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John Oliver Takes On Local News Stations and Their Scary Conservative Corporate Owner — Watch

He also manages to sneak in a hit at "Spider-Man: Homecoming" star Tom Holland.
John Oliver spiderman
Screenshot/HBO

According to a recent Pew study, Americans place more trust in local news than they do national news, but is that trust misguided? In last night’s segment of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight,” John Oliver revealed that the majority of local news stations are owned by a right-leaning corporation named Sinclair Broadcast Group, which requires subsidiaries to air certain segments, including one called “Terrorism Alert Desk.”

READ MORE: John Oliver Calls Out Anti-Vaxxers On ‘Last Week Tonight,’ Including Rob Schneider And His Hat — Watch

That’s a problem, especially considering very few people had ever heard of this company before last night. “Wow, it is a little disconcerting to learn that something you’ve only just heard of is throwing around 4 billion dollars,” Oliver said. “It’s like finding out that ExxonMobil just got bought, and it was by the little twerp that plays the new Spider-Man.”

Tom Holland hits aside, Oliver is right to be concerned. A quick look into segments produced by Sinclair and sent to subsidiary stations (an unusual practice in itself) reveals disturbingly tranquil newscaster Mark Hyman warning of the “cancer” of “political correctness and multiculturalism” and declaring marriage as a solution to domestic violence.

READ MORE: John Oliver Supports Lord Bucket Head For Prime Minister, Who Looks Like Darth Vader If He Got Into Politics — Watch

Oliver closed the segment with an appearance from someone you probably haven’t thought about for some time: “The Sopranos” actor Steve Schirripa (AKA Bobby Baccalieri). Schirripa encouraged local stations to include disclaimers with any Sinclair-produced content or mandated segments. “The people at this station know that local news should never be about cheap scare-mongering or advancing the political agenda,” Schirripa said. “It should only be about weather, sports, I-team investigations and human interest stories featuring cute animals.”

Watch the segment below:

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