This is fair, but only if you also agree that Bill Nye the Science Guy isn’t actually a scientist either.
It is weird to me that he gets a pass and these other fake doctors/scientists don’t. Dude is a mechanical engineer.
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On the other hand, I am a science graduate, but the work I do is really engineering, so I guess I am fake as well.
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Anyone can be a scientist if they do research on a subject using the scientific method. Scientist isn’t a degree that’s bestowed, it’s a vocation.
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Where does Bill Nye claim to be a scientist? Every job description I’ve ever seen for him has been “science educator” or some such.
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Why Dr. Phil, time to send you to…
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Smoking, swimming, and driving are not highly contagious.
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Doctor isn’t a legally resitricted professional term like M.D. He does have a doctorate.
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The point of contention is not that Mr. McGraw is incorrect to refer to himself as ‘Dr’ because of his educational bona fides, but that he is leveraging the title and its weight outside of his area of expertise. The lovely Mrs. Leicester has a PhD, but only uses the title in an academic role within her area of study. I do not have a coveted(?) PhD behind my name. But I do have both a science degree and a shopping list of licenses and certifications that allow me to practice a number of technical roles associated with my career. Those pieces of paper define tasks and roles that I can supervise, sign off, stamp, and perform from a professional AND ethical perspective. And I can lose them for violating those, because as a licensed professional part of my responsibility is to PUBLIC SAFETY AND TRUST. I do not operate outside of my bailiwick, and will either refuse to do work I feel is not ethical, or not within my expertise. Mr. McGraw, by opining on epidemiology as a popular talking head is violating both of those tenets, and therefore unqualified for licensure.
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Perhaps unrelated, or perhaps related: I just realized that Phil McGraw draws a striking resemblence to Quick Draw McGraw.
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“The world is so full of a number of things
I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.”
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Cigarette related deaths in the US are maybe 1,300 a day, US car fatalities are around 100 a day, pools around 10 a day. Covid-19 has been killing more like 3,000 per day in the US for the last few days. Covid-19 is the leading cause of death in the US now, more than cancer or heart disease. It’s maddening that people aren’t taking it seriously.
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Though the former is a much more prolific source of horseshit.
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Thank you for knocking that one out of the park. 
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“If I offended people’s sensibilities last night with my examples, then erase those, and just hear my message.”
Is that the most brain-dead statement ever? First of all, he admitted his examples were terrible and irrelevant, so it’s not a matter of “offending”
Second, if you admit your supporting evidence was pointless, you can’t expect people to accept your “message”. It’s like saying “whatever, who cares, I’m right. Just say that I’m right”
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Then the discussion should move on from saying that he’s falsely calling himself a doctor, to something productive.
Broadcast standards. I believe that there was a problem wayback with actors who portrayed medical doctors on television being used to make medical endorsements. (I bet it was for Big Tobacco.) In the aftermath, leading to the trope: “I’m not a doctor, but I play one on television.”
If so, that should be dusted off and beefed up. All his shows should have a disclaimer that he’s not a medical doctor, or a practicing clinical psychologist. Clearly visible, not buried in a quick scroll.
Professional standards. He should have been slapped a lot harder and further for doing anything remotely close to clinical psychology, no matter how many release forms people signed.
I guess it’s too much to hope that people would be more critical of stuff like this. Even a Nobel prize is no guarantee that someone isn’t a crackpot, even in their own field.
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I was more concerned with him misleadingly leveraging the term “doctor” in a way everybody knows is confusing to imply authority when weighing in on a medical topic. He most certainly isn’t that kind of doctor, and yet he and Fox News agreed his opinion on medical matters was worth hearing. They all knew damned well what their underinformed audience would reasonably infer, and pretending to be a medical authority during a genuine medical crisis should be a criminal offense.
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Yes, the FCC should crack down on that, like a ton of really heavy stuff.
Oops, I think our immune system has already been compromised.
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Any child can practice science. And should!
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