Watch: John Oliver Rails on Media for Trivial Snowden Coverage

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“I never thought that I would say this, but I am not interested in any pole dancing YouTube channels right now.”

Photo Credit: Comedy Central

June 13, 2013
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On last night’s Daily Show, summer substitute host John Oliver railed on the media for its misplaced priorities when covering whistleblower Edward Snowden’s NSA spying story.

Oliver equated the media’s focus on Snowden’s personal matters as going “US Weekly on the messenger.” The montage that followed helped make the point, with clips of media heads dishing out the latest on the least important aspects of this story–from Snowden’s political contributions to his education.

“I can’t think of anything less relevant right now than where Edward Snowden went to middle school,” Oliver remarked before playing a clip of CNN reporting on his girlfriend’s pole-dancing YouTube channel.

“I never thought that I would say this,” Oliver noted. “But I am not interested in any pole dancing YouTube channels right now.”

Oliver also bashed the media for it’s need to pin “incredibly reductive labels” on the whistleblower, from hero to traitor, or as MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough said, a “weasel.”

“I don’t know that we should be so quick to jump to the argument that he must be what he looks like,” Oliver said next to a picture of Scarborough. “Especially when what you look like is the guy in the frat house who can get you roofies.”

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This article originally appeared on: AlterNet