Dr. Phil: DB

Next we'll learn that Nancy Pelosi is like, a really bad person and not the sweet, obsessed with plastic surgery megalomaniac we have all come to know and love.

LOS ANGELES (March 24) — A shoplifting case that began with a televised confession on the “Dr. Phil” show led a San Diego judge Monday to condemn TV personality Phil McGraw as “a terrible, terrible man” and “a charlatan.”

District Court Judge Irma Gonzalez unloaded on Dr. Phil as she sentenced a couple to prison for running a $100,000 shoplifting ring in which they used their three young children as decoys, and sold the stolen merchandise through Web sites. The couple discussed their exploits on a “Dr. Phil” episode, “Shoplifting Confessions,” in November 2008.

The Eatons went on the TV show to get help ending their compulsion to shoplift, but show officials pressed them to exaggerate their exploits, their lawyer told the court, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. The couple brought along a home video of one of their trips, using the children to distract store clerks, and seemed more interested in bragging than in getting help giving up their livelihood, according to earlier reports.

“What a charlatan this man is,” the judge was quoted as saying during the sentencing. “What a terrible, terrible man.”