Michael Flynn had apparently spoken up on behalf of a former FBI agent in a gender discrimination suit against the agency but it is a huge stretch to get from there to an agency-wide conspiracy to bring him down the the problem is there is real power in hearing your trusted local newscasters using FBI and personal Vendetta in a sentence if those same newscasters somehow use the words Daniel Stern and explosive ejaculation in the same sentence you could never watch Home Alone the same way again and Sinclair's content can often not be optional they regularly send out what are called must runs segments that station managers are directed to work into their broadcasts both Boris Epstein and Mark Heyman segments are must runs and so are some new segments in fact let me give you a taste of a must run story uh that ran just a month before last year's election how can Americans especially blacks and Latinos and America support Hillary Clinton it's a surprising message coming from a black Pastor but Evangelical Bishop Aubrey shines is spreading a message of why he believes Hillary Clinton's Democratic party isn't good for black Americans party that gave this country slavery the KKK Jim crov whoa whoa whoa hold on hold on just just hold on a second there cuz first Democrats gave this country slavery it's a little more complicated than that sure someone gave me this haircut but I'm accountable for being comfortable with it liking it and keeping it around for a morally repugnant amount of time look and you you can maybe maybe see why that could be news in Florida Tampa pasta makes crazy video but that piece ran in Columbus El Paso Omaha Syracuse Seattle Green Bay Tulsa and stations all over the country and to be fair Sinclair didn't let all that Pastor assertions go go by completely unchecked uh they did have the brief appearance of balance by bringing in this political scientist to fact check the video but he was given far less screen time than the pastor and the voiceover undercut him at every turn bulock says that shines Cherry Picked his history but if you have the whole context of history and where these uh the things are mentioned where they actually miss pieces then you would not be P be persuaded at all so about that history when it comes to the KKK historians generally agree it was created in post Civil War reconstruction by democrats and later Southern Democrats were behind the Jim Crow laws yes that was the party of the South and as I mentioned over time those parties have actually shifted in terms of what their membership base is I absolutely love his frustration as he tries to explain that now is not 100 years ago you almost expect him to say I'll prove it neither of us are wearing bowler hats and that woman over there has a job all of which supports my theory that as I've mentioned now is not 100 years ago a and here's the thing the must runs are not just IND individual pieces they are also recurring features like poll questions which can range from benign to pretty leading what did you think of today's Comey testimony do you think it was all about substance or theater do you think enough is being done to battle street gangs in the US do you trust information from unnamed sources in the Washington Post stories why are cable news channels airing so much coverage of the Trump Russia story so here are the options it's bias against the president for higher ratings or it's a really important story okay there is a clear slant to those questions and answers I can't wait for the inevitable poll how would you describe the way Donald Trump looks in athletic wear a Adonis likee B Herculean C striking for a man of his age or D not my thing but I'd still hit it but perhaps the most troubling thing of all is that Sinclair has a daily must-run segment called the terrorism alert desk that is right they report on terrorism every single day whether there is something major to report on or not which means that sometimes the updates contain things like this the company in charge of security for the Wimbledon tennis tournament says the ring leader of the London Bridge attack did apply for a job now he was not interviewed and no interview was scheduled he just filled out an online application an Isis flag was found hanging in a neighborhood in New Hampshire it was taken down and police are looking into who put it there from the terrorism alert desk in Washington I'm Lindsay mtis in other alerts my grandma heard a loud noise a man with a beard asked me when the next bus is coming and Iran still exists from the terrorism alert desk in Washington I am just about done with this and look look there is no doubt that the terror alert desk has also featured some truly terrifying stories Isis has carried out a gruesome public execution in Iraq they I nine teens in half with a chainsaw now that caught our attention because it feels like the sort of thing we'd have seen reported elsewhere so we tried to track down that story and it originated with an anonymously sourced report on something called Iraqi news we weren't able to find any outlet that had independently verified it and even when it was picked up by British tabloids and Breitbart they were careful to distance themselves with language like it has been claimed and reportedly and I did not know it was possible to zip beneath the journalistic standards of Breitbart that's like being too bad a chef to work at a carnival food cart look your fried ham is unimaginative and Bland and we cannot have that we're Uncle Sticky's discount ham wagon but but they reported it like it was a fact and what was perhaps even weirder about that chainsaw segment was the story that closed it out and Mayors in 22 French towns are ignoring a high Court's ruling that says Banning burkinis is illegal more than 30 towns initially outlawed the swim swimwear worn mostly by Muslim women from the terrorism alert desk I'm Michelle Marsh what the that is not about terrorism it's just about Muslims by that definition terrorism is anything a Muslim does tonight Mersa Ali on the cover of GQ Kareem Abdul Jabar sneezed in an airport and happy birthday to fared Zakaria this has been your terrorism alert desk now now to their credit in the face of all of this some Sinclair stations are fighting back against their parent company for instance their station in Seattle KO has engaged in clever acts of rebellion like airing must runs at times of low viewership in fact their only airing of the story about the New Hampshire Isis flag was at 454 a.m. so it was basically only seen by people in hospital waiting rooms customers at 24hour 71s and Craig just go to bed Craig get your together and go to bed but the truth is if you work at a Sinclair station there is only so much that you can do and and should this Tribune acquisition go through there are going to be even more good journalists having to see their hard work placed alongside terod desque nonsense just as there'll be even more unsuspecting audience members who'll be getting a heaping dose of Sinclair's content possibly without realizing it so you should find out who owns your local stations and bear that in mind as you watch and for any Tribune station that could soon be taken over we've produced a little video so you can alert your viewers don't think of it as a must run think of it more as a probably should run take a look hello I'm Steve shripper from The Sopranos and I'm probably not the last guy with an accent wearing a cheap tie standing in front of a green screen scre that you're going to see on this channel and I'll tell you why this station could soon be owned by Sinclair broadcast group so you might see this guy with this logo or this desk and if you do just know that wasn't produced by this station because the people at this station know that local news should never be about cheap scaremongering or advancing a political agenda it should only be about weather Sports it team investigation and human interest stories featuring cute animals like this pop belly pig look at this little guy he's called P chop anyway I'm Steve Sherer telling you if this becomes a Sinclair station good luck with that moving on before we go tonight I would like to talk about America's presidents the only group of individuals that we know for sure at some point masturbated in the White House oh oh please you think McKinley didn't come on grow up he's doing it in that photo listen with all the horrors of our current president it can sometimes help to get some historical perspective to look at all the people who preceded him although a few months ago one place where you might be able to do that was forced to say goodbye after nearly 60 years of operation the Hall of Presidents and first ladies wax museum and Gettysburg shutting down even though the museum will be no more you have an opportunity to own a piece of American History it's something that doesn't come up every day in an auction for sure should be a very interesting auction and we hope lots of people come yeah so do I I hope that too because these wax presidents deserve a good home no one wants to see Benjamin Harrison having to model kots at Forever 21 and here's the thing people did come some apparently paid thousands of dollars to to own a wax president and it later turned out there were some notable buyers among them we got our very own life-size wax president that is President Eisenhower is it is it though because to me it looks like you may have just bought a wax sculpture of Bill O'Reilly covering his erection with a magazine but but it wasn't just madow Steven cbear got one too and Now ladies and gentlemen please rise for your late show president Zachary [Applause] [Music] Taylor well congratulations Stephen although it is worth pointing out that Zachary Taylor died of a stomach bug 16 months into office so he's really less of a president and more a guy named Zach who his brains out in the westwing men's room now carbe actually wanted Martin vanan but unbeknownst to him and this is true John Stewart bought that one presumably to add to his ever expanding mannequin Sex Dungeon that's the only rational explanation and I know what you're thinking spending good money on a poorly made wax figure of a former president sounds pretty stupid right yeah you're right you're absolutely right and that is why I am proud to say we didn't go down there and buy one of them we bought five of them five why five because we are five times stupider than any other TV show that's why and the reason we've been sitting on this for so long is because we've been very busy constructing a home for our horrifying new friends in fact tonight I'd like to present to you the last week T night Hall of dubiously lifelike wax commanders in Chief the whole gang is here first there is Richard Nixon he cost us $900 and he looks like a store brand Mitt Romney next there's Bill Clinton or to be more accurate John Travolta in primary colors as Bill Clinton then there's Jimmy Carter looking like the before photo for a jaundice medication and William Henry Harrison who died of pneumonia 31 days into office and this is probably exactly what he looked like when he did and lastly there is Warren G Hardy and you know what you know what this one is actually my favorite because we've talked a lot about Harding on this program before he was our nation's 29th president and his admin ation was nearly brought down by The Teapot Dome scandal but he's perhaps most famous for his sexual exploits after Warren Harding died in 1923 Nan Brittain wrote a book claiming she'd been his mistress they'd made love in a White House closet and he' fathered her daughter Elizabeth oh warrant knocking up your friend's daughter in a White House cupboard you waxy little pervert but but the fact is Harding had an incredible life story and it's a shame that someone hasn't already made a major motion picture of it the problem is who would do it it would have to be someone with way too much time on their hands way too many resources and unfettered access to a life-size wax replica of former president warranty Harding if only that person existed the movie they'd make might look a little like this [Music] he came from humble roots to rule a nation president Warren G Harding as I live and breathe let's show these fancy Washington folk what an Ohio boy can [Music] do Mr Speaker the president of the United States behind the public face lived a man of dark ambition gentlemen raise him up to the 29th president of these United States and to our very good [Music] [Applause] fortune driven by hidden passions Beyond his control and Beyond the realm of virtue Mr Harding I do believe you're flirting with me consumed by a lust that would not weaken take me horen his name was synonymous with Grace and [Music] dignity president doomed to pay the price of power Mr President I must ask you again to sign an executive order about this Teapot Dome [Music] matter you will sign this [Music] [Applause] document torn between Duty and desire I demand to see my Warren young lady you're in no position to demand anything how dare you speak to me this way you look me in the eye and tell me she means nothing to [Music] you don't you turn your back on me Warren he risk all he held dear if you don't contain the situation this whole Administration is going down do you hear me we will all be finished is that all I am to you a play thing I'm not your why must my greatest love also be my greatest trial the New York Times calls it a movie the LA Times Raves there are four Oscar nominees in it seriously and world of wax monthly hailes Harding as a Triumph Campbell Scott Anna Kendrick Michael mcken James Cromwell and Laura [Applause] L you are a great man Warren but heed my warning even great men may be [Music] corrupted so yeah yeah [Applause] [Music] Hardy did you fall [Music] coming soon just think we don't even know what we're doing with the other four yet that's our show we'll be off for the next few weeks we'll be back on July 30th good night