Trouble for sale; Dr. Phil is buying

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By Barb Ickes | Tuesday, April 15, 2008 12:48 AM CDT | () comments

Disturbed, meet pathetic.

Almost as gross as the homemade video of several Florida girls beating a classmate is the video of one of them being bonded out of jail — by staffers from Dr. Phil McGraw’s TV show.

In the bailout video, a woman is seen rushing along 17-year-old Mercades Nichols’ side, shielding her face from the cameras. But Nichols and her friends sure didn’t act like they had anything to hide when they taped each other slugging their 16-year-old victim in the face, slamming her head against the wall and — at one point — knocking her unconscious.

Nichols’ sudden camera shyness is not what adds another twisted layer to this tale. It’s the pushy presence of a Dr. Phil staffer who repeatedly warns other media outside the jail that Nichols has signed an “exclusivity” contract and will not be answering any of their questions.

By posting her $33,000 bail, the Dr. Phil people evidently now own the girl and her story. They bought the right to shoot cutaways of their studio audience, gasping at the horror of the beating video as it’s played over and over, perhaps even in slow motion.

Dr. Phil now is trying to distance himself from the bailout, issuing a statement that claims that the idea of springing the teen wasn’t sanctioned by the show.

“In this case, certain staff members went beyond our guidelines,” the statement reads.

But you’ve got to wonder under whose authority the staffers were acting. Surely they didn’t pool their personal resources to come up with the $30,000-plus to get Nichols out of jail.

It appears their investment now is for naught, because Dr. Phil has said he is pulling the teen from the show’s lineup.

I can barely believe I’m saying this, but I actually feel a tiny bit sorry for the girl. From what little we’ve seen of her, it doesn’t seem like a good idea to make her a sensational target of a TV shrink. She’s got enough problems.

And this is not the first time Dr. Phil’s tactics have made some of us squirm. In another recent exploitation-for-ratings stunt, he went uninvited to Britney Spears hospital room, saying the family asked him to show up. He later said he was scrapping plans for that show, too.

But who could have thought it was a good idea to begin with?

It’s like a friend of mine said, “Britney Spears needs Dr. Phil’s help like she needs another hole in her head.”

I don’t doubt Dr. Phil can help some people. But that’s not what this stuff is about. It’s about capitalizing on the disturbed.

Consider some of the promos on Dr. Phil’s Web site: “Is your child a beauty queen?” or “Today on Dr. Phil: House of Greed, Part I,” or “Be on the Show! Overweight and Angry?”

Somebody should tell the good doctor that TV already has a Jerry Springer.

In fact, if he really wanted to help someone …

Barb Ickes can be contacted at (563) 383-2316 or bickes@qctimes.com.