Dr. Oz To Respond On Show To Doctors Calling For His Ouster From Columbia University
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Vowing that "we will not be silenced," television's Dr. Oz is fighting back against critics who are trying to get him removed from a faculty position at Columbia University.
Dr. Mehmet Oz will air an episode of his syndicated talk show Thursday that specifically takes on the group of 10 doctors from around the country who wrote to a Columbia dean about him. The group suggested last week that Oz promotes "quack treatments" of weight-loss supplements with no scientific proof that they work.
The doctors who sent the letter were led by Dr. Henry Miller of Stanford University. The nine other doctors from across the country included Dr. Joel Tepper, a cancer researcher from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, and Dr. Gilbert Ross of the American Council on Science and Health — based on the Upper West Side.
"Dr. Oz has repeatedly shown disdain for science and for evidence-based medicine, as well as baseless and relentless opposition to the genetic engineering of food crops," the doctors wrote. "Worst of all, he has manifested an egregious lack of integrity by promoting quack treatments and cures in the interest of personal gain."
Oz taped a message previewing his show where he said he knows he has alienated people in "our quest to make America healthy."
But he said freedom of speech is a fundamental right of Americans, and the other doctors are trying to silence him.
Columbia issued a statement last week saying only that the school "is committed to the principle of academic freedom and to upholding faculty members' freedom of expression for statements they make in public discussion."
As vice chair of Columbia's surgery department, Oz still occasionally teaches there, said Douglas Levy, spokesman for Columbia University Medical Center.
Oz first came to public attention as a frequent television guest of Oprah Winfrey. For the past five years, he's been the host of "The Dr. Oz Show."
Last year, he appeared before a U.S. Senate panel that accused him of endorsing products that were medically unsound. At the time, Oz acknowledged that some of the products he advised his viewers to use "don't have the scientific muster to present as fact."
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