Oprah distances herself from Trump allies Dr Phil and Dr Oz, says they have ‘not one thing to do with me’

Oprah made both of these men famous. That's just fact. Dr. Phil got his start doing courtroom psychology bits on her show, Dr. Oz built his entire brand off her platform for years before he ever thought about running for Senate. Now that both of them have drifted toward Trump world, she wants Emmy Magazine readers to know they've got "not one thing to do with me" anymore. Fine. But it's a little rich to launch two guys into stardom, ride their popularity for a decade, and then act shocked when they don't end up voting the way you'd prefer.

What's actually interesting here isn't Oprah's annoyance, it's what the split says about where these two ended up. Dr. Oz became a Trump-endorsed candidate and later took a job in his administration. Dr. Phil has spent the last couple years doing sympathetic interviews and appearances that put him solidly in the populist-right media lane. That's not a small drift. That's two guys who spent decades in daytime television, about as safe and mainstream a lane as exists in media, deciding the country was moving somewhere they wanted to go too.

Oprah gets to say whatever she wants about her former proteges. But there's something telling in the fact that she felt the need to say it publicly, and in a trade magazine no less. It reads less like indifference and more like distancing for the record, the kind of statement that only matters if you're worried people are drawing a connection you don't like. If Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz really had nothing to do with her anymore, she wouldn't need to say so.