Comments on: to dr. phil or not to dr. phil

By: Amanda Brooks

Amanda Brooks — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 13:42:19 +0000

Tamara — Thanks for your insight. Having never watched his show, I could only go on input from other people, and my own gut feeling. Asking for my SSN to appear on a TV show where I wasn’t getting paid a dime (and asking all these “background” questions) was a big warning.

By: Tamara

Tamara — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 16:21:36 +0000

Hobbyist makes a great point. His audience is mostly female mainstream women,ones who love to judge and belittle other women they would see as a threat. I find this incredibly annoying.

I’ve noticed Dr Phil promotes the Jerry Springer mentality with women. Every topic or gest he wold have on the show that involved cheating ,affairs,confronting the other women ect…he would take the side of the person who wanted to trash the perosn the husband saw or cheated with. I’ve seen shows were he let the person or sudience rip into the women who they thoght should get the scarlett letter. I hate that whole mentality and I can just see those battles axes groaning and rolling their eyes while yo were on stage. I really stand women like this!
Dr Phil would more thna likeley have belittled you.

By: Tamara

Tamara — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 16:14:18 +0000

Living in L.A I know someone who worked on the set. DP is a walking conradiction,as soon as he turns that corner at the end of his show and takes his microphone off ,he’s screaming yelling and talking abot firing this or that idiot!
Robin I heard,is a sweetheart. Good choice and great boundries!

By: Hobbyist

Hobbyist — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 00:27:49 +0000

What Peridot said occurred to me too: Dr Phil’s audience is largely female, of the mainstream, family-oriented variety. He would’ve looked like a hero, “rescuing” victims of prostitution and setting them straight (in jail).
The CL arrests Amanda mentioned signaled that he was working hand-in-hand with LE – a clear trap.

I would’ve loved to see someone as articulate, intellingent, and informed as Amanda to shut down his arguments, but as all have said, talk shows are not honest reporting, they’re showcases for hacks and showmen. Hosts are not going to let themselves be embarrassed by a truth different from theirs.

Now for the SSN thing, I’ll play the devil’s advocate and say that too many people game the system by appearing on TV to make themselves look good. If you’re serious about vetting someone you’re debating (remember Oprah and james Frey?), you need to do a background on them and confirm all their facts, which Dr Phil does. He has investigators working F/T for him.
I used to watch his show and have seen him get people comfronted by LE and picked up after the taping.

All in all, it was clearly the right decision to pull back. If Dr Phil wants to interview people who have something to lose, he has to come on THEIR turf and take his own chances, like some do with terrorists. Why risk arrest at the hands of a self-promoter?

It just shows how difficult a path it is to raise one’s profile while being in an industry still currently illegal. Hard to change that when people who claim to want your voice heard are just setting you up.

By: Amanda Brooks

Amanda Brooks — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:53:36 +0000

Amber,

Thanks! You made me smile.

Peridot,

Yes, in the end, their motives became obvious and I needed to look at how far I was willing to go for possible publicity. Obviously, I have boundaries! A good lesson for me.