HN Theater @HNTheaterMonth

John Oliver recently did an episode on this:

https://youtu.be/6p8zAbFKpW0

In theory, it's great. In practice perverse incentives and little to no regulation make it worthless. A John Oliver explainer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p8zAbFKpW0

⬐ hinkley

The spoof offsets he sells at the end of that segment have already sold out:

https://www.oliversoffsets.org/

⬐ gremlinsinc

Side tangent. John Oliver is amazing at using comedy to basically blow the whistle on a lot of shitty things happening in this country.. from the way truckers are treated and basically exploited, to drinking water crises, and everything in between. Jon Stewart did a lot of this too, and was great. I heard once people who get news from shows like the Daily show, Late shows or John Oliver type shows actually are more 'informed' about current events than those who watch Fox, MSNBC, CNN, or even just local nightly news on NBC or CBS.

⬐ ipaddr

No you are not more informed. Local news gives you a local len that presents different issues. National coverage on any news network will provide you more depth and you will be more informed (have more details)

At one point most young people got there news from these sources. They do provide a point of view on an issue. By making someone else look stupid you as the viewer feel smarter and more informed even though you aren't.

⬐ benj111

I don't think you can singularify 'lense'?

⬐ uoaei

That's true, and popularizing knowledge is important.

What's also true is you get only a specific worldview and consequent narrative from these kinds of shows. They have convergent ideologies and parrot a single, totalizing, pro-capital, -moderation, -individualist method for solving the problems stated as such. It's great if you've drunk the Kool-aid but it does paper over a lot of prescient issues (climate change, culture war, etc.) on the assumption that they will be solved by emphasizing politicking and de-emphasizing economicking.

John Oliver did a great piece on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p8zAbFKpW0

⬐ sschueller

It's like the WSJ watches Oliver then spends a week or two to write an article on the exact same issue. From what I recall this is the second time now.