Similarly, comedian John Oliver referred to the statue as being "objectively terrifying regardless of context", describing the statue's face as looking "like if a nickel did cocaine". In 2017 "Slate" called the statue the "Confederacy's Dumbest Monument." Atlas Obscura called it "One Confederate statue that accurately reflects the ugliness of its subject." In an article titled "The 10 Most Terrifying Public Statues" Artnet news wrote the "statue (is) alarmingly racist, to say that it is also poorly done is a gross understatement" while Shareart led "The 10 Most Bizarre Public Sculptures" with this effort. Salon described the statue as something "fashioned by someone who's had a human described to him but has never actually seen one in real life." The Independent went with a simple "stupid, racist statue" and called for its removal. Canada's "National Post" called the "towering eyesore" "one of the most vile Confederate monuments in the great state of Tennessee." In late December 2017, the statue was vandalized with pink paint. The owner of the statue and the land it sits on, Bill Dorris, is a Nashville lawyer and businessman. He has regularly given media interviews defending his right to display the Forrest statue and his flags. Although Dorris denies being a racist, he calls slavery a form of "social security" for African Americans. Dorris has "turned down requests from the KKK to hold rallies" at the site. Dorris also argued removing the statue would be detrimental to Nashville's tourism industry, and he compared it to historic plantations in the Nashville area like the Travellers Rest, The Hermitage, the Belle Meade Plantation. When the Metro Region suggested adding vegetation, Dorris told WPLN that "I've got some 1,800-foot flagpoles. I could put them up starting tomorrow. They're going to have to build a helluva wall and a helluva bunch of trees to block all that." Dorris told Canada's National Post paper the people against Confederate monuments in New Orleans are "cane blacks," who were probably "illegals to start with." Dorris also said "Slavery was never an issue. Nathan Bedford Forrest was not a racist"  and again called slavery a form of "social security" for African Americans, "a cradle-to-the-grave proposition."