Liberal media darling John Oliver and the production company behind his show, Last Week Tonight on CBS, were the recipients of a defamation complaint in the United States Southern District of New York, last Friday. The 23-page complaint alleged that Oliver and his producers “knowingly manipulated” the sworn testimony of Dr. Brian Morley, who was the medical director of Iowa’s Managed Care Organization dealing with their Medicaid program, “and then knowingly manipulated the context” of the testimony, effectively lying about it to millions of people around the globe.
The alleged defamation occurred in an episode of Last Week Tonight which aired on April 14, 2024. In the episode in question, Oliver was railing against the Medicaid systems in red states as he pushed for America “to adopt a universal healthcare model” like the one in his failing home country of Britain, which he left.
According to the complaint, Oliver falsely portrayed Morley, who “is a board certified physician, having served in the United States Army as a field surgeon and practiced family medicine,” as a heartless healthcare executive who was okay with disabled patients sitting and stewing in their own excrement:
Defendants falsely told millions of viewers of their show, Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, that Dr. Morley testified in a Medicaid hearing that “he thinks it’s okay if people have shit on them for days,” intentionally leading viewers to believe that Dr. Morley made these alleged statements about—and illegally denied Medicaid services to—a young man who has severe mental impairment, was harnessed in a wheelchair, wears diapers, and required in-home bathing and diaper changing because he could do neither himself.
“Defendants’ false accusations were designed to spark outrage, and they did,” the filing went on. It noted that Oliver shared his own outrage at what he purported were Morley comments. “Fuck that doctor with a rusty canoe. I hope he gets tetanus of the balls,” he declared, seemingly promoting a violent sexual assault of Morley.
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