S5 E20: Astroturfing, Unite the Right & Saudi Arabia: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Public Opinion and Political Discourse

• 49% of Americans believe that the President of the United States is racist. (1m12s)
• Fox News host Laura Ingram stated that "massive demographic changes have been foisted upon the American people and they changes that none of us ever voted for and most of us don't like". (2m7s)

International Relations

• Saudi Arabia expelled the Canadian Ambassador and cut trade ties after Canada called for the release of a jailed women's rights activist. (4m33s)

Tourism and Marketing

• Vilnius, Lithuania launched a new tourism campaign promoting the city as "The G-Spot of Europe" because "nobody knows where it is but when you find it it's amazing". (6m50s)
• The Lithuanian government was not happy about the campaign, specifically because the ad campaign launched on International Orgasm Day. (7m55s)

Astroturfing and Fake Grassroots Movements

• Astroturfing is when corporations or political groups disguise themselves as spontaneous, authentic, popular movements. (10m5s)
• Rick Burman, a PR expert, created the Center for Consumer Freedom, a nonprofit group that produced an attack ad targeting the Humane Society. (13m31s)
• While Burman claims transparency in his operations, he has been recorded telling oil executives that donors to his organizations are not disclosed. (14m38s)

False Testimony and Corporate Influence

• Burn surgeon Dr. David Heimbach has testified before multiple panels on the importance of flame retardants, each time citing a similar anecdote about an infant injured by a candle; journalists have questioned the veracity of these stories. (16m56s)
• David Heimbach, who received $240,000 from Citizens for Fire Safety, a group composed of the three largest flame-retardant manufacturers, provided false testimony about burn victims. When a reporter investigated, no records of such victims were found. (18m38s)
• Heimbach later admitted his testimony was "anecdotal," not factual, and claimed he wasn't under oath. (19m23s)

Paid Actors and Staged Events

• Crowds on Demand, a company hired by Entergy to garner support for a power plant, recruited paid actors through Facebook ads offering $60-$200 for three hours of work. (21m2s)
• Prince Jordan Tyson, a self-described struggling actor from Beverly Hills, was paid $100 to pose as a concerned citizen and speak at a city council meeting. (24m37s)
• The existence of companies like Crowds on Demand, which provide paid actors for events, makes it difficult to determine what is authentic and what is staged. (25m56s)
• Conspiracy theorists often falsely attribute events like the Charlottesville protests and the Las Vegas shooting to Crowds on Demand, further blurring the lines between reality and fabrication. (26m1s)