John Oliverâs Last Week Tonight tonight might only air once a week, but itâs quickly becoming the best news show on television. Last week Oliver was off the air for a very good reason: He was in Moscow, Russia interviewing Edward Snowden, the in-exile former CIA contractor who leaked thousands and thousands of NSA documents about top secret government surveillance programs.
At first, he put Snowden on blast directly to his face:Â âThereâs a difference between understanding whatâs in the documents and reading whatâs in the documentsâĤ because when youâre handing over thousands of NSA documents the last thing youâd want to do is read them.â Adding:
John Oliver: âSo The New York Times took a slide, didnât redact it properly, and in the end it was possible for people to see that something was being used in Mosul on al Qaeda.â
Edward Snowden: âThat is a problem.â
Oliver: âWell, thatâs a fuckup.â
But then Oliver got into Snowdenâs privacy infringement issues via the U.S. Governmentâs classified global surveillance programs. The problem is that itâs hard to get young people to give a shit about the programs unless you boil it down to something they care about.
Like dick pics. Everyone cares about dick pics.
So John Oliver had Edward Snowden explain how the government is stealing your private dick pics and keeping them under lock and key in a massive database. While thereâs no such thing as the so-called âDick Pic Programâ joked about in the interview, itâs very likely your dick pics are being stolen by the NSA, according to Snowden.
Itâs a brilliant half-hour segment that deserves your full attention. John Oliver continues to be the best thing to happen to television in a long, long time.