Jill Stein’s conspiracy theory about John Oliver’s corporate agenda to take down her campaign brings mockery

On the October 16 episode of Last Week Tonight, host John Oliver took aim at third party candidates Gary Johnson and Jill Stein.

“This election has now achieved a dubious distinction: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are among the most disliked presidential candidates in history, so it is hardly surprising that some are seeking an alternative,” Oliver said. “This disenchantment might explain the high interest in America’s third parties, because when your main two options are depressing, any third choice seems good.”

During the segment, Oliver criticized Stein’s vague pandering the anti-vaxxer movement, along with pointing out that her plan to eliminate student debt is out of touch with reality.

Most presidential candidates ignore the mockery that comes from late night talk shows, but Stein posted a “response” to Oliver’s “hatchet job” to her website jill2016.com.

“Gosh, it was almost as if they weren’t interested in the truth. It’s almost as if they just wanted to do a hatchet job,” the rebuttal on Stein’s website states. “John Oliver and his cronies at Time/Warner obviously knew what they were doing…lol! Oliver stated flatly that Jill doesn’t understand the policy implications of using quantitative easing to cancel student debt. Baloney!”

The article, written by Stein’s campaign chair Gloria Mattera, then launched into a conspiracy theory claiming Oliver is part of a corporate conspiracy to take down Stein’s campaign.

“Oliver, instead, intent on proving Jill a fool, chose to run a sound bite that was (of course) taken out of context in order to make her words fit his narrative… Well, I guess we can’t really expect accuracy from a comedian, can we?”

Mattera then linked Oliver’s segment to falling contributions to Stein’s campaign.

“But here’s the problem: his program is watched by a lot of people and the day after his show, our unsolicited web contributions dropped by 60%, from an average of $7,000 – $10,000 a day to about $3,000 a day.”

“There will always be the John Oliver’s of the world. His hands are far from clean — he’s a millionaire, yet proclaims bailing out students in debt as a wholly unworkable plan. Plus, his employer — Time Warner — is among Hillary’s top 10 donors! But we’re stronger than a wildly inaccurate and demeaning comedy sketch…”

The article was posted to Stein’s Facebook page, and the comments show that a lot of people aren’t buying it:

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From Bo Gardiner of Patheos:

Let’s hope Stein and Trump (who wanted Saturday Night Live canceled for mocking his debate behavior) blow the lid off Big Satire, proving once and for all Mark Twain‘s corporate ties to big riverboat companies and Voltaire‘s to Parisian theater moguls.

Watch the Last Week Tonight segment in the video below:

 Featured image: Gage Skidmore (Flickr)

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.

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