Oprah: Can We Trust Her Judgment?

Is there a human in our country that does not know Oprah is out stumping for Obama? Maybe, but very few. I have been wondering: Just how much can we trust her judgment? Let’s recap.

First, there was her infamous statement in 1996, while in Cattle Country, Texas: "It has just stopped me cold from eating another burger!" Naturally, the cattlemen sued her and Howard Lyman ("Mad Cow Disease" Guest). Ok, so that’s how she met Dr. Phil McGraw, so that mistake turned out well after her long trial with the cattlemen of Texas.

Next, there was the major guffaw of James Frey and his supposedly true story,
A Million Little Pieces. In an October 26 show entitled "The Man Who Kept Oprah Awake At Night," Winfrey hailed Frey's graphic and coarse book as "like nothing you've ever read before. Everybody at Harpo is reading it." She chose it as her book club featured book.

After a six-week investigation by The Smoking Gun, it turned out James had pulled the wool over her eyes. Then after she highlighted him on her Oprah Show, 3.4 million book buyers realized they, too, had been duped by Oprah herself. Upon finding out she had been duped, her response was, “I thought The Publishing Company (Anchor Books) had vetted the book. It’s their responsibility to vet the book!” (What’s wrong with your staff checking him out, Oprah?)

To save face, Oprah invited James Frey back on her show – I’ll never understand why he showed up, and proceeded to excoriate him in front of millions. She left him in a "million little pieces" for the whole world to witness. But her reputation now had a stain on it.

Then there was her decision to open The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy For Girls in South Africa, in part to fulfill her promise to Nelson Mandela. Later, when asked why she didn't spend her money on girls in this country where she had made her billion$, her response was, "I couldn't find 152 motivated girls in the United States." Unbelievable! Out of 301,139,950 people in the U.S., she couldn't find 152 motivated girls? Americans had some heartburn over her decision to snub American girls and go elsewhere to do her "benevolent" works.

Later, it was revealed that these girls, completely cut off from all communication with their own parents, were being abused. Excuse me? Oprah, herself a victim of sexual abuse as a teen, should have known (above all people ) that isolation is the predator's favorite tool! To whom were these girls supposed to report abuse? Not their Mamas! Not the women who had given them life and sustained life for them until Miss Winfrey came along. One more stain on the reputation and judgment of Oprah Winfrey.

Then there was her show featuring the now-infamous Dr. Jan Adams, strip mall plastic surgeon. It took reporters at TMZ only a few hours of investigation to discover that Dr. Jan Adams — who performed several cosmetic procedures on Kanye West’s mother the day before she died — was not board-certified in plastic surgery. Did Oprah Winfrey or her producers do the same background check before putting him on Winfrey’s TV talk show?

Oprah said there was no reason to check his background! Whoa! Wonder what Kanye West would say about that statement? How about all the disfigured women, former patients of Dr. Jan Adams, who recently appeared on Dr. Phil's Show to show us their bodies? Whoops, another stain on the reputation and judgment of Oprah Winfrey.

Ten years ago, I heard Oprah tell how she had wanted to be a preacher since she was a young girl. Even on the playground, she would get several children in a group and preach to them! Well, congratulations, Miss Winfrey! Your dream finally came true! I heard you on the Obama Podium, yelling in your sing-song, "Color Purple" voice, preaching your messianic message about Obama for the entire world to hear! I wanted to slap you back into reality! What did you hope to achieve with that voice affectation? It certainly is not the voice we have all heard for so many years. And did you really mean to leave the impression that Obama was The Second Coming of Jesus Christ?

I am not qualified to judge what is in the heart of Oprah Winfrey. That's God's responsibility. But I can't help but judge the trustworthiness of her recommendations! Did she know about Obama's past cocaine use? Perhaps it doesn't matter to her, in light of her own past drug abuse (by her own admission on one of her shows)? And does she really think his inexperience as an inexperienced "outsider" qualifies him to run the government of the United States? Are we going to see, down the road, it was yet another "uh-oh" in the judgment of Miss Winfrey?

I liked Oprah a whole lot more in the '80s and '90s when she was a "real person" - you know, not as rich, not as powerful, and not as enlightened as she is now. I liked her when she was an overweight, afro-decked reporter from Chicago. Back in the '90s, before she was "the most powerful woman in the world" she didn't seem so full of herself.

In 1986, we weren't expected to trust her judgment. After all, she was just like us: human, subject to frailties, and likable. It was back in the days when the world didn't revolve around her every decision, word, and movement. Ah, those were the good old days.

(c) 2007 April Lorier Perspective