Seth MacFarlane Calls Out Oprah for Popularizing "Dubious Characters" Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz

[babylonsister]

Seth MacFarlane Calls Out Oprah for Popularizing “Dubious Characters” Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz
The celebrity doctors have been spouting off misinformation about the coronavirus and its possible treatments
by Ben Kaye
on April 22, 2020, 11:26pm


Over the last few weeks, celebrity doctors Phil McGraw (a psychologist) and Mehmet Oz (a cardiothoracic surgeon) have been spouting off misinformation about the coronavirus and its possible treatments. Besides the fact that neither are actually trained in epidemiology, a common factor between the two TV docs is how they got their start: as guests on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show. That’s a connection Seth MacFarlane has recently taken issue with, calling on Oprah to “correct” the record on the pair of medical hosts.

The Family Guy creator’s first remarks came from a tweet in which he shared a Los Angeles Times article detailing Dr. Oz and Dr. Phil’s controversial COVID-19 remarks. “Oprah has done some wonderfully altruistic things with her career, but the use of her platform to amplify the voices of dubious characters rather than legitimate scientists has been a disservice,” MacFarlane wrote. “I hope she will lend her own powerful voice to correct it.”

Then on Wednesday night, MacFarlane joined Anand Giridharadas for the first episode of Vice TV’s new political talk show Seat at the Table. Asked about the tweet, MacFarlane again emphasized that Oprah had largely “used her platform for good.” However, he added, “The exception to that is the elevation of these purveyors of pseudoscience. People like Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, all the way back to Jenny McCarthy and the anti-vax movement.”

“It’s a strange dichotomy that I think a lot of people, particularly right now, are having trouble reconciling,” he continued. “You know, this person who has done all of this positive work for the world and yet somehow has gotten caught up in this web of junk science on many occasions.”

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[ProfessorGAC]

1. I Stand With Seth

These guys need to be repudiated.
Absent Oprah, they'd be Dr. Who? Both of them.

[jimfields33]

19. I get it but they've known these guys for years and not a peep from celebs

I’m not impressed when they arrive when it’s easy and the criticism and story’s been out for a while.

[ProfessorGAC]

23. That's Fair

Phil & Oz have been up front in the news lately though.
I think the timing suggests it's not just convenience. These 2 stood up & spouted off. The blowback is happening now because they said what they said just now.

[cab67]

29. Yes and no.

Drs. Phil and Oz are both quacks, but they also crossed a big line with COVID. Before this, they were touting weight loss supplements or whatever - and pretty much every celebrity, with or without a higher education, does that. Or they were doing pop psychology. The potential damage from their quackery was limited. Their remarks on COVID, on the other hand, were far more damaging.

[Tikki]

22. So do I...She championed schwarzenegger all up on her show...

during the California Governor debacle.

I will never forgive her for that.

Tikki

[Dem4Life1102]

38. She also elevated Giuliani

by naming him “America’s Mayor “.

[malaise]

2. has he called out NBC for Popularizing Don the criminally negligent

Con?

[Kingofalldems]

3. He works for Fox--he should definitely be calling them out.

[qazplm135]

15. Google says he has

folks need to stop hunting bad stuff. Sometimes people are, in fact, decent.

[Kingofalldems]

17. Never said he wasn't decent.

And he does call them out on Family Guy.

[qazplm135]

12. is he required to call out everyone

to have a point here?

[malaise]

13. Those two idiots are harmless when compared with Don the criminally

negligent Con

[qazplm135]

14. they do plenty of harm

and I am fairly certain MacFarlane has called out Trump before. In fact a pretty simple Google search shows he has, repeatedly, as well as Fox.

Folks are always looking to cast someone as a fake. No one is perfect, but the guy has donated almost 5 million to Dem causes and called out everyone worth calling out.

I mean the Google search took all of 15 seconds.

[ProfessorGAC]

24. He's Been On Maher Doing Just That!

Multiple times!

[Ilsa]

4. When Oprah was being sued in Texas over her

Hamburger/ beef comment, Dr. Phil was her counselor to get her through the ordeal emotionally. I can see how she would want to help him, but she gave him way too much promotion.

[cab67]

33. My wife is a licensed clinical psychologist.

If I want her to start a nonstop soliloquy with very real anger, all I have to say is, "But Dr. Phil once said...."

I've caught his show once or twice, but basically, it's because we're not allowed to watch criminals fed to large predators in the arena anymore. I get into a funk over my own shortcomings, then watch something like Dr. Phil and say, "Hey, at least I'm not as bad as this guy. And his guests are even worse."

[Ilsa]

40. He's got a real shit show working, not far off from

Maury or Springer.

I wish Oprah had found someone more sensitive and thoughtful and Dr Phil had been left in Amarillo or wherever he's from

[Aristus]

5. I don't think he could have said that in a more classy, thoughtful way.

A simple, but important, rule for offering criticism is to recount what it is the subject of your criticism is doing well, and how much value they bring to the table. Then bring out the criticism.

Sean McFarland did that very well.

[uponit7771]

6. K&R, He's correct and balanced ... she's done a lot but not with Phil and Oz

[Tarheel_Dem]

7. You can add Marianne Williamson to that list, AFAIC. n/t

[budkin]

8. Wait, schools aren't "appetizing targets?"

As Dr. Oz claims?

[Goodheart]

9. I stand with Seth.

Come on, Oprah, make this right.

[Cha]

10. Good.. someone needed to say it and MacFarlane

said it well.

[Bradshaw3]

11. K&R

Well said Seth. It's funny how Oprah gets a pass from so many, including in Hollywood and here on DU. Those two charlatans would not be where they are without her.

[demmiblue]

16. It seems Oprah was the Gwyneth Paltrow of her time.

[cab67]

32. Paltrow, to her credit, really is a good actress.

Winfrey wasn't bad in The Butler, but Paltrow has given some really great performances. Indeed, she was pretty good in Contagion.

Unfortunately, she's prone to speaking up when not on set.....

[Dem4Life1102]

39. Paltrow is an OK actress

who only got ahead because her father was a powerful industry executive.

[Blue Owl]

18. "Purveyors of pseudoscience" -- perfect description

n/t

[TlalocW]

20. I've watched Oprah once

When I was in high school (this would have been 90 or 91), and I was sick at home, and she had Deepak Chopra on, and she either fell for his bullshit or pretended to as she helped demonstrate his claim that everyone has at least a small amount of telekinetic power by holding a pendulum that was swinging back and forth and concentrating on it until it started rotating out of its original plane... which it naturally does because of the Earth's rotation (Foucault Pendulum). That she would go on to prop up other assholes like McCarthy, Oz, and Phil isn't surprising, and when she finally ended her show, it was a good thing as she wasn't spreading more pseudo-science crap.

TlalocW

[PatSeg]

26. I remember seeing her show a handful of times

years ago and it was all gimmicks and hype with a heavy dose of Oprah ego. Basically, I'm really sick and tired of celebrities and the celebrity driven society we live in. And Oprah has always been overrated.

[BigmanPigman]

21. When Oprah was on the TV during the Global Citizen show

last weekend I yelled basically the same thing that Seth said to Oprah. Thank you Seth!

[Harker]

25. Always current, always relevant...

https://m.

[rogue emissary]

27. So has Seth called out Mark Wahlberg for his past of multiple hate crimes?

He's worked with him in two movies helping make Wahlberg more famous.

[PCIntern]

28. What I remember on Oprah was

some rabid anti-Semite proclaimed that Jews feast on the blood of Christian children or some grotesquerie like that and said he had proof. She got all giddy and excited that she was going to be the release point of over five thousand years of secrets. It was the most nauseating thing that I’ve ever seen on mainstream tv.

[bucolic_frolic]

30. Yeah the miscreants given their initial national exposure on TV

Limbaugh (60 minutes early 90s), Drs. Phil & Oz, Trump, Laura Ingraham (CBS News), etc, etc, etc.

MSM is running Personality Cult Factories

[cab67]

31. Seth MacFarlane is a friend to science.

He was involved in the Neil DeGrasse Tyson reboot of Cosmos, and he is one of the voices on the newer audiobook version of Sagan's The Demon Haunted World.



(The Demon-Haunted World stands as one of the most influential books in my own life. It changed the way I teach - I'm a STEM professor, though I was in grad school when the book came out - in a fundamental way. The original audio version wasn't very inspiring. But the new one is largely read by Cary Elwes, with input from MacFarlane and others. It's really good.)

[progressoid]

35. I may have to look for that version.

I just ran across my paper back version while cleaning the basement.

[Skittles]

36. she is just like them - phony

she's good at it though

[niyad]

37. quack and adulterer Phil McGraw has a ph.d in clinical psych, but he is not, and has not been for

years, actually licensed anywhere. Suckers. . Oops, I mean "guests" on his show apparently have to sign waivers saying they know they are not getting medical advice.

Hadn't oz been called before Congress for that green coffe bean nonsense?

[milestogo]

41. Oprah is easily impressed and a little gullible.

My problem with her is that she is so overexposed its a little nauseating. Just too much.

[patricia92243]

42. They get good ratings - that is all that matters - just ask Trump.