A Senate committee headed by Senator McCaskill has gone after deceptive weight loss products. One of her targets is a popular television doctor known on the Oprah network as “Doctor Oz. ” Doctor Mehmet Oz, a professor of surgery at Columbia University, is known for frequently featuring on his show products that some other health professionals think are questionable.

McCaskill questions why a legitimate doctor would seemingly promote questionable products. “My job…is to be a cheerleader for the audience and when they don’t think they have hope…I do look everywhere including alternative healing traditions for any evidence that might be supportive of them,” he says.

Oz says he’s often a victim of weight loss scammers who take his comments out of context and make it appear he endorses their products. He says he endorses no products, but does promote so-called alternative products on his show if he thinks they work.   At the end of the hearing, though, he has told the committee he’ll choose his words more carefully.

Hearing part 1 23:47

AUDIO: hearing 2 2:33

AUDIO: hearing part 3 2:33

AUDIO: hearing part 4 26:22