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.”
I don’t see how the full quote meaningfully changes the meaning of the words
It doesn’t. They’re trying to get a big chunk of money out of Oliver to make the studio shut him up.
It’s not about Olver being wrong. It’s about controlling the bounds of acceptable language. People like Oliver make the zeitgeist a little to comfortable in calling out their supposed ““betters””
It’s their first encounter with John Oliver? Others have tried and failed miserably.
Oliver has very beefy litigation insurance. He had to up it after the Eat Shit Bob guy sued him.
Oliver won that case.
All of his stories are researched and vetted through legal before they air. The only thing the insurance company is trying to do is chill public comment. They’ll lose the court case but will cost them. We’re just lucky that Oliver has the resources to mount a defense.
Weaponizing defamation lawsuits is their new strategy against critics. They got ABC to settle for a fortune, even though Stephanopoulos was factually correct. Im sure the lawyers told George not to take it personally, its only business. Except now they can claim George lied, and Disney admitted it by paying.
I honestly can’t wait for the episode calling this one out. I hope he commissions a rusty canoe to send to this shitbag.
He should just flashback to the first segment, “apologize” for taking it out of context, and quote the Dr’s “context” while holding a rusty canoe and waving his eyebrows suggestively at the camera
Episodes, plural. It should become a running gag.
He’s done it before? Remember the Squirrel? And the crazy fucker who said out loud that it talked to him?
I’m not sure what compels these people to walk up to John and basically say, “Please embarrass me in front of the nation for a whole season, and toss in some lawyer fees while you’re at it.” But they do.
as long as it doesn’t replace the sexy horse
Another song like “eat shit bob” in the making i hope!