Watch John Oliver Explain What NRA TV Is
As the calls for NRA boycotts get progressively louder, John Oliver explains what exactly NRA TV is. Apparently, it sells guns.
In the Sunday night episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, the host gives a 20-minute breakdown of NRA TV for people who may be wondering, "What the f**k is that?"
The Call For NRA Boycotts
To kick off the 20-minute segment on NRA TV, Oliver outlined why talks on NRA and subsequently NRA TV have been so prominent in the past few weeks.
The tragic shooting in Parkland, Florida has placed a lot of pressure on brands to cut ties with the National Rifle Association (NRA). As Oliver notes, the call for boycotting has actually taken its toll this time with numerous companies including Delta, Avis, Hertz, and more opting out of partnerships with NRA after the school shooting.
There are several who have yet to budge, though. Most notably, Apple, Amazon, and Roku all still allow NRA TV to stream their pro-gun content on their platforms.
NRA TV: Low Budget Fox News, Oliver Says
Oliver gave his viewers a glimpse of the type of content that NRA TV offers like sound bites of NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch and country music icon Charlie Daniels. Loesch recently released an aggressive ad for her new NRA TV show, which threatened the media, Hollywood, and athletes.
Oliver describes many NRA TV videos as simply trolling to get attention, but he adds that news programming is also available on the channel, albeit just a version of Fox News on a lower budget.
Furthermore, they offer a lot of strange shows like Media Lab, which features ex-military man remaking popular movies, and Love at First Shot, a gun show geared toward women. Hunting and nature-centric content are also quite common, although Oliver calls these shows "less Planet Earth and more deranged letter from a serial killer."
The Last Week Tonight host points out that the infomercial-style of content that's designed to terrify the viewers and then offer them a solution that usually involves a type of gun. After all, Oliver says, many of the shows on the channel are sponsored by gun brands.
While NRA TV programs are created simply for the purpose of selling guns, it's quite impossible to find out if it actually works as they refuse to reveal their ratings. Ultimately though, Oliver points out in the final moments of the segment, NRA TV is not the end all and be all of the gun control controversy.
"Think about it this way," he says. "If the NRA is a ferocious bear charging at you, NRA TV is that bear's ridiculous hat. Is it eye-catching? Sure it is. Is it perversely entertaining? Absolutely. Is it the main thing you should be worried about? Probably not. Because the real truth here is, hat or no hat, it is imperative that everyone keep their eyes on that f**king bear."
