It’s not often that late-night TV jokes accomplish much–but one of John Oliver’s signature policy rants has inspired some real-life legislation in a state legislature.
Last year, Oliver spent one of his segments lambasting the president’s choice of a powerful cable lobbyist, Tom Wheeler, to head the Federal Communications Commission—the agency now on the cusp of voting for new laws to regulate the internet.
“Yes, the guy who used to run the cable industry’s lobbying arm is now running the agency tasked with regulating it. That is the equivalent of needing a babysitter, and hiring a dingo,” Oliver joked at the time.
Oliver’s program inspired so much wrath from onlookers (many of whom, in all likelihood, previously had no idea what Wheeler’s appointment meant) that the FCC’s database was flooded with public comments, leading their system to temporarily crash.
Washington State Senator Cyrus Habib (D-Kirkland) took notice. He now wants to make it easier for citizens to chime in on public laws by enabling them to submit testimony over the internet.
His bill would facilitate public comments via recorded videos sent to public television.
“It’s hard to get even five ordinary people—not paid lobbyists—to come down [to Olympia] and testify,” Habib told The Stranger. Referring to Oliver, he remarked, “Here’s a guy who likes to take boring topics and make them interesting.. If you can do that for an administrative process like the FCC on net neutrality, imagine the level of interest in issues people are even more familiar with at the state level.”
Watch Oliver’s original clip below:
