Dr. Phil, Ratings-whore Grandmaster

Last week, a story broke about a gaggle of girls who lured their friend to a house and then proceeded to take turns pounding the crap out of her. Allegedly, the whole affair stemmed from some smack talk on their MySpace pages.

That’s not the real story though.

A couple of days ago, a producer for the Dr. Phil show got caught bailing from jail one of the accused girls. Amid a flurry of reporters, the producer escorted the girl to an awaiting zoom car, all the while warding off vulture journalists with such integrity-drenched statements like, “Don’t say anything. She’s got exclusivity!”

Of course, Dr. Phil has since stated that his employee “overstepped” his bounds. But the truth is Dr. Phil overstepped his bounds when his executive producers sent a minion to bail this girl out so that she could appear on his crappy show. The Dr. Phil show has always bore more in common with grocery store tabloid rags than serious therapy, a fact played out by the aggressive manner in which the show attempted to gather this delinquent onto their shadowy stage. If cameras were always following the employees of the The Dr. Phil Show, we would have witnessed scenes like this repeated over and over.

It’s my sincere hope that Dr. Phil's vehicle for ratings-advancement will officially join the likes of The Jerry Springer Show and people will come to their senses and cease viewing Dr. Phil as a legitimate source of mental health expertise. Though I see the show taking a ratings hit from this and the Britney Spears mess from a couple months back, Dr. Phil knows how to package and present sensation; I see his show limping along no matter what lengths he uses to gather his circus freak guests. The only real hope is that fewer and fewer people will join him in the muck.