Former APA President Skewers Fox’s Psychiatrist Keith Ablow in AP Piece
I’m glad someone with academic clout is finally speaking out about Keith Ablow’s constant and unprofessional psychologizing of Obama to the red meat glee of Fox geezers. Ablow left the American Psychological Association back in 2011 (although he should have been kicked out like Paul Cameron), because Ablow believes transgender people (like Chaz Bono) are mentally ill and bad for society. He famously complained a few years ago on Fox News about children turning gay from watching Bono on Dancing with the Stars.
I also wish we had a category tag for “medical quackery.”
Fox’s Ablow regularly ‘diagnoses’ Obama
by David Bauder Nov. 6, 2014
NEW YORK (AP) — Over the years, psychiatrist Keith Ablow has diagnosed President Barack Obama as a man with abandonment issues dating back to his upbringing, a person with a victim’s mentality who secretly identifies more with Africa than America.
There’s no evidence that Ablow has actually treated the president. Yet the Fox News Channel analyst freely mixes psychiatric assessments with political criticism, a unique twist in the realm of cable news commentary that some medical colleagues find unethical.
Even some natural political allies object, although Tim Graham of the conservative Media Research Center noted in an interview that Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, was frequently criticized by journalists and political foes who speculated on “daddy issues” with his presidential father.
“Activists of all stripes should be able to agree that psychologizing from afar is not a strong suit of the media,” Graham said.
The 52-year-old Ablow, who has psychiatric practices in Massachusetts and New York and teaches at Tufts University, wasn’t available to talk about his Fox role, his office said. Fox representatives didn’t respond to requests for interviews.
He’s been a Fox contributor since 2007 after hosting a failed syndicated talk show. Identified as a member of the Fox News Medical A-Team, he hosts a regular segment about behavior titled “Normal or Nuts?” on the “Fox & Friends” morning show. There were published reports this fall that the network had extended his contract.
Rival news networks CNN and MSNBC say they don’t have a psychiatrist-commentator under contract. CNN said the closest thing it has to something similar is when profilers come on the air to discuss the mental characteristics of people who commit dramatic crimes, for example. The network said medical experts don’t get into politics, but others can have different interpretations. The MRC’s Graham said opinion often drifts in when television medical correspondents comment on aspects of Obama’s health care plan.
More at AP Big Story