John Oliver on his credibility as a journalist: "That is more an insult to the current state of journalism than it is a compliment for the state of comedy."

Courtesy of Fusion: 

“I’m doing the job of a comedian. So, I make jokes about the news,” Oliver told Ramos. When Ramos pushed back, “You have more credibility than most journalists here in the United States and, I would say, in many other countries.” Oliver said: “That is more an insult to the current state of journalism than it is a compliment for the state of comedy.” 

Still, making jokes about the news is serious business. Oliver told Ramos: “We have very aggressive fact checkers and very thorough researchers, so that we’re not wrong. Because if you make a joke about something that is factually inaccurate the joke collapses.”

And Oliver has really been putting actual journalists to shame recently.  (If you did not see his recent piece on family leave you are really missing out.)

The formula is much like what Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have been doing for years, except that the "Last Week" format allows Oliver do dive deeper into his subject and provide more comprehensive coverage.

In fact it sometimes feels that the only program that does more comprehensive fact checking is the Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC. Which is pretty good company as far as I'm concerned. 

Oliver is a worthy successor to Stewart and Colbert, and he has already received significant attention for his climate change piece, as well as the one he did about net neutrality.