Dr Phil McGraw – America’s favorite unlicensed syndicated clinical psychologist – made the good faith rounds on the morning news shows today, trying to defend himself over the unprofessional comments he made about his bedside visit with Britney Spears (and promote his 1,000th show).

First, he popped by Good Morning America and although he admitted he was no longer licensed to provide a real diagnosis or professional feedback, Dr. Phil (again) said “[Britney] needs to be in in-patient care.”

And — again — even though he’s talking like a professional, that doesn’t mean the best-selling self-help guru has to adhere to doctor-patient confidentiality. He was happy to share with the Diane Sawyer-watching world: “I hear now that Britney is seeing someone and is getting some help and I hope that’s true.”

During the well-rehearsed diatribe, which he repeated almost word-for-word minutes later on the Today show, Dr. Phil claimed that he “never reached out or initiated contact with the Spears family. Lynne reached out to me over a year ago.” When asked if he apologized to Lynne or anyone in the Spears camp, Phil said, “my wife talks to Lynne much more than I do.”

The not-doctor, who still maintains the deceptive “Dr.” prefix, said he made the public statement about his visit with Britney at Cedars-Sinai “because I wanted to stop speculation about what went on there. I didn’t say anything in the statement that I hadn’t said before.” He also claimed that at no point were they trying to stage an intervention.

Matt Lauer was smart to grill him on whether Phil McGraw, TV producer, saw publicity written all over the Spears’ invitation to speak with Britney. “It didn’t cross my mind,” he said during his second promotional tour publicizing the visit.

Source, WENN