A US healthcare director is suing John Oliver for defamation following a Last Week Tonight episode on Medicaid in which the British-American comedian quoted him as saying it was OK for a patient with bowel issues to be “a little dirty for a couple of days”.
Dr Brian Morley, the former medical director of AmeriHealth Caritas, argues that Oliver – an outspoken comic whose show has not only addressed muzzling lawsuits but been subject to them – took the quote out of context in an April 2024 episode on Medicaid.
The suit against Oliver and the Last Week Tonight producers Partially Important Productions seeks unspecified damages “in an amount to be determined and in excess of $75,000”, according to Deadline. It does not name Last Week Tonight’s broadcaster, HBO.
The suit, filed in New York last week, stated: “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.”
The suit claims: “Defendants’ false accusations were designed to spark outrage, and they did. The false accusations Defendants made were so heinous that John Oliver felt justified in telling his millions of viewers: ‘fuck that doctor with a rusty canoe. I hope he gets tetanus of the balls.’ Oliver’s feigned outrage at Dr Morley was fabricated for ratings and profits at the expense of Dr Morley’s reputation and personal well-being.”
The quote in question, which occurs around 21 minutes into the episode’s 28 minute-long main segment, refers to the story of Louis Facenda Jr, a quadriplegic with cerebral palsy whose in-home care program was disrupted following cuts to Iowa’s Medicaid services.
Oliver cited an interview with Facenda and his mother and primary caregiver, Joann, on the difficulties faced by people with disabilities as the state shifted to for-profit “managed care organizations”, leaving Facenda spending hours in dirty diapers.
Oliver played audio from Morley’s testimony at a 2017 administrative hearing, that aired as such: “People have bowel movements every day where they don’t completely clean themselves, and we don’t fuss over [them] too much. People are allowed to be dirty … You know, I would allow him to be a little dirty for a couple of days.”
Oliver said of the snippet: “Look, I’ll be honest, when I first heard that, I thought that has to be taken out of context. There is no way a doctor, a licensed physician, would testify in a hearing that he thinks it’s okay if people have shit on them for days. So, we got the full hearing, and I’m not going to play it for you, I’m just going to tell you: he said it, he meant it, and it made me want to punch a hole in the wall.
“If I absolutely had to put it into words, I guess I’d say fuck that doctor with a rusty canoe, I hope he gets tetanus of the balls,” he continued. “And if he has a problem with my language there, I’d say I’m allowed to be dirty. People are allowed to be a little dirty sometimes, apparently that’s doctors fucking orders.”
Oliver also added that legally, he was required to say that AmeriHealth Caritas restored the patient’s services, but called it a “disgrace” that it was disrupted in the first place.
The lawsuit argues that context cut from the show changes the meaning of Morley’s words, which they quote as thus: “In certain cases, yes, with the patient with significant comorbidities, you would want to have someone wiping them and getting the feces off. But like I said, people have bowel movements every day where they don’t completely clean themselves and we don’t fuss over too much. People are allowed to be dirty. It’s when the dirty and the feces and the urine interfere with, you know, medical safety, like in someone who has concomitant comorbidities that you worry, but not in this specific case. I would allow him to be a little dirty for a couple days.”
According to the complaint, a senior Last Week Tonight producer spoke to Morley before the episode aired and stated that they had listened to the full administrative hearing.
But “Defendants knowingly manipulated Dr Morley’s testimony and then knowingly manipulated the context in which they placed it such to convey the defamatory meaning.”
Morley later “demanded that Defendants retract their False and Defamatory Statements”, which the show refused. The lawsuit further claims: “Defendants published the False and Defamatory Statements and Meanings with common law malice, with the intent to injure and reckless disregard for the rights of Dr Morley.”
This is not the first lawsuit faced by Last Week Tonight.
In 2017, a West Virginia judge tossed a defamation suit filed against the comedian and his show by Bob Murray, the CEO of a coal company. The judge agreed with HBO’s argument that Oliver’s comments were either factual and sourced from various court documents, or clearly satirical and thus protected by the first amendment.
