The Link Wow. I had no idea. It seems as though Oprah invites whack jobs to discuss their snake-oil cures, and even endorses them herself.
While I have zero sympathy for Oprah, and I think most of the things in the article are true, this article can only be described as an attack article, which Newsweek of the 1990's would have never stooped so low.
The worship of pop stars like Brad Pitt, Anniston, A. Kutcher pales in comparison to the idolatry that Oprah induces. It's mind sickening to watch 35-55 year old women with no guiding principles get sucked into her bipolar and flippant views on life, health, culture and success. She reminds me of a very public Howard Hughes. I wonder when she starts wearing the Kleenex boxes for shoes.
I would bet about a million dollars that Jay Leno has disinfectant in his pockets that he runs on his hands after greeting the crowd. I have watched him for years cleanse and run his disinfected hands dry. I guess if I had to get an endorsment I would take that silly Oprah over Rush...
I don't think Newsweek is stooping low. Oprah has a huge impact in a lot of people's lives. It's not just a magazine against a celebrity. Newsweek is writing about a cultural problem.
My wife has fallen victim to the whole Oprah mindset and has even started efforts to build a business designed to defraud people into subscribing to a website with links to pithy jingles, psychic charlatains who tell you stuff about what yor dead mother is thinking for you (something she never did when she was alive) and who will adjust the chakras of people they have never met before, but won't use their powers to help people like the US President without HIS permission, or will reveal the secrets of how the appropriate use of color will lead to vast material riches. This from someone who can't even grasp the most basic concepts of Feng Shui. My inability to hide my disdain has caused much discord (if not the outright end of our marriage). I'm pretty sure now it must have also caused me to have thyroid problems from swallowing my words. That and Central Market Take-out which is what gets served when it's not my turn to cook.
Reasonable people can disagree about this being an attack piece. However, I would argue that Oprah is the single most powerful figure in the US (and world) media, and can use her daily television show, 24 hour a day sirius channel, and monthly magazine to adequately defend herself from any unfair attacks.
NewDoc- you'll live a lot longer if you just ignore certain posters. Oh sure, the 10% of them that are one paragraph or less might be accidentally read, but with a little practice you can usually recognize those too and train yourself to skip them. As far as the OP, Newsweek better hope it does not have many female readers, because it is about to lose them. The whole Oprah effect on women stuns me. If we could somehow convince her to do a show on the benefits of steaks and BJs, we would all be in heaven.
I recognized that Oprah was completely full of **** at the age of 14. She had this real expert (for a change) on school bus safety a couple days after this highly publicized bus accident happened and hurt a lot of kids. Of course whenever accidents like those happen, the "debate" over seat belts comes up instantly. She asked the expert (and I repeat, he really was an expert) about seat belts, and he said something to the effect of "after years of researching this, we've concluded that if we were to install seat belts on school buses, they would do more harm to children in an accident than it would in buses with no seatbelts," to which Oprah replied, and I quote "yeah, but it's better than nothing." And of course the women in the audience jumped up and screamed and thunderously applauded.
I can't answer either of the 2 questions, but I can tell you where to catch Dorado and Dolphinfish off the Texas Coast.
You know, I was going to say dolphin, but thought it might confuse people. I should have said dorado. I blame my Californian wife, the Midwest, and crappy Costco packaging.
Like attracts like. Oprah is popuar because she's not very smart, likes simple answers, wants evil villans to hate and cuddly heros to love. Just like her audience of stay at home tools who don't have 1. Jobs 2. Schoolwork 3. Anything important to do during the day. Another point I've heard, and it sounds logical, is her being black allows white women to feel like they have a black friend, and so are wonderfully diverse and such foolishness. WIth regards to Newsweek, don't worry about them losing their female readership. They don't have any readers to lose. I don't even see them lined up in the impluse buy section at the checkout line of the grocery story any more. That space is now used by another gossip mag. Buy hey, maybe their bold plan to raise their price and cut back on cirucation will prove successful!
