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Media7 outlets ran this5 min read

Oprah Winfrey says Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz’s politics have nothing to do with her

The media mogul defended her decision to platform the two TV personalities, now Trump allies, on her show in the 1990s and 2000s

AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made

Published
Oprah Winfrey says Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz’s politics have nothing to do with her

What this story says

  • Oprah Winfrey introduced Dr. Phil McGraw as a weekly expert on her show in 1998 and Dr. Mehmet Oz as a medical expert in 2004.
  • Both men later became allies of Donald Trump, with McGraw serving on Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission and Oz leading Medicare & Medicaid Services in 2025.
  • Winfrey stated in an interview that their careers and political views have nothing to do with her, defending her original decision to platform them.
  • The left-rated outlets below led on Winfrey’s response, while the centre-rated digest carried the story without additional framing.

Who covered it

Left 67%(4)Centre 33%(2)Right 0%(0)

Percentages are shares of the 6 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 1 of the 7 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .

Trust

42/100

Craft

55/100

Hype

35/100

7 sources · methodology

Thin on the right so far

None of the 6 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated right.

This story is still being watched, so it is a count and not yet a finding. Coverage keeps arriving for hours after an event, and a side that has published nothing this morning may publish by tonight. If it is still true when we stop checking, we will say so plainly.

Oprah Winfrey has addressed criticism over her role in launching the careers of Dr. Phil McGraw and Dr. Mehmet Oz, two television personalities who later became allies of former US president Donald Trump. Winfrey featured McGraw, a psychologist who let his licence lapse two decades ago, as a weekly expert on her show starting in 1998. Oz, a physician with degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, began appearing as a medical expert in 2004.

Both men went on to host their own long-running programmes, *Dr. Phil* and *The Dr. Oz Show*, which outlasted Winfrey’s original talk show. McGraw now serves on Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission and has promoted MAGA initiatives through his conservative cable network, Merit Street Media. Oz was appointed to lead the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in 2025 and has supported Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again agenda.

In an interview with *Emmy Magazine*, Winfrey said the criticism she faces for platforming the pair is unrelated to her original reasons for featuring them. She stated, “Everybody has their own path in life, and it has not one thing to do with me, and I don’t have one thing to do with them.” Winfrey added that she believed both men had valuable information to share at the time, citing McGraw’s support during a 1997 lawsuit and Oz’s ability to explain medical topics in accessible terms.

What the coverage left out

No right-rated outlet ran this story at all. None of the digests or the full report mentioned that Winfrey’s interview with *Emmy Magazine* was published on 12 August 2026, or that she has not commented on McGraw or Oz’s political roles since their appointments in 2025. The unrated digest from *The Zambian Observer* included Winfrey’s defence but did not add new details.

Tags:#OprahWinfrey#DrPhilMcGraw#DrMehmetOz#USMedia#TrumpAllies#TalkShowHistory

Still developing. We have re-checked which outlets are covering this 6 times, most recently on 13 Aug 2026, 21:15, and will add the sides that appear.

How each side covered it

Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.

Left

4 rated outlets

  • The four left-rated digests and the full report in *The Independent* led on Winfrey’s defence of her decision to platform McGraw and Oz. *The Independent*’s full report quoted Winfrey’s statement that their political paths have “not one thing to do with me” and detailed her reasons for featuring them, including McGraw’s support during her 1997 lawsuit and Oz’s medical expertise. The digests from *theGrio* and *Raw Story* also carried Winfrey’s distancing of herself from the men’s current politics.
  • The left-rated reports included McGraw’s role on Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission and his promotion of MAGA initiatives through Merit Street Media. *The Independent*’s full report noted that McGraw accompanied ICE agents on a raid in Chicago in June 2025. The digests from *theGrio* and *Raw Story* described both men as “MAGA-world fixtures” and highlighted their spinoff shows, which outlasted Winfrey’s original programme.
  • Winfrey’s past support for Kamala Harris during the 2024 election was mentioned in *The Independent*’s full report, which contrasted her political stance with that of McGraw and Oz. The report also included criticism of both men’s medical expertise, particularly McGraw’s comments during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he suggested social distancing was unnecessary.

Centre

2 rated outlets

  • The centre-rated digest from *Internewscast* carried the story without additional framing or quotes. It noted that Winfrey played a “pivotal role” in introducing McGraw and Oz but did not include her defence of her decision or details about their current political roles. The digest did not mention McGraw’s role on Trump’s commission, Oz’s appointment to Medicare & Medicaid Services, or Winfrey’s distancing of herself from their politics.

Right

0 rated outlets

No outlet rated right has run this story so far. We are still checking, and will say plainly if that does not change.

Read it at the source

7 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.

Left

4

Centre

2

Right

0

No outlet in this group ran the story.

Not rated

1

Questions about this coverage

How did the left and right cover Oprah Winfrey says Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz’s politics have nothing to do…?
Of the 6 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 67% are rated left, 33% are rated centre, 0% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 7. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
Is Oprah Winfrey says Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz’s politics have nothing to do… left or right?
Too few of the outlets on this story carry a published leaning rating to say. 6 of them do, and this site does not characterise a field under 12: at that size one newsroom filing moves the share by ten points. The percentages above are the count as it stands.
Is the coverage of Oprah Winfrey says Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz’s politics have nothing to do… biased?
Oprah Winfrey says Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz’s politics have nothing to do with her is one event reported by 7 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
Which side is not reporting Oprah Winfrey says Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz’s politics have nothing to do…?
When we first saw this story, outlets rated right had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
Which outlets covered Oprah Winfrey says Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz’s politics have nothing to do…?
7 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
Why did Oprah Winfrey feature Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz on her show?
Oprah Winfrey said she featured Dr. Phil McGraw and Dr. Mehmet Oz because she believed they had valuable information to share. She cited McGraw’s support during her 1997 lawsuit and Oz’s ability to explain medical topics in accessible terms as reasons for platforming them in the 1990s and 2000s.
What are Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz’s current political roles?
Dr. Phil McGraw serves on Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission and promotes MAGA initiatives through his conservative cable network, Merit Street Media. Dr. Mehmet Oz was appointed to lead the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in 2025 and has supported Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again agenda.
Which outlets covered Oprah Winfrey’s response to criticism?
Four left-rated outlets and one centre-rated outlet carried the story. The left-rated reports included *The Independent*, *theGrio*, and *Raw Story*, while the centre-rated digest was from *Internewscast*. No right-rated outlet ran the story.

How did this read?

About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.

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