On Tuesday, Dr. Phil, drawling psychologist to the masses, posted a tweet that some interpreted as, at best, tone-deaf and, at worst, a tacit encouragement for date rape. "If a girl is drunk, is it okay to have sex with her?" someone from his account tweeted at 5:49 p.m. "Reply yes or no to @drphil #teensaccused."
"If Dr. Phil is drunk, is it okay for him to tweet?" responded one follower. Another wondered, "If a person is a mysognyist [sic], is it okay to just refer to him as 'Dr. Phil' from now on?" Within a few hours, Oprah Winfrey's former acolyte became thoroughly detested online. Then he compounded the situation by committing what has become an unpardonable sin in the public venues through which we conduct discourse: He deleted the tweet.
On his timeline, the comment no longer appears, but other Twitter users made sure it wasn't gone. "Hey, @DrPhil, if someone deletes his tweet, is it okay to post a screen shot of it?" queried a user who attached a cached image. Others were more direct: "@DrPhil is a bloody coward and has since deleted the tweet."