June 13, 2016

Watch John Oliver’s Emotional Response to the Orlando Shooting: “This Pain Is So Familiar”

He urged viewers to remember the hundreds of people who waited in line to donate blood in the wake of the attack.


John Oliver took a moment at the top of his show on Sunday to address the devastating mass shooting that took place inside a gay nightclub in Orlando just hours before.

“It’s still early and details are still emerging and right now this just hurts,” Oliver said. “And the worst thing is—this pain is so familiar. In Paris last November, terrorists seem to target places symbolizing everything that is wonderful about France: culture, music, restaurants. In Orlando early this morning, the gunman attacked a Latin night at a gay club in the theme park capital of the world.”

Instead of focusing on the “dipshit terrorist” behind Sunday’s tragedy, the Last Week Host Tonight urged viewers to watch a clip of the hundreds of people who lined up to donate blood in the wake of the attack to remember that the “terrorist dipshit is vastly outnumbered.”

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

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