John Oliver Is Hitting Hard Mediocre Journalism And Puppies

Last Week Tonight and its host John Oliver has always displayed an array of criticism to society through humor. Its content always depicts something that is wrong and gives both an analytical and humorous view of the situation. And last Sunday’s show was no exception, as he focused the main segment on his take on journalism on its present date, and how it could be in a near future.

The episode started talking about how investigation reporters are usually the heroes in movies, and how their hard work was starting to go unnoticed, as it has been replaced by digital click bait and content creation through social media. The main argument comes from the nature of the news agency, which needs money to survive like any other business, so they write the content readers want, instead of the more important news.

The target of Oliver jokes was the Tribune Publishing, now renamed as Tronc, and their publicity where they explain about the function of their new platform. He also heavily commented on Sam Zell, a business investor that had bought Los Angeles Times, that said the ‘F’ word to a reporter that asked him about the stories of puppies being treated with more attention in contrast with important information to the community.

“We’ve just grown accustomed to getting our news for free. And the longer that we get something for free, the less willing that we are to pay for it. Sooner or later we are either going to have to pay for journalism, or we are all going to pay for it,” said the host of Last Week Tonight, referring to the danger of free news.

To make its point stronger, and as per usual at the end of each segment, it showed a fake trailer, parodying the movie spotlight. The trailer had famous actor Jason Sudeikis as the head of a news agency, as he transforms it into a digital news format. Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale are also featured in the production. On the fake video, his character was demanding the staff to tweet at least eight times a day, and to cover a story about cute animals instead of an important one, like city hall corruption in Boston.