John Oliver explains why Apple is right about encryption

"This American thing" had to come from somewhere.

You've already received a dozen such responses, so it clearly works for them.

Inferring "it's comedy, therefore not serious/credible" is a fallacy, just as "news read by serious anchor is balanced and informative" is a fallacy. People should stop judging books by their cover and shows by the blurbs on their websites. Ask instead whether the content is factual or not. By this standard, Last Week Tonight is very credible.

I often say that John Oliver isn't trying to make you laugh, but to make you cry. He uses comedy to penetrate the audience's guard in order to deliver the painful truth.

The internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it, as the famous quotation says. Much the same applies to civic society, IMNSHO.

EDIT: ... which doesn't imply that either side necessarily wins. Sigh.

No, it isn't good that comedians are the only way some people consume news; and nor is it good that sometimes they are the only way certain opposing (but sometimes provably correct) views are aired.

But the situation says more about the partisan and incompletely researched/verified (often completely not researched and/or verified!) reporting generally output by the other media outlets, than it does about the satire shows and their audience. That isn't just bad, it is terrible and probably quite damaging.

Of course the satire outlets are themselves often partisan, or at very least subconsciously biased, but they do tend to be more honest about that.

And it isn't just in the US: the same is true (to a lesser but growing extent) in the UK and other parts of Europe.

Also it's hardly an "American thing" nearly every country in the world engages in satire in some form.