The British media is sinking down, as the American news media has lowered the bar for all of humanity. British news media is definitely trying to stoop down to that level. Everyone is stooping to the lowest common denominator.
There's never any time I think I'm a real journalist, because I don't have any of the qualifications or the intentions for that.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the speaker's humility and self-doubt regarding their identity as a journalist.
In this quote, John Oliver expresses a sense of disbelief in his role as a journalist, emphasizing that he lacks certain qualifications and intentions that he associates with being a 'real' journalist. This sentiment highlights the complexities of identity and self-perception in one's professional life, suggesting that personal standards and societal expectations can create a gap between how one sees oneself and how one believes they should be defined.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about what it means to be a journalist, one could use this quote to illustrate how personal perception can differ from societal expectations.
More from John Oliver
All quotes βAustralia turns out to be a sensational place, albeit one of the most comfortably racist places I've ever been in. They've really settled into their intolerance like an old resentful slipper.
I watch one news channel until my soul can't take it anymore. It's the background of my life.
My first 'Daily Show' piece was pretending I had this terrible immigrant journey, so I went to talk to an immigration lawyer who would help out people, and I ran into him in Penn Station about three months after I'd gotten the green card. I said, 'I got my green card yesterday.' And he hugged me because he understood that level of relief.
Southern people are bigger-hearted and kinder than I had any right to expect.
When you've married someone who's been at war, there is nothing you can do that compares to that level of selflessness and bravery.
Similar quotes
Any group of persons β prisoners, primitives, pilots, or patients β develop a life of their own that becomes meaningful, reasonable and normal once you get close to it.
Consumerism has accustomed us to waste. But throwing food away is like stealing it from the poor and hungry.
There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents.
I like flawed characters, and I like seeing people who are supposed to be not villains but antagonists. There are elements to them, which are really annoying, but you kind of see where they came from. You see the things that caused those inadequacies.
The tongue can conceal the truth, but the eyes never! You're asked an unexpected question, you don't even flinch, it takes just a second to get yourself under control, you know just what you have to say to hide the truth, and you speak very convincingly, and nothing in your face twitches to give you away. But the truth, alas, has been disturbed by the question, and it rises up from the depths of your soul to flicker in your eyes and all is lost.
Economics and a reliance on science and technology to solve our problems has led to an unsustainable situation where continued growth in consumption is required for governments and business to be considered successful. This is a form of insanity. Economics is at the heart of our destructive ways and our faith in it has blinded us