John Oliver recently did a skewed segment against public charter schools, and the second-largest teachers' union in the country is excited about it.
"John Oliver did something amazing," read the subject line of the email that Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, sent to union activists Tuesday.
"Education matters too much to let bad practices by unethical, incompetent profiteers undermine our public schools," Weingarten wrote. "What John Oliver exposed underscores why we need to hold charter schools accountable to the public. ... Let's make sure everyone sees the truth."
The problem with Oliver's segment was that it focused too narrowly on bad charter schools without highlighting what makes other charters successful.
What if Oliver gave teachers' unions the same treatment?
He might mention how ridiculous it is for the Washington Teachers' Union to get mad about Walmart giving away free supplies to teachers.
He might talk about how the Chicago Teachers Union bullied Joseph Ocol, a teacher who defied their one-day strike so he wouldn't miss any time with his students or his national championship chess team. He might talk about how Chicago Public Schools filed charges against the union over that strike.
He might talk about how the president of that union, Karen Lewis, called the governor of Illinois "the new ISIS recruit." Then when she had the chance to apologize, she doubled-down and told people to "Google the FBI criteria for domestic terrorism."
He might talk about the North Carolina Association of Educators, whose own employees started a petition against the union. He might talk about how 14 protestors sponsored by that same union were arrested for blocking a major intersection during rush hour.
He might talk about the hypocrisy of the Florida Education Association, which favors school vouchers for preschool students but not for K-12 students.
He might talk about the teacher who was harrassed so badly by the Ohio Education Association that she hoped unions would be destroyed forever.
He might talk about how the Michigan Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers-Michigan lost thousands of members once Michigan teachers got the freedom to choose whether they wanted to be in the union.
He might talk about the American Federation of Teachers Indiana, which opposed allowing some teachers to get raises because it might chip away at union power.
It would probably be unfair, but he might talk about how a teachers' union protest in Mexico left six dead and more than 100 wounded. That same union bullied teachers by shaving the heads of those who defied their strike because they didn't want to get fired.
And that's fodder from just the past year or so. Oliver drew from the past decade in his segment on charters.
If John Oliver treated teachers' unions the same way he treated charter schools, he might bring up a few of those things. But I'm not holding my breath that he will.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.