If you haven't heard, Presidential candidate Donald Trump is going to appear on The Dr. Oz Show to talk about his proposed health policies and reveal new details of his medical records.
This is a huge coup for Dr. Oz, whose ratings have plummeted since he got nationwide condemnation after four members of the American Council on Science and Health spearheaded last year's campaign to get the doctor removed from the faculty of Columbia - due to his persistent promotion of miracle vegetables, his scaremongering, and his promotion of alternatives to legitimate science and health practices.
He was forced to hire a fact-checker (sort of, he snagged an anti-GMO zealot from Consumer's Union, the parent of Consumer Reports), he put Dr. in small letters in the logo to symbolically minimize the medical content of his show, and he has been scrambling to get back the 50 percent of the audience he lost due to the controversy.
For Mr. Trump, it's a no-lose proposition. It's not like Dr. Oz can ask Mr. Trump any awkward questions about his statements on vaccines, since Oz has extolled both Joe Mercola, D.O., and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on his program, and both of them are anti-vaccination zealots. In return for not looking hypocritical, Oz has said he will stick to softball issues. So we won't see him scold Mr. Trump for having a diet plan that contains wisdom like eat in a "fantastic setting" when Dr. Oz has recommendations just as lacking in evidence.
Basically, Mr. Trump has found a way to turn the most mundane event in every previous election - medical records - into a media event. He has nothing to lose and a lot to gain, especially when his opposing candidate is being cloistered and trying to figure out which medical records to reveal. He hasn't done anything original, it's just medical records, but he is spinning it to seem like he is the one being transparent.
And Dr. Oz is playing along, hoping that he can rescue his floundering show from the brink of cancelation.
