Transgender Fact Checker For John Oliver Showed Obvious Bias, Purposely Misrepresented Information
As it turns out, Sunday's episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver was even more disingenuous than we originally thought.
After publishing our response to the British comedian's 42-minute sanctimonious marathon on trans athletes in women’s sports, we learned something interesting: the fact-checker for Last Week Tonight is a trans-identifying male named DM "Dee" Brent.
In other words, the person tasked with verifying whether women’s concerns about fairness and safety are "based in fact" is someone with a personal stake in denying those concerns altogether. That's like hiring a lobbyist for Big Tobacco to fact-check a segment on lung cancer.
So it's no wonder the episode felt more like an activist manifesto than a balanced discussion. When your fact-checker is already committed to the ideology you’re pushing, objectivity isn’t just compromised — it’s out the window.
READ: John Oliver Wants Ladies To Shut Up And Let The Dudes Win | Amber Harding
Prior to the show’s airing, Brent reached out to women’s rights groups, United Nations Special Rapporteur Reem Alsalem and media outlets (including OutKick) with a series of slanted, leading questions. Despite receiving extensive, thoughtful and accurate responses from these sources, the show’s writers deliberately distorted that information to fit the narrative they planned to push all along.
John Oliver Attempted To Discredit UN's 'Violence Against Women and Girls in Sports' Report
One glaring example of this deliberate distortion comes from Oliver’s attempt to discredit a 2024 United Nations report that found nearly 900 medals had been taken by trans-identifying males in women’s sports. (That number is much higher now, by the way.)
On the show, Oliver sneers, "We looked at that report, and it turns out first, it wasn't produced by the UN. It was submitted to it by a special rapporteur who herself said its findings do not necessarily represent those of the UN."
RELATED: J.K. Rowling Laments Nearly 900 Sports Medals ‘Stolen From Women By Men’
But here’s the problem: that same special rapporteur, Reem Alsalem, had already explained this to Brent before the episode aired.
In her own words, "The findings and recommendations made by special rapporteurs, while not binding, carry an authoritative weight to them, and are therefore frequently considered and cited in processes of legal and policy reforms… Their reports are therefore most certainly UN reports, as you can see from the logo and the formatting. They are also hosted on the UN website and form part of the docket of official documentation."
Oliver's staff had this information and chose to ignore it.
He also tried to undermine the UN report by zeroing in on one of its sources: SheWon.org, a volunteer-run website that tracks medals and accolades won by males competing in women’s sports. Yes, we have citizens compiling publicly available data after the institutions in charge deliberately stopped doing so.
In an email to Brent, Sharon Byrne, Executive Director of the Women’s Liberation Front, explained the obvious: "You question its accuracy and some of the ways it calculates the loss to women and girls. But you missed that sports authorities and organizations like the NCAA and IOC aren't compiling that data, as they've obliterated sex with gender identity. There is an implied sense of outrage in your questions — how dare women keep track of stolen sports titles! That smacks of Progressive Misogyny."
She’s right. If official bodies refuse to differentiate between male and female athletes, someone has to step in — even if they are (gasp!) volunteers. And the idea that women keeping track of their own erasure is somehow shady or illegitimate? That’s not journalism — that’s gaslighting.
Misogyny is still misogyny, no matter how "inclusive" you try to make it sound. You can’t just slap a pride flag on it and pretend it’s progress.
United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women Reem Alsalem is fighting for the protection of girls and women in sports.
(Photo by ADEM ALTAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Besides, Alsalem also explained to Brent that her report relied on a multitude of other sources in addition to SheWon.org — the show just chose to ignore all of those.
As For The Advantage Males Have Over Females In Sports…
Oliver and sports scientist Joanna Harper (who is also a trans-identifying male) argue that just because men are generally bigger and stronger doesn’t mean they have an advantage in all sports — especially after hormone therapy.
This simply isn't true.
Sharon Byrne pointed out to Brent, "We play sports with our bodies, not our identities." She also referred the fact-checker to a recent presentation by Dr. Greg Brown, a sports medicine specialist at the University of Nebraska.
"His research showed that even after taking opposite-sex hormones, trans-identifying males still outperformed top female athletes," Byrne explained.
This isn’t a fringe opinion.
As Reem Alsalem reminded Brent, the UN report’s conclusions are rooted in solid, peer-reviewed research: "The report’s conclusion that males have a clear performance advantage over females in sports is backed by many pieces of solid scientific research. Many credible scientists and experts have written on this issue, and new evidence continues to confirm it."
Some Sports — And Many Female Athletes — Just Don't Matter To John Oliver
At one point, Oliver suggests that many examples of trans-identifying males winning in women’s sports don’t really count — because they happen in "unpopular" sports or even non-competitive "fun runs." Apparently, unless a sport gets primetime TV ratings or sponsorship deals, women’s victories (and losses) don’t matter.
This assertion is an absolute slap in the face to the girls and women who dedicate their lives or even a good chunk of their free time to these sports. Just because fencing or Irish dance sounds silly to you, John Oliver, doesn’t mean it’s meaningless to the athletes competing. And it certainly doesn’t mean their titles, medals and records are fair game for biological males to take.
As Alsalem put it, "Any woman or girl suffering serious discrimination, exclusion, or violence is one too many. This is not a numbers game… Once a policy shifts, opening the female category up to males, we can reasonably expect this to be the end of the female category in sport — and the end of fair, safe, equal and dignified sport."
That’s really what John Oliver’s argument boils down to, isn’t it? He — and his army of biased left-wing staffers — know they don’t have a solid case. So instead, they lean into self-righteous indignation and mockery.
That’s why he felt perfectly comfortable ridiculing female athletes like Riley Gaines and Payton McNabb, while holding up a handful of teenage girls as proof that "some women are OK with it." Of course they are — so is your fact-checker. That doesn’t make the rest of us wrong. It just makes you dishonest.
It's also worth noting that Reem Alsalem, the UN Special Rapporteur whom Oliver seems to think is a moron, was appointed by the Human Rights Council based on her expertise on violence and injustice toward women on a global scale. And, like all special rapporteurs, her reports are held to the highest standards of independence and integrity.
But sure, let’s pretend that a washed-up comedian on HBO is more qualified to speak on behalf of the world’s women.