Dr. Phil: Colleges wouldn't know free speech if it 'bit them' in the butt
Dr. Phil McGraw sounds off on 'Hannity' after UPenn's president resigns over antisemitism controversy.
Television host Dr. Phil McGraw reamed out Ivy League schools like Harvard, UPenn and MIT after their faculty leaders' widely criticized responses in a House hearing on campus antisemitism.
McGraw said responses from figures like Harvard President Claudine Gay to Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., on whether virulent antisemitic behavior violates codes of conduct were "disgusting."
He cited how the general response from the presidents was to point to free speech concerns and delineate speech calling for Jewish genocide from the actual heinous act.
"It's so hypocritical to hear Harvard talking about, 'Well, it's free speech,'" McGraw said. "They wouldn't know free speech if it came up and bit them in the a--."
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He cited a report from FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression) ranking Harvard 248th out of 248 universities surveyed for free speech protections.
"They had to set up an entire new category for them, they were so abysmal at it," he said.
"They don't do free speech. They do their speech."
McGraw said there are exceptions to free speech, including incitement of violence, which he accused antisemitic activists on campus of committing.
He said such colleges also are not stopping students from intimidating Jewish students and disrupting classes, but instead claiming such behavior doesn't violate policies.
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"That's insane," he said. "This is a double standard, and Claudine Gay is just a symptom of the problem as well as the perpetrator of the problem. This cuts really deep into these Ivy League universities."
While universities appear more concerned about parsing this particular issue, McGraw continued, about one-third of gradeschool students cannot read at their age level, and yet they are being passed by their teachers to the next grade, while the same educators want to talk about extraneous issues.
"It's happening from the primary grades up through college is, you're right, they're running their own woke agendas, and that is absolutely unacceptable," he said. "And these people that are counseling these students on these issues, whether they're psychological or medical, don't have training in psychology."
McGraw added he does not blame the rank-and-file teachers and professors for such failures, but instead the teachers unions and policymakers in the administration.
McGraw later announced that he is launching a new program, "Dr. Phil Primetime" on his new cable network Merit Street Media in February 2024.
In a statement on his website, McGraw said the name "Merit Street Media" is a portmanteau of the "meritocracy" on which America was founded, and the quintessential idea of an American "Main Street" where the working people live.