Come on -- you were like me, thought Dr. Phil couldn't possibly look any sleazier than he already has. Were we ever wrong:
BARTOW, Fla. — As talk-show host Dr. Phil McGraw took heat for bailing out one of the girls charged in a vicious beating of a classmate, it emerged that show executives feel they were embarrassed by a low-level producer.
McGraw's executive staff sent a seasoned producer down to Florida along with a production assistant to work on the story of eight teens who allegedly beat a classmate and filmed it so they could post it on YouTube, TMZ reported.
[. . .]
The show issued a statement saying certain staff members "went beyond their guidelines," but according to TMZ, the word at Paramount is that it would be impossible for the producer to pay the $3,300 for the bail and put up $33,000 in collateral without the full knowledge and approval of higher-ups on the show.
It's not even the slimy exploitation of the beating -- just the kind of publicity the idiot teens were probably looking for -- that's the worst. It's the obvious sacrificing of a "low-level" staffer to protect the schmucks who really were doing this.
