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Did HBO just cut John Oliver's piece linking Trump to this weekend's mass shootings?

BreakyBoy

BreakyBoy

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,027
I don't generally get to watch Last Week Tonight live, but I did get a chance early Monday morning via HBO Go.

There was a cold open segment to start the show this Sunday, where John Oliver talked about the link between Trump's racist rhetoric and how it emboldens behavior like the mass shootings we saw this weekend.

I didn't think it was particularly insightful or funny or anything, but as usual it was good to see him and his team use their platform to highlight a problem that many people refuse to acknowledge.

Anyway, a friend didn't know if I had seen it, sent me a link to this CNN article about it and I thought I'd pull up the episode on my phone via HBO Go and show it to her.

It's not there anymore. It isn't anywhere official from HBO that I can find anymore. I ended up finding a link from Reddit to the clip, apparently taken from some torrent rip on some file sharing site.

The question remains though, why was it taken down? Maybe it was unintentional, but it's certainly weird and I guess I'm wondering if I'm crazy and maybe someone else does have it in their region?
 
Joeku

Joeku

Member
Oct 26, 2017
23,475
For what it's worth out of curiosity I just started the episode on crave.tv in Canada (an HBO partner) and the episode is a whole 31-and-a-half minutes. The intro, pre-credits, seems to follow the trend you're saying. It's not broken or censored.

My guess is this was a mistake or a reupload? It's fine here. It seems like something that was clearly added last-minute because they'd otherwise missed it in the main program.
 
Stooge

Stooge

Member
Oct 29, 2017
11,136
HBO go usually uploads two versions. Whole episode and then just the main story.
 
OP
OP
BreakyBoy

BreakyBoy

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,027
Joeku said:
My guess is this was a mistake or a reupload? It's fine here. It seems like something that was clearly added last-minute because they'd otherwise missed it in the main program.
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Yeah it was definitely added on at the last minute. Oliver made that pretty clear.

It had to have been a reupload on the US site, as I'm pretty certain I watched on HBO Go on my bus ride to work Monday morning.

Stooge said:
HBO go usually uploads two versions. Whole episode and then just the main story.
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Yeah, I've checked both. As expected the "main story" video doesn't include it, but the full episode did at one point, and doesn't seem to now.

To be clear, I'm not reaching for a pitchfork to cry censorship or anything. It's likely just a mistake as Joeku said.
 
Kevers

Kevers

The Fallen
Oct 29, 2017
14,538
Syracuse, NY
Yeah, I watched it Sunday night and got the intro about the shootings, started to watch it with my mom this afternoon and that entire opening bit was missing and it starts at the credits like a normal episode.
 
Dalek

Dalek

Member
Oct 25, 2017
38,900
I just pulled up it up to check and it just starts like any normal episode and goes into a segment about the United Kingdom.
 
KtotheRoc

KtotheRoc

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 27, 2017
56,616
I hope Oliver does a deep dive into this topic, because it absolutely needs more exposure.
 
Joeku

Joeku

Member
Oct 26, 2017
23,475
Huh.

Very odd that I still have this.

Are all the rest of you in the US?
 
marmalade

marmalade

Member
Nov 28, 2018
567
HBO Go had the cold open on there when I watched Sunday night around 9:30 or 10. This is strange.
 
Joeku

Joeku

Member
Oct 26, 2017
23,475
So I'm starting to think this updated version just wasn't propogated to all the various streaming avenues this show has, and the original version without the cold open was something that never got changed for some viewers early on Monday before it changed.
 

Deleted member 1086

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Oct 25, 2017
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Boise Area, Idaho
Just tried HBO Go with my DirecTV credentials and the episode starts with the opening credits. The whole video is 29 minutes, with an ad for some HBO show playing before the episode starts.
 

teacup

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
686
I think the piece was there almost as a reminder that "hey, the timing of these shows meant we are doing a story other than the shootings even though we are screening after. Don't think we are ignoring this"

Streaming later you don't need this as much I guess?

You gotta assume he's doing a shooting story soon at this point
 
Volimar

Volimar

volunteer forum janitor
Member
Oct 25, 2017
38,323
Silver-Streak said:
This.
I love it so much. Why do they only bring it back every few years?

th
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I think you posted this in the wrong thread friend.
 
Typographenia

Typographenia

Member
Oct 27, 2017
557
Los Angeles
I just tried to check the episode on my account through amazon, and it just says the episode is now "unavailable."

The intro was definitely there when I watched it on monday.
 
DanGo

DanGo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,738
teacup said:
I think the piece was there almost as a reminder that "hey, the timing of these shows meant we are doing a story other than the shootings even though we are screening after. Don't think we are ignoring this"

Streaming later you don't need this as much I guess?
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It's probably as simple as this. It was a bit created outside of the episode to explain the timing which is no longer needed as introductory context.
 
OP
OP
BreakyBoy

BreakyBoy

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,027
Dreams-Visions said:
was it a good segment? If so, hopefully someone will upload it.
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It depends on what you're looking for I guess? He tries to inject some levity of course, but that wasn't really the point.

He basically said that while Trump isn't the reason these racially motivated killings occur, that his rhetoric is directly linked, and has demonstrably encouraged and emboldened these people.

He also noted that while it's understandable to become numb to this, since it keeps happening, and we're at the meta levels of critiquing the media analysis of the reactions of the people, yadda yadda... We need to fight against that numbness, because otherwise nothing will change.

It was a tight few minutes compared to their usual. Like I said in the OP, it wasn't particularly funny or insightful, but it was a well-delivered important message on a pretty wide-reaching platform. It'd be nice if it was made available, even if only to HBO subscribers, because capitalism I suppose.
 
Hewlett

Hewlett

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,155
FWIW, I watched this via HBO On-Demand (Comcast) on Monday afternoon and it had the cold open before the credits.
 
Wraith

Wraith

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Jun 28, 2018
8,892
teacup said:
I think the piece was there almost as a reminder that "hey, the timing of these shows meant we are doing a story other than the shootings even though we are screening after. Don't think we are ignoring this"

Streaming later you don't need this as much I guess?

You gotta assume he's doing a shooting story soon at this point
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This was my assumption.

This happens frequently with late night shows: tacking on a disclaimer at the start that the episode was recorded before late-breaking, tragic news. Necessary so viewers know they're not simply ignoring the story in the rest of the episode. Same thing for a new episode like this on HBO Go/Now.

But... for shows that get archived, available to watch on demand, that disclaimer probably isn't necessary for people watching the episode months later, so maybe they drop that bit from the "archive" version. Just might have been better if they'd kept it in there a few more days, as people are still watching the episode for the first time while this story's still fresh in people's minds.
 
fade

fade

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
3,516
Ya same, had the cold open when watched Sunday but now it's off so it was definitely intentional.
 
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OP
BreakyBoy

BreakyBoy

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,027
Rika said:
The HBO Go team/help twitter reached out to me instead of you. I liked and RT'd your status. Not sure why they didn't respond to your post wut.

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Thanks for the heads up. I replied to them, but I don't really expect much at this point. I think several folks here probably hit the nail on the head. Whether it was inadvertent or deliberate, it was probably just removed because it was not a standard part of the show.
 

Deleted member 5334

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Oct 25, 2017
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Bumping this up, but did this ever get resolved? I was talking to a friend of mine about John Oliver and was reminded about this whole thing.
 

teacup

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Oct 28, 2017
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Mendinso said:
Bumping this up, but did this ever get resolved? I was talking to a friend of mine about John Oliver and was reminded about this whole thing.
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Again I don't think it's a problem to be solved as such. It was there to alert people who were watching mere hours from a mass shooting that hey they aren't ignoring it.

Watching it now is a bit more pointless I think.
 
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