“Last Week Tonight” Does Real Journalism, No Matter What John Oliver Says - The Daily Beast:
Oliver’s show is generally placed in the same “fake news” subgenre of television that includes Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report and his former employer The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. But more and more often, the HBO newcomer looks, sounds, and feels like real news.
In a widely covered and praised
segment that aired on September 21, Oliver performed an impressive
takedown of the Miss America pageant. The Associated Press dubbed it investigative journalism,
with Robert Thompson, director of Syracuse University’s Bleier Center
for Television and Popular Culture, calling the show “investigative
comedy.”