John Oliver Slams Fox News for Reducing Migrant Crisis to “One Single Stereotype”


On the latest Last Week Tonight, John Oliver took on the current migrant crisis in Europe to call out the troubling way some world leaders, including “noted swine fellatio enthusiast” David Cameron, and the media choose to characterize the situation.

“When you’re dealing with a mass of people that large, you really want to be a little careful with how you describe them,” Oliver said.

“Here in the US, some in the media have chosen to reduce the migrant population to one single stereotype,” he adds, before showing a Fox News clip featuring the misleading caption, “Terrorists Inbound? Taking refugees could open door to jihadists.”

The segment, while continuing to illustrate the extreme racism and economic hardship refugees face when attempting to come to Europe, then turned to the story of a young, wheelchair-bound refugee, Noujain Mustafa, who learned English by watching Days of Our Lives for two years straight.

Watch the segment above for the heartwarming surprise reunion Oliver managed to pull off for Mustafa.

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate