Most reasonable people seem to agree that the state of television news in the United States has devolved into a glamour filled dog and pony show. From sensationalized headlines to stories that make you actually say out loud “Is that news?”. The 24 hour network cycle of one sided views, constant interruptions about celebrity blunders, and sets of talking heads arguing points that mean little or sometimes even nothing, have made us all start to question if we can even trust these sources to inform us with non-biased news.

So where does one look for a fair and balanced report on a topic? This answer may surprise you. From my recent experience with trying to become a more informed individual I have found one thing to remain constant. That is the fact that I see more un-biased reporting coming from comedians than I do from household names like CNN Fox News, and MSNBC.

Shows like Last Week Tonight, and the Daily Show have come to mean more in the current news climate than you may realize, with hosts like John Oliver, and Trevor Noah providing actual looks on both sides of issues. It is a refreshing change from Bill O’Reilly’s very opinionated “I’m right you’re wrong” style of entertainment. As a note: I call it entertainment because that is the reality of it. In fact most if not all hosted shows would fall in this category. From Rachel Maddow to Wolf Blitzer, these are not programs meant to inform they are meant to entertain, but sadly many people rely on only these shows for their news. That being said, you’d be better off getting your news from the anonymous anchor sitting in the news room, but not by much

So why is this, you may ask? It would seem that in an effort to fill the 24 hour 365 day a year programming schedule (which I understand is a tall order) networks have opted for more of an entertainment style presentation. You can see it with quick camera cuts, blowing simple stories out of proportion to fill more time, and the general aggression that now accompanies all these yapping bobble heads when even a hint of disagreement is shown toward their payed point of view.

When watching Last Week Tonight with John Oliver it becomes quite apparent, that while meant to be an entertaining quazi-news program, there is research being done on both sides of the topic. They present facts related to these stories in a concise clear manner, meant to inform. Yes I know these are comedians and there are a certain amount of jokes strewn throughout these stories. I even understand that sometimes they could be guilty of infusing facts with opinions. However, even with these jokes, and even when opinions are found in these shows they are usually a setup for another Joke less so than a stance one way or the other. Typically if there is a stance it seems to be more of a moral do the right thing stance than an agenda based stance. We also know that nothing comes as close to a Joke as the incoherent mish-mash of the 24 hours news networks stories with little to no basis in news. Even worse these stories can be over sensationalized, or reported on so quickly and so off the cuff that it is hard to determine facts from speculation.

One thing giving the comedic satire shows a bit more of a chance is the fact they have an entire day or even sometimes as much as a week to prepare this material. Meaning they can properly research and prepare a story before presenting it.

On the other hand there are still some places to look for fact based news on TV. ABC’s nightly news for example, while still filled with a certain amount of fluff, they do seem to report on facts without much of a biased spin on things. 60 minutes as well seems to maintain integrity and gives you mostly facts while not bombarding you with liberal or conservative opinions on the matters. The culprit to beware of truly is the 24 hour news networks. This is because while stories are presented as news, the overarching agenda of the networks policies create a place where opinions can be woven throughout a story itself and if not directly in the stories immediately followed by a sea of screaming pundits making political or social hay to keep ratings up.

Programs like the Daily Show and Last Week Tonight are not true news programs. Therefore, they are not beholden to a networks left or right leaning spin on things, and while we should remain skeptical of their accuracy, this may be the best thing for them. This means that they are free to choose a story or topic to report on and present all sides of an argument without having to align with a networks opinion on a topic and that is a good thing.

Written By: Michael Gibbons