In a statement Friday that was as defensive as it was disjointed, conservative shrink Keith Ablow railed against those who would question his politically charged psychiatry.
“As a psychiatrist, news commentator, and medical professional, my analysis is accurate. I stand by what I have said,” said Ablow, the biggest race hustler on Fox News. “Psychiatrists are uniquely situated to comment on political figures, and the interface of politics and psychology is improved by psychological analysis.”
The statement (posted below) was emailed Friday to TPM by public relations guru Ronn Torossian, who said it was in “response to biased national wire stories.” It seems that it was a profile published Thursday by the Associated Press that rankled Ablow.
The AP’s David Bauder opened the piece by noting the unusual nature of Ablow’s shtick. Bauder wrote that Ablow, the star of the Fox News Medical A-Team, has diagnosed President 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,” Bauder continued. “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.”
The article left Ablow pretty steamed and apparently mad enough to fire back with an angry missive. His statement was littered with self-serving references to his credentials, and denunciations of “Obama’s America.” In other words, it was vintage Ablow.
“The CIA, FBI and law enforcement authorities worldwide employ psychiatrists to profile world leaders,” Ablow said, defending what Bauder had characterized as his “armchair analyses” of President Obama.
Ablow said that media reports indicated that “the 2012 President Obama campaign” had actually hired “a team of behavioral scientists, including psychologists, to work on his campaign – for which they signed non-disclosure agreements.”
Ablow asserted that his commentary has been “entirely accurate.”
“President Obama provided the data for my commentary through his statements and actions,” he said.
More from Ablow’s statement:
As a medical professional it is readily apparent that a President who tours the world apologizing for America, who was part of a church in which the pastor preached “God damn America!” and who admonished American entrepreneurs that they did not build their own businesses is a President who has issues with the nation of which he is President. The use of selected and edited comments of mine to attempt to “shoot the messenger” is an unfair attempt to impair my credibility.
Ablow also took aim at a person he described as his “nemesis,” Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman, the chairman of psychiatry at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, who was quoted in the AP’s story.
“It is shameful and unfortunate that he is given a platform by Fox News or any other media organization,” Lieberman said. “Basically he is a narcissistic self-promoter of limited and dubious expertise.”
Ablow didn’t take kindly to that.
“Lieberman condemned me as a ‘narcissistic self-promoter,’ yet he has never interviewed me,” Ablow said. ” From where does this analysis come?”
“My commentary is accurate,” he said in closing, “and I will continue to speak truth to power.”
“As a psychiatrist, news commentator, and medical professional, my analysis is accurate. I stand by what I have said. Psychiatrists are uniquely situated to comment on political figures, and the interface of politics and psychology is improved by psychological analysis.
The CIA, FBI and law enforcement authorities worldwide employ psychiatrists to profile world leaders. Bestselling books have been written by mental health professionals profiling world leaders. Media reports indicate that the 2012 President Obama campaign hired a team of behavioral scientists, including psychologists, to work on his campaign – for which they signed non-disclosure agreements.
While some may be offended by my commentary, it is, nevertheless entirely accurate.
President Obama provided the data for my commentary through his statements and actions.As a medical professional it is readily apparent that a President who tours the world apologizing for America, who was part of a church in which the pastor preached “God damn America!” and who admonished American entrepreneurs that they did not build their own businesses is a President who has issues with the nation of which he is President. The use of selected and edited comments of mine to attempt to “shoot the messenger” is an unfair attempt to impair my credibility.
I am apparently joined by my nemesis Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman in rejecting the APA position that psychiatrists ought not comment on public figures. Lieberman condemned me as a “narcissistic self-promoter,” yet he has never interviewed me. From where does this analysis come?
My commentary is accurate, and I will continue to speak truth to power.”
