{"id":1407744,"date":"2022-03-29T15:15:15","date_gmt":"2022-03-29T19:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1407744"},"modified":"2022-03-29T15:15:19","modified_gmt":"2022-03-29T19:15:19","slug":"busted-mehmet-ozs-claims-he-did-not-write-gun-control-columns-disintegrate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/busted-mehmet-ozs-claims-he-did-not-write-gun-control-columns-disintegrate\/","title":{"rendered":"Busted: Mehmet Oz\u2019s Claims He Did Not Write Gun Control Columns Disintegrate"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbusted-mehmet-ozs-claims-he-did-not-write-gun-control-columns-disintegrate%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1407744&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">Dr. Mehmet Oz, the liberal celebrity doctor running as a Republican for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, is under fire for his prior support for gun control in a series of columns he now publicly claims he did not write himself.<\/p>\n<p>The columns, which Oz co-authored with the Cleveland Clinic\u2019s Dr. Michael Roizen, show a years-long advocacy for gun control.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/dr-oz-denies-gun-control-advocacy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">columns<\/a> that Oz shared a byline on pushed extreme leftwing views in restricting the Second Amendment. One, in 2017, said it was \u201cScary!\u201d that as many as 3 million Americans have loaded handguns they carry every day while also promoting Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Democrat talking points that \u201chaving waiting periods for gun purchases saves about 1,700 lives every year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, in a 2014 column, Oz and Roizen promoted the false equivalency between firearm ownership and smoking, arguing that gun ownership was a threat to someone\u2019s health that doctors need to intervene aggressively to limit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDoctors aggressively advise patients not to smoke; and until the government embraces gun-safety measures (polls show that 79 percent of the population favors universal background checks for gun buyers), it\u2019s every doctor\u2019s responsibility to their patients and your responsibility to yourself and your family to reduce gun violence,\u201d Oz and Roizen wrote in July 2014. The headline of that column played right into the left\u2019s framing, saying explicitly: \u201cIs Gun Violence a Public Health Issue?\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>Oz and Roizen pushed gun control again in 2018 in a column where they advocated for stricter gun laws for public health reasons, writing that \u201cthere are twice as many pediatric firearm deaths in states with the most lenient gun regulations compared with states where gun laws are strictest.\u201d And again in 2019 they ran this as the headline of their column: \u201cImpact of gun violence hits Americans emotionally and financially.\u201d In it, they write \u201cnational legislation would be good\u201d\u2014backing Democrat pushes for federal gun control.<\/p>\n<p>That August 2019 Oz and Roizen column also shows the two doctors pushing to \u201c[m]ake gun purchaser licensing universal\u201d and urging their readers to pressure legislators to do so.<\/p>\n<p>Another <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/dr-oz-q-a-why-is-americas-health-ranking-so-poor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">column in 2013<\/a>, which has not been previously reported in the context of Oz\u2019s attempt to rebrand himself as a Republican in his bid for Senate, shows him and Roizen pushing\u2014again under the guise of public health\u2014for Americans to have \u201cless access to guns (that aren\u2019t designed for hunting).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After the columns resurfaced during Oz\u2019s bid for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, where Oz is now claiming to be a conservative despite a lifetime of leftist public positions on literally every major issue from life to transgenderism to immigration to guns, his co-author Roizen wrote a letter to Fox News claiming Oz did not personally write the gun control columns that bear both of their bylines due to other media commitments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDr. Oz and I have been media partners for almost 20 years, including our best-selling YOU books. We started working on a daily \u201cYouDocs\u201d newspaper column in 2007. When Dr. Oz shifted his focus to launch his show in 2009, I took over the sole management of this daily column,\u201d Roizen <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/dr-oz-denies-gun-control-advocacy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wrote<\/a> in his letter to Fox News.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>The Fox News report on the controversial Oz columns continues:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Roizen went on to state that there were \u201cseveral columns\u201d where he failed to clarify that the text reflected only his own opinion. Roizen\u2019s letter did not specify which or how many columns were erroneously attributed to both doctors, but sought to \u201cacknowledge periodic errors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen controversial topics arose, we were supposed to debate options. If we disagreed on an editorial direction, I would specify that \u2018Dr. Roizen\u2019 felt a certain way. We have found several columns where this process was not followed, I write to ensure that our agreement is part of the public record and acknowledge periodic errors,\u201d Roizen concluded.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Oz himself, according to a report in <a href=\"https:\/\/jewishinsider.com\/2022\/03\/dr-oz-mehmet-israel-turkey-foreign-policy-pennsylvania-senate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jewish Insider<\/a>, has also claimed that controversial columns like these and others pushing leftist environmentalist views on energy policy were written without his signoff. \u201cIt was an article written by a collaborator of mine that I did not see before he published it,\u201d Oz said of an article pushing Democrat positions on green energy. \u201cIf I had said things on my show, then it would be a whole different ball game. When you\u2019re running a media business, you delegate, you divide and conquer the challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>But here is the problem for Oz\u2014he cannot blame just the co-author of the column for the radical views he espoused on the Second Amendment in favor of gun control, because there are many other instances where Oz himself pushed gun control outside of the column. Perhaps most significantly, in 2018, Oz tweeted calling for a CDC study on \u201cgun violence in this country\u201d and said he thinks it is \u201ctime we view shootings as a public health problem.\u201d The tweet remains public on his Twitter profile, from which he is now campaigning as a U.S. Senate candidate claiming to be a Republican\u2013but from which just a couple of years ago he was pushing full-blown gun control:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Right now, the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CDCgov?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@CDCgov<\/a> is NOT funded to study gun violence in this country. It\u2019s time we treat shootings as a public health problem. Contact your congressperson today to demand they fund the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/CDC?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#CDC<\/a> to comprehensively study gun violence. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/EndTheBan?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#EndTheBan<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/iFDGMG7fI5\">https:\/\/t.co\/iFDGMG7fI5<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lZdMXW5zLC\">pic.twitter.com\/lZdMXW5zLC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dr. Mehmet Oz (@DrOz) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DrOz\/status\/973985581859422208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 14, 2018<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>This latest claim about his columns seems to have been invented by his U.S. Senate campaign when he needed an excuse to get out of the political liability of having written these intensely unpopular views\u2014but when it was convenient to his public image as a celebrity doctor friendly with the American political left, Oz celebrated his column.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B4\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>For instance, in a Thanksgiving piece for Time Magazine in 2013, Oz <a href=\"https:\/\/time100.time.com\/2013\/11\/25\/time-for-thanks\/slide\/mehmet-oz\/\">wrote<\/a> that he constantly runs into people who thank him for writing his column\u2014many of them by this point pushed these gun control ideas\u2014and he said he was proud to put his name on them. \u201cI get stopped by people who mention they learned something on my show or read my newspaper column and benefitted from it,\u201d Oz wrote of his columns with Roizen.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s more, the next year in 2014 when testifying before the U.S. Senate\u2019s Commerce Committee at a hearing on false and deceptive advertising of weight loss products, Oz touted the very columns he and Roizen advocated for gun control within. \u201cI publish a magazine called Dr. Oz The Good Life with Hearst and I have a newspaper column which run in more than 110 newspapers across the country,\u201d Oz told the U.S. Senate panel, per his opening statement <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commerce.senate.gov\/services\/files\/EB6D07FF-1307-4220-9BAE-381EC3220B30\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">published<\/a> by the committee.<\/p>\n<p>A 2010 New York Times <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/04\/18\/magazine\/18Oz-t.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">profile<\/a> from Frank Bruni also had Oz touting the columns he wrote with Roizen. \u201cOz is in magazines and newspapers. In February, he wrote what will be the first of six Prescription columns a year for Time magazine, which in 2008 included him in its annual list of the world\u2019s 100 most influential people,\u201d Bruni wrote. \u201cIn the fall he will start writing one column every other month for the AARP magazine. He reaches out to men with a monthly column for Esquire, to women with regular contributions to Winfrey\u2019s magazine. All of this comes on top of the newspaper writing that he and Roizen, under the \u2018You Docs\u2019 banner, produce for King Features Syndicate. This includes a 250-word \u2018daily tips\u2019 column, a weekly 650-word question-and-answer column and a separate weekly 650-word feature on a given health topic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A 2008 piece by the Telegraph-Journal interviewed Oz about the process for writing the column with Roizen, and says the two had a conference call every Sunday to discuss the content of the columns. \u201cWe laugh so hard on those Sunday calls,\u201d Oz said of his calls with Roizen to discuss column content. \u201cMy wife keeps thinking we\u2019re not actually working.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s not all: His <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drozshow.com\/st\/about-dr-oz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">own website\u2019s biography<\/a>, updated in 2020, specifically states Oz \u201cauthors a newspaper column syndicated by Hearst in 175 markets internationally.\u201d That website biography does not even say Roizen is involved in the column.<\/p>\n<p>Oz\u2019s side is not the only one that touts Oz\u2019s intricate involvement in these columns that pushed gun control\u2014Roizen\u2019s various biographies over the years have as well. In 2013 for instance, a <a href=\"https:\/\/newsroom.findlay.edu\/wellness-to-be-topic-of-presentation-by-dr-oz-show-medical-consultant\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">biography<\/a> of Roizen noted that he and Oz together \u201cwrite a monthly column for \u2018Success,\u2019 a quarterly column for the nursing magazine \u2018Every Woman\u2019 and a daily newspaper column syndicated to more than 130 newspapers by King Syndication.\u201d A 2020 event biography also specifically <a href=\"https:\/\/welibrary.evanced.info\/signup\/EventDetails?EventId=16653&#038;backTo=Calendar&#038;startDate=2020\/01\/01\">states<\/a> that among other things Roizen is \u201cwriting a daily newspaper column with Dr. Oz.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>King Features Syndicate, the part of Hearst that syndicated Oz and Roizen\u2019s joint column for years, as recently as November 2021\u2014the month Oz announced his U.S. Senate campaign\u2014advertised the column as co-written by both Oz and Roizen. The very next version of the column from King Features, in<a href=\"https:\/\/kingfeatures.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/KFS_Directory_2021_12-8-21-21.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> December 2021<\/a>, has just Roizen on it\u2014and that November version has been erased from the website of the syndicator but is still available to find in <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20211124140904\/https:\/\/kingfeatures.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/King_Features_Directory_2021.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">internet archives<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Part of why all of this is important is because Oz is claiming that he had nothing to do with the contents of the column for political reasons, but in other cases he made money off the contents of column. In fact, in 2015, Vox <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2015\/7\/25\/9036205\/dr-oz-het-hemorrhoid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a> that Oz raked in a hefty sum of more than $1 million for promoting a hemorrhoid treatment in his columns.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, Oz for years has aggressively fought back against false uses of his name to make money. In 2013, he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drozshow.com\/press\/dr-oz-show-launches-its-not-me-campaign-inform-and-warn-viewers-about-rogue-marketers-engaging\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">launched<\/a> \u201cOz Watch\u201d for people to report uses of his name and likeness by bad actors to make money\u2014and as recently as 2019 his efforts to fight fake endorsements using his likeness were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gainesville.com\/story\/lifestyle\/health-fitness\/2019\/04\/30\/dr-oz-leads-charge-against-false-celebrity-endorsements\/5308548007\/\">profiled<\/a> in news reports. But Oz never once, until he decided to run for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania and claim he is now a Republican and conservative, challenged the columns that bore his name in more than a hundred newspapers every day for over a decade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. Mehmet Oz, the liberal celebrity doctor running as a Republican for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, is under fire for his prior support for gun control in a series of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1407744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1407744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1407744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1407744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1407744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1407744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1407744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}