The Classical test Source For All The Performing, Visual And Literary Arts & Entertainment News

John Oliver Brings New Jon Stewart ‘Daily Show’ Fake News to HBO ‘Last Week Tonight’; Attacks Media’s Relationship to Politics

If you like Comedy Central's Daily Show and HBO's Real Time, than chances are you're going to absolutely love John Oliver's new fake news series Last Week Tonight. The show runs with the satirical bent the Oliver learned working for Jon Stewart, then adds the no holds-barred intellectual approach that Bill Mahr has brought to HBO. Oliver will no doubt use his bully pulpit to focus tons of attention on one of his favorite subjects, the media's over indulgence of the political system and visa versa.

John Oliver had been known as the funny English fellow from the Daily Show for years, until Jon Stewart's brief absence to direct a movie afforded Oliver the opportunity to step from his boss' shadow into the spotlight

And the world liked what it saw during John's temporary tenureship at the desk Stewart made famous, so once the stint ended Hollywood came calling.

Oliver's new show Last Week Tonight will feature Daily Show co-producer Tim Carvell in executive producer's seat.

And if John Oliver's Washington Post rant against the quagmire that the boundaries between media and politics have become is any indication of the content to come--Last Week is going to sound a lot like the Daily Show too:

"It's not supposed to be an easy relationship...It's a problem.

"I read that book, This Town. Yes, there's a lot of gossipy trash in it, but it has a cancerous black heart at the center of it.

"And I do think that's Exhibit A in the way journalists and politicians in D.C. relate to each other. . . . It's like a bunch of nerdy teenagers saying, 'I want to be in with the popular kids.' And that's terrible. [As a journalist], you shouldn't be wanting to go to a party for any other reason than to basically ruin it.

"If there's not visible distrust [among reporters and people in power] then there's a massive problem at the heart of journalism."

Can the heart of journalism be regulated with a pacemaker; or is this more of a diet and exercise sort of problem?

About the Author

Real Time Analytics