Shirley, you crack me up.
I like Oprah’s magazine, too. In fact, I subscribed to it rather guiltily for a year. It’s kind of corny, but I found the magazine to be upbeat and inspiring.
And if you know me, you know I don’t usually go for that kind of shit. 
I think people who bash her selections have never actually looked at the list. They think, “Oh, Oprah targets overweight, stay-at-home mothers who live in suburbia. They couldn’t POSSIBLY be reading anything substantive. Heh heh.”
And that’s why, even though I’m not a fan of the woman (who’s personality can be quite grating), I can’t hate on her too much. Pissing off snobs is always a great thing.
Someone mentioned in another thread that most books selected for her book club end up only being published in the edition with her emblem on the cover, and their customers were inevitably irritated by this. There’s something really amusing to me about all these people who get upset because they want to make sure that folks who see them reading these books don’t think they’re fans of her book club. I can’t help but laugh when I think of dicks like that getting upset because literature they enjoy is being appreciated by a wider audience.
Just for the record, the feedback from my mostly white, mostly middle-class, suburban, stay-at-home Mommy friends (some hard-working, literate, educated women BTW) is that Oprah’s show (aired in Chicago already this a.m.) moved them to tears. They knew it had been bad for survivors, but learned it was worse than they could’ve imagined. This group has already “adopted” one displaced family, and is making plans to do more.
I’ll grant you that Oprah isn’t perfect - I quit watching her show when she veered back into “star-studded celebrities picking their noses!” - but she is nonetheless extraordinary. This type of issue is right up her alley.
Well, whether you think Oprah is a philanthropist or an attention whore, she’s got a Hurricane Katrina special on right now (4:00 EST).
So what I’m getting is, people won’t read unless Oprah tells them to read, and people can watch the news, but they’re incapable of comprehending anything that’s going on, or feeling any compassion for the victims, until Oprah tells them to. People can’t imagine anything until Oprah imagines it for them?
And I’m a tool?
Only if you insist, levdrakon.
Your continued biased and inaccurate spin will do nothing to alleviate that impression.
Yes. Dr. Phil should be disposed of. The rest of this post, I disagree with. I’m a fan of Oprah for many of the same reasons listed here. The hard part about being a celebrity is everything you do will be examined under a microscope and heavily criticized. I do not put her on the same boat (or makeshift raft, as it were) as Sean Penn who scurried down there with a camera man and PR crew. Oprah has used her wealth and fame for good, and hasn’t exploited poor and desperate people for photo ops.
Plus I can’t help but to have a lot of admiration for someone who takes nothing but the dirt beneath her shoes and turns it into something. A whole lot of something. By the way, I can go either way on her show. I’m not home for daytime TV anyway.
You’re a tool if you believe what you just wrote.
Boy, that’s really stupid.
I just finished watching the Oprah show. I don’t have cable and rarely watch network news. So I missed the vast majority of the coverage. But I appreciated the way her show, her interviews, and her reporters gave the survivors (and victims) of this flood some dignity.
As someone who thinks Oprah is a pretty great role model for just about everyone, I still found the OP to be hilarious.
Well, Oprah’s on right now, and today I’m watching it.
So far as the show starts: People crying. Oprah consoling people. Oprah kissing a baby. Deep voiced dramatic voiceover: “Our Angel Network Team™ hits the ground, Jamie Fox, Julia Roberts, Faith Hill, Chris Rock, Matthew McConaughey, Lisa Marie Presley, John Travolta, Gayle King, Nate Berkus, Lisa Ling, and medical expert Dr. Oz (shown lifting someone who appears to be a parapalegic. From the Astrodome in Houston, an Oprah special report.”
Hey, if this woman runs for president, I’ll vote for her. Bush needs to hire her production people and form his own Angel Network Team™.
Look, *Sleezestack you don’t fucking know me. I’ve flown on C-141s escorting tons of food, medicine and blankets to areas that needed it, and I personally coordinated with local (foreign) authorities to make sure the supplies got to the people who needed them and didn’t end up being sold on the black market.
So fucko offo. I didn’t need to see people crying to do it. Humanitarian aid was part of my job. What the fuck have you done in your life, other than watch Oprah with a box of Kleenex at your side?
Uh, yeah. If you actually believe what you wrote, then you shouldn’t be pitting Oprah. You should be pitting her fans.
And while you’re at it, pit every talk show host from John Stewart to Howard Stern. Oprah’s not the only one who has a Borg-like following, ya know. And at least compared to her daytime TV peers, she’s committed to doing positive stuff. It might be self-serving and attention-whoring, but the net effect is still positive.
I don’t get it. If you don’t like Oprah’s show, do as I do and don’t watch the show*. Pissing on her fans and pissing on her (for non-pissable offenses) is lame-o behavior.
[sub]*I used to watch the show back in the day, when she wasn’t above having “freak show” topics. But the show kinda jumped the shark when she started finding her spirit and kept having the same set of “experts” like Dr. Phil and that crazy Iyanla Vansant (sp?) woman . Personally, I miss all the transvestites married to Chinese racists who worship Satan. She needs to bring them back.[/sub]
Me too. I held it together and didn’t cry until I saw this show. CNN and its ilk are too focused on sensationalism to pull out the actual depth of suffering these people are experiencing, and I think Oprah did a lot with this episode to make viewers relate to the victims – which I am certain will help drag in more money and help from people who haven’t thought of helping.
More on-topic, I can’t imagine anyone thinking anything like this about Oprah, for God’s sake. She can be irritating, and she can be sanctimonious, but you cannot deny the good she’s done in this world, so here’s a hearty fuck you to levdrakon.
Off-topic to monstro – I hated the mid-90s “Finding Your Spirit” shit too, but it’s largely gone these days. Iyanla and Phil don’t appear much any more, either.
Oh ferchristssake, no one’s judging her on the good she’s done.
I’m judging her for putting the most pathetic victims on her show and wringing some tears out of them for your viewing pleasure. Admit it. You get off on it and you excuse it because she “does good.”
Yes. When Oprah end her show by surprising a woman by reuniting her with her family and they tearfully reunite, crying and screaming, i do get off on that. Where you and I differ – as I suspect many of us do – is characterizing these people as “most pathetic victims.”
What are you saying? That we shouldn’t be allowed to see the individual consequences of natural disasters on TV? How about in person? Maybe we should all stay away from hospitals, deathbeds, and funerals. Let’s stop Jerry Lewis from doing that telethon while we’re at it, and no more community fund-raisers for the guy who has cancer. Stop interviewing family members of dead soldiers. Because Og forbid, somebody might get off on their suffering!
Face it. Putting a face to tragedy is a good thing. Video of flooded streets and piles of rubble isn’t going to open people’s hearts (and pocketbooks) nearly as much as seeing a little kid crying for his momma.
Well, since this was part of your job, that probably means you got paid for it. I’ve known plenty of people like this. They mostly do not perform this work for altruistic reasons, but are just adrenaline junkies and see this as a way to feed their addiction and collect travel stories while getting paid. Then they triumphantly return home, the great white hunter, to tell their tales of wonder. And of course lord it over everyone else. Have you perfected your 1000 yard stare yet? You have seen things the rest of us can’t possibly imagine living our pathetic suburban lives. Oh, they usually treat the locals like crap too.
Of course you may not be one of those type. In that case, god bless. You are a wonderful human being.
I see you watch Oprah too.