Dr. Mehmet Oz often appears on his popular show to promote new health products and devices. Most viewers are likely under the impression that he's doing this because he's closely considered their merits and decided the products are widely beneficial. 
 
 But newly leaked emails suggest that business considerations — not health or science — can be a driving factor in which products Oz decides to promote. 
 
 Last week, WikiLeaks released a series of emails sent between Dr. Oz, his staff, and executives at Sony (one of his show's producers). They shed some light on how Dr. Oz's daily talk show works behind the scenes. 
 
 
 
 Dr. Oz talks about promoting the products of Sony, one of his show's producers 
 
 In a January 2014 email, for instance, Dr. Oz reaches out to Michael Lynton, the CEO of Sony Entertainment, about his interest in wearable fitness and health tracking devices. 
 
 "I have been carefully following the wearable device market and am pretty close to consummating a longer term relationship, but just saw the piece below quoting Kaz Hirai [the president and CEO of Sony] and realized that Sony is moving into the space as well," Oz writes in an email. "We should leverage the Sony-driven success of our TV show into other arenas where Sony thrives, like health hardware." 
 
 
 
 The email suggests Dr. Oz is planning to use his platform on the show to help expand Sony's fitness and health tracking devices market. Oz doesn't mention health considerations. He mostly seems excited about the business synergy with Sony, one of the producers of his show. 
 
 It's worth recalling that Oz has built a massive international audience as a man of medicine, even trademarking the moniker "America's Doctor." But the Sony correspondence suggests that behind the scenes, Oz is often concerned with more than just the health of his viewers — there's also the financial health of one of the show's producers to consider. 
 
 Emails show both Sony and Oz's staff are worried about Oz's growing critics 
 
 There were also a number of revealing emails about Oz's testimony before a Senate commerce subcommittee hearing last June, during which Sen. Claire McCaskill admonished Oz for promoting bogus health claims. 
 
 
 
 One email suggested Sony was concerned the hearing might compromise future business prospects around Oz. 
 
 In this correspondence, Keith Weaver, ‎executive vice president for worldwide government affairs at Sony, writes: "Dr. Oz has not entered into a paid sponsorship arrangement to date, but would like to explore doing so in the future. We have apprised the appropriate parties of the risks associated with the future plans, as well as specific criticisms of Dr. Oz's role in the national conversation about health that could emerge in the hearing or in subsequent coverage." 
 
 Other documents revealed that representatives of the Dr. Oz Show met with McCaskill's office before Oz's appearance at the hearing. Those staffers weighed whether Oz should make the appearance. According to one email, it was Oz who pushed to appear despite concerns at another of the show's producers, Harpo, about the potential negative public relations fallout. 
 
 "we should not give the media who looks at Oz like [a] snake oil salesman right now any fodder" 
 
 "It's also worth noting for the record that Harpo's counsel is not in favor of Oz participating, especially when he's not legally obligated to do so," wrote Denise Beaudoin, the legal and business affairs counsel to The Dr. Oz Show, in an email. "They do not see the value of getting involved unless compelled by subpoena because there's always the potential for downside (no matter how slight)." 
 
 Other WikiLeaks emails showed that Oz's PR team was worried about any publicity that could make the TV star look like a charlatan at a time when he was already under fire. 
 
 
 
 As Sheraton Kalouria, chief marketing officer at Sony Pictures Television, wrote in an email, "We feel we should not give the media who looks at Oz like [a] snake oil salesman right now any fodder to further this perception." 
 
 
 
 In a phone conversation on Sunday night, Oz declined to answer Vox's questions about the specifics of the emails. 

 Received: from usculsndmail13v.am.sony.com (146.215.230.104) by ussdixhub21.spe.sony.com (43.130.141.76) with Microsoft SMTP Server id 8.3.297.1; Fri, 10 Jan 2014 07:21:12 -0800 Received: from usculsndmail03v.am.sony.com ([160.33.194.230]) by usculsndmail13v.am.sony.com (Sentrion-MTA-4.2.2/Sentrion-MTA-4.2.2) with ESMTP id s0AFKlJb026004 for <Michael_Lynton@spe.sony.com>; Fri, 10 Jan 2014 15:20:48 GMT Received: from mail240-tx2-R.bigfish.com (mail-tx2.bigfish.com [65.55.88.113]) by usculsndmail03v.am.sony.com (Sentrion-MTA-4.2.2/Sentrion-MTA-4.2.2) with ESMTP id s0AFKliO025873 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=RC4-SHA bits=128 verify=FAIL) for <Michael_Lynton@spe.sony.com>; Fri, 10 Jan 2014 15:20:47 GMT Received: from mail240-tx2 (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mail240-tx2-R.bigfish.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0940B803BB for <Michael_Lynton@spe.sony.com>; Fri, 10 Jan 2014 15:20:47 +0000 (UTC) X-Forefront-Antispam-Report: CIP:17.172.204.240;KIP:(null);UIP:(null);IPV:NLI;H:st11p01mm-asmtp005.mac.com;RD:st11p01mm-asmtpout005.mac.com;EFVD:NLI X-SpamScore: 0 X-BigFish: vps0(z569dhzc85fhzz1f42h2148h208ch1ee6h1de0h1fdah2073h2146h1202h1e76h2189h1d1ah1d2ah1fc6hzz172c6chz2fh839hd25he5bh1288h12a5h12bdh137ah139eh13eah1441h1504h1537h162dh1631h1662h1758h1898h18e1h1946h19b5h1b0ah1b2bh1bceh224fh1d0ch1d2eh1d3fh1dc1h1dfeh1dffh1e1dh1e23h1fe8h1ff5h2052h20b3h20f0h2218h2216h226dh2327h2336h2438h1155h) X-FFO-Routing-Override: spe.sony.com%sentrionwest-1422.customer.frontbridge.com; Received-SPF: pass (mail240-tx2: domain of me.com designates 17.172.204.240 as permitted sender) client-ip=17.172.204.240; envelope-from=mehmetoz@me.com; helo=st11p01mm-asmtp005.mac.com ;p005.mac.com ; Received: from mail240-tx2 (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by mail240-tx2 (MessageSwitch) id 1389367244193130_18034; Fri, 10 Jan 2014 15:20:44 +0000 (UTC) Received: from TX2EHSMHS025.bigfish.com (unknown [10.9.14.254]) by mail240-tx2.bigfish.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2046D4008F for <Michael_Lynton@spe.sony.com>; Fri, 10 Jan 2014 15:20:44 +0000 (UTC) Received: from st11p01mm-asmtp005.mac.com (17.172.204.240) by TX2EHSMHS025.bigfish.com (10.9.99.125) with Microsoft SMTP Server id 14.16.227.3; Fri, 10 Jan 2014 15:20:40 +0000 Received: from sppsnmhp2010598.itps.supportbyitps.com (custnets-66-43-89-2.rinc.net [66.43.89.2]) by st11p01mm-asmtp005.mac.com (Oracle Communications Messaging Server 7u4-27.08(7.0.4.27.7) 64bit (built Aug 22 2013)) with ESMTPSA id <0MZ600000YM84IA0@st11p01mm-asmtp005.mac.com> for Michael_Lynton@spe.sony.com; Fri, 10 Jan 2014 15:20:37 +0000 (GMT) X-Proofpoint-Virus-Version: vendor=fsecure engine=2.50.10432:5.11.87,1.0.14,0.0.0000 definitions=2014-01-10_05:2014-01-10,2014-01-10,1970-01-01 signatures=0 X-Proofpoint-Spam-Details: rule=notspam policy=default score=0 spamscore=0 suspectscore=2 phishscore=0 adultscore=0 bulkscore=0 classifier=spam adjust=0 reason=mlx scancount=1 engine=7.0.1-1308280000 definitions=main-1401100083 From: Mehmet Oz <mehmetoz@me.com> Subject: wearable devices Message-ID: <5F217CA8-689A-448C-B474-FF32197EDAF7@me.com> Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2014 10:20:31 -0500 To: Lynton Michael <Michael_Lynton@spe.sony.com> X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1510) Return-Path: mehmetoz@me.com Status: RO MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="--boundary-LibPST-iamunique-1646860881_-_-" ----boundary-LibPST-iamunique-1646860881_-_- Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii" <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> <HTML> <HEAD> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> <META NAME="Generator" CONTENT="MS Exchange Server version 08.03.0279.000"> <TITLE>wearable devices</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> <!-- Converted from text/rtf format --> <P><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Arial">I have been carefully following the wearable device market and am pretty close to consummating a longer term relationship, but just saw the piece below quoting Kaz Hirai and realized that SONY is moving into the space as well. We should leverage the SONY-driven success of our TV show into other arenas where SONY thrives, like health hardware. If you agree, how do you suggest we proceed? Could you jump start the process with an appropriate introduction to someone involved with the "Core" initiative? </FONT></SPAN></P> <BR> <BR> <P><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Arial">"At this year's International CES, the most valuable real estate isn't the prime exhibit areas in the huge halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center. It's you. Hundreds of products that clip, snap, strap and bolt onto your body have made their debut at the show this week as companies place bets that wearable gadgets will be the next big thing.</FONT></SPAN></P> <P><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Arial">Their promise is alluring. Want to check your gait and make sure you're not putting too much pressure on your knee joints? There's a wearable for that. Want to make sure your kids don't stray off course on the way to school? There's a wearable for that. Want to monitor your skin's exposure to ultra-violet radiation? There's a wearable for that. At CES, there seems to be a wearable for almost everything.</FONT></SPAN></P> <P><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Arial">The frenzy of excitement by gadget makers was explained by Kaz Hirai, president and CEO of Sony. "You have only two wrists and one head; you can't wear 10 different products," he told reporters on Tuesday. "Once you secure someone's wrist with a particular product, they'll usually stick with it. The barrier to entry is high, but once you secure it, it becomes [yours]." Sony used CES to unveil a tiny gadget called Core, a wearable sensor that communicates via Bluetooth with an Android smartphone and feeds data into a "Lifelog." The application builds a profile of your day and can tell you how much sleep you got, how many steps you took, show you where you went and tell you what music you listened to.</FONT></SPAN></P> <P><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Arial">Hirai noted something that's easily lost amid the cacophony of CES halls and the glitz of the new-product presentations."There's a lot of potential in this space, [but] the jury is still out on which applications will really compel consumers to go out and wear these products," he said. Many of the products at CES will likely fade into obscurity and not change lives forever as their marketing slogans insist.</FONT></SPAN></P> <P><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Arial">"2014 is the year of wearables, not so much for sales but because it will be the year for vendors to get stuff out and see what works," said Carolina Milanesi, a director at Kantor World Panel. "They're trying to get consumers to go from thinking, 'That's nice but do I want to spend $300 on it?' to 'Wow, I really need that.' " So far, the consumer response has been mixed. Fitness trackers have proved popular with those who work out, but the more expensive and flashy gadgets, like smartwatches, have yet to arouse widespread interest. That will change this year, according to an October report by Juniper Research. The company forecasts that 2014 will be the breakthrough year for wearable devices, with the market generating over $1.5 billion."</FONT></SPAN></P> </BODY> </HTML> ----boundary-LibPST-iamunique-1646860881_-_---
– Last week a group of doctors penned a complaint to Columbia University about Dr. Mehmet Oz, griping he shouldn't be vice chair of the college's surgery department due to his questionable medical advice and "outrageous conflicts of interest." Now Oz is planning to "aggressively" take on criticism on Thursday's The Dr. Oz Show, a show spokesman tells the New York Times. The rep says Oz won't dedicate the entire hour to the controversy, but the segment will "run longer than is typical for a lead item," as the Times puts it. One of Oz's expected topics, per the spokesman: his stance on genetically modified foods. Oz defended himself last week on Facebook, stating that his show "[provides] multiple points of view, including mine which is offered without conflict of interest. That doesn't sit well with certain agendas which distort the facts." One of those "agendas" is what the letter to Columbia referred to as Oz's "baseless and relentless opposition to the genetic engineering of food crops." Oz clarified his beliefs in the Facebook post, explaining, "I do not claim that GMO foods are dangerous, but believe that they should be labeled like they are in most countries." Oz is planning to dig into the credibility of some of the letter's authors via their links to a pro-GMO advocacy group, notes the show rep. He may have other explaining to do as well: Vox published an article yesterday citing WikiLeaks-exposed emails between Oz, his staff, and Sony (one of his show's producers) in which Oz's desire to promote Sony health and fitness products appears to be a business-driven decision, not a health-driven one. (Oz has previously defended his right to use "flowery language" to the Senate.)