I’ve had it with Dr. Phil.
After 12 years of his know-it-all rhetoric, during which I tuned him out sometimes for months following his most blatant publicity-seeking hours, my disgust peaked January 10 when I caught a glimpse of him on Entertainment Tonight, bullying Ted Williams, the 52-year-old homeless radio announcer with the golden voice.
I’ve cringed as Dr. Phil mimicked the practises of other TV hosts, piling bricks on a flimsy board to show how adding stress to a body eventually breaks it down, a Dr. Mehmet Oz device; giving away expensive products and forklifts of cheaper stuff like diapers donated by suppliers eager to have their brand names in front of millions of viewers, as Oprah does; and issuing 7-day challenges to parents at wit’s end with druggie offspring, like Gail Vaz-Oxlade rescuing overspenders on ‘Til Debt Do Us Part.
His hucksterism has become too much. The shameless way this formerly credentialled clinical psychologist – he dropped his professional license when he became an entertainer – scrambles to muscle into the limelight surrounding the latest news headliner sickens me. The moment a celebrity’s misbehaviour leads newscasts, Dr. Phil is there, his scheduled guests replaced by the latest tear-jerker.
Larry King often postponed planned interviews to deal with unfolding events, but King was in the news business. Giving background and a wider view of the news was his stock in trade. And he did it with gentle questions that allowed interviewees to maintain their dignity. He never skewered them like butterflies captive on a pin.
Not Dr. Phil who once bulldozed his way into Britney Spears’ hospital room and breached her privacy, tattling her medical condition to the public. Observing this attention grabber trying to capitalize on Spears’ notoriety made me uncomfortable. Since then many other unfortunates have been fodder for his billboards.
Ted Williams is Dr. Phil’s first ‘makeover’ of 2011. On Jan. 3 The Columbus Dispatch ran a video interview of Williams panhandling beside an Ohio roadway holding a cardboard sign proclaiming his golden voice and asking for donations. Williams was a recovering alcoholic and cocaine addict, two years clean, father of nine kids whom he had not seen in years.
Within hours of the video going viral on the Internet, Williams was offered a radio job, a place to live, a haircut and a suit of clothes, appeared on The Early Show on CBS in New York, and reunited with his 92-year-old mother in Brooklyn.
By Jan. 10 Dr. Phil had pre-screened this man, rounded up his kids, ex-wife and mother to confront him on stage in Los Angeles next day. From being over-the-moon happy, Williams was in tears, looking trapped, and saying ‘yes’ when he might not have if Dr. Phil had not bullied him in front of cameras and millions of viewers.
Summing up the hour-long inquisition, Dr. Phil said, “Everyone is pulling for Ted, but his 15 minutes are going to be over and then he’ll be left to manage a life filled with temptation. This is a dangerous time for Ted in my opinion. He’s going from a street corner to a roller-coaster that’s just at breakneck speed. For an addict, that can be a very dangerous time.”
Dr. Phil has perhaps increased the danger, by scheduling Williams for three successive broadcasts. In the third interview, Jan. 13,
Dr. Phil probes the circumstances in a Los Angeles hotel room that led to Williams and his daughter being taken to the police station to cool off.
Williams was ‘discovered’ Jan. 3. Within 10 days Dr. Phil has featured the man in three broadcasts of his show. Does Dr. Phil truly care about Williams’ future, or is he making the most of sharing Williams’ time in the spotlight?
