Every so often I remember that Oprah brought us Dr Phil, Dr Oz and The Secret but the only person she brought back to destroy on her show was the guy who pretended to be a worse drug addict than he actually was in a book
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a billionaire woman that had an extremely popular daytime talk show from 86-2011, she was regarded VERY highly but platformed all sorts of nonsense during her run
That one guy from Bumfights who dissed Dr Phil on his own show and got kicked off said, "you're just like me." Johnny Rotten called it "cheap holidays in other people's misery."
Dr Phil being a con was obvious from the start. Dr Oz was the shocking turn. Remember when everyone was calling him “America’s Doctor”. He was a great health communicator. He was a very respected Columbia U surgeon. Did charity heart surgeries in developing countries. Then the greed set in.
I'm going with the to-each-his-own theory, Maraleia. Reading offers a chance to open people's minds, to find empathy for others. I'll vote in favor of this general concept.
Oprah is just as responsible for this mess as Rush Limbaugh. Her audience marinated in crackpot conspiracy theories, new age medicine, and weight loss tricks for decades. They were ripe for the picking
that book was incredible, too. he never really got acknowledgment for what good storytelling . oprah was hell bent on ruining him simply because he embarrassed her
Good God I remember The Secret. I did a dumb but fun double feature of DaVinci Code/National Treasure and thought I'd give it a try. Watched it with a friend and about 15 minutes in I said "They're going to take 2 hours and tell us the secret is just work real hard and believe in yourself."
John of God and Jenny McCarthy are arguably worse, but her show was also the first place I saw John Edward pretending audience members' dead relatives could communicate common initials and vague experiences from beyond the grave.
I remember picking that book up (before he was exposed) and looking at the first chapter and wondering how anybody in that bad shape would be allowed aboard an airplane. Didn’t keep reading. Oprah is insanely gullible.
She had Jeff Bezos on early, early when he had just started Amazon. He said he just wanted to get books to people. smh. I often wonder what happened to that guy (greed). When I look at him with Lauren Sanchez,
it’s just so pathetic.
Oz was floated for something—CDC? Surgeon General? I don’t totally remember now. There’s still plenty of open appointments, so he still could end up somewhere. 😬
Fuck's sake... The Secret really was at the leading edge of the whole "everyone deserves their own truth" bullshit movement that got us to a point where there is no shared, agreed upon reality holding society together.
.
Don't forget Preacher Barry Minkow. She promoted him as a business wizard. Started a multi million dollar carpet cleaning franchise that turned out to be a Ponzi scheme. He ripped off hundreds of investors before getting caught. Now he's a convicted felon.
You forgot she also promoted fake healer John of God who turned out to be a sex abuser. She also never apologized to that preschool that she repeatedly accused of abusing children that, ya know... turned out to be bullshit. Or for spreading the Satanic Panic to millions of housewives.
A huge mistake of the DNC was to invite her to speak. I’m a democrat through and through, and I cringed when I saw her on the stage and refused to listen to her speak.
In all fairness, I knew nothing aby"Oprah = bad" until this post and I'm well informed and educated. This makes me sad. She's a huge role model for a lot of people. And apparently true news isn't getting out (surprise)
Behind the Bastards from @coolzonemedia.bsky.social did a six part podcast series on her. The first two are all about her sad childhood; if you want to skip that, part three begins the horror. The Satanic Panic, Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, and John of God are all there.
I was about to post this same thing, then realized I was replying to the guy who was the guest on the BTB Rush Limbaugh episodes. Mentioning because now I’m gonna follow him.
I actually don’t recommend skipping that. I think Robert does a good job of not excusing the bastards on his show, but showing how they came to be bastards in the first place. I think a lot is missed when you skip the background.
Paul you're forgetting how she gave Jenny McCarthy a megaphone for her vaccines cause autism book. People forget; before that it was fringe on the level of flat earth and fake moon landing
She also propped up John of God a “faith healer” who was arrested for 300 victims of sexual assault. His own daughter called him a monster and he was sentenced 489 years in prison. Thanks Oprah!
She's responsible for making a lot of terrible things, especially quack medicine, very popular. Yet she's never once accepted any responsibility for any of it.
Brazilian faith healer John of God was made immensely more popular by being featured on oprah and would sexually assault or rape hundreds or thousands of women.
It wasn't destroying per se, but she also made Jonathan Franzen eat shit for the crime of not being comfortable with the attention that came with her stamp of approval.
Oprah is a big reason the Wellness Fascism movement was able to gain a foothold in America. She should not be given prime time speaking spots at political events, at minimum.
She got more angry at Franzen for saying her book club was so lowbrow it would undermine his shot at a National Book Award than she did at the Cheesecake Factory-by-way-of-Bosch hellscape that Dr. Phil called a foyer.
And the Satanic Panic, erasing those episodes from her history and never acknowledging how many lives she ruined platforming conspiracy theories and therapists.
These comments are…interesting? Oprah broadcasted more than 4500 episodes starting in 1986. We didn’t even have the internet yet. To look back now, 30+ years later and say “she should have known” is such weird virtue signaling.
The point, I believe, is not that she had them on her show but that she never interrogated those choices later the way she did the book guy. Her show never really left it's, journalistically questionable, sensationalist roots, it just had shinier packaging.
I understand the point. The difference that I see is that Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz became grifters/sociopaths on their own platforms, while the book guy lied on her platform. But I was responding to the comments that she should have known and I continue to find that a strange take.
Both the Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz show were created and bankrolled by Oprah. Harpo Productions was involved with the creations of both shows for multiple seasons. Their platforms would not have existed in the form they did without Oprah.
What was PBS’s excuse for providing Deepak Chopra a platform? The sad reality is that anti-science/anti-intellectualism is alive and well across American Society.
No, they were extremely popular regular guests. At that time Dr. Oz was a well respected medical Dr. who encouraged people to get colonoscopies, wear sunscreen and eat more fiber. Grifter came later.
And she platformed the shit out of him. This is ignoring Jenny McArthey, Tom Cruise, etc… and her shit in the 90s that was profoundly damaging because specifically as you say. We didn’t have internet.
I often wonder how
many of the people in the cult of Oprah are now Trumpers. She was the queen of consumption as her audience squealed in delight over freebies & her favorite things. Later she promoted manifesting your material desires. With less disposable income did they go fash?
You don't have to hand it to James Frey, but he went on to start this weird book-agency in which he got recent MFA graduates to write a YA series that flopped and last I checked was doing something with NFTs.
Yeah, James Frey should not be let off the hook. He is still a very unethical person, just less than the other people cited (which is the lowest bar ever).
And her stupid favorite things shows which had products that people could never afford to buy. Ellen DeGeneres followed that trend and I found it disgusting.
She had Josh Groban on one of her favorite things shows. I killed so many brains cells watching that ep. only for him to show up in the last 15-20 mins & sing one song. Never did that again.
I lost any respect I might have had for Oprah when I saw her 'interview' with Harry & Meghan.
She was clearly leading them to say what she wanted them to.
Oprah did a video where she showed the Tacha skincare pack Meghan gave her for Christmas 2024. It was included as one of her 'favorite things'. But yeah, let's go with your 'hunch'.
In line to see the one @midnight taping in NYC, in the ABC studios plastered with Dr. Oz pics. He comes out of his taping flanked by older lady fans, stands around waiting for the comedy crowd to notice him. No one cares. He read the poster out loud, “Chris…Hardwick?” No one cares. He left.
Heh. Remember when Dr. Phil had the producer of those bum fights videos on his show about exploitation and the dude showed up as Dr. Phil and had him shook?
My favorite part about it was the excuse Dr. Phil used to get him off the stage before he could REALLY run his mouth. Basically said 'No, Bum Fights is too disgusting, I don't wanna talk to you' like he had no idea what the guy produced before the show started.
Oh, I’m sure he knew and just wanted to publicly rake him over the coals. Which he ultimately did on the episode. But, dude had a point that it’s no different than Dr. Phil’s exploitation for ratings.
It was basically that “vision board” stuff, write yourself a post-dated check for a billion dollars to manifest success, etc. I seem to recall there being a real undercurrent of woo-woo weirdness to it that was never quite addressed directly.
She pushed her diet culture on multiple generations of latchkey kids looking for a mom after school. I still have to pause and ask myself occasionally "is this science or Oprah?"
Honestly the diet culture is the thing I can actually give Oprah a little grace on because from the very start her producers (and then the media as a whole) made her weight their business in a really gross way. It wasn’t just something she decided was going to “be her thing”.
A constant theme with my clients over a 20 year career as a social worker is grief over parenting we didn't receive. Especially Gen X. It wasn't their fault, but we still needed more. We were looking for what we needed and Oprah filled the void in a way. The culprit is Capitalism.
I'm really not sure many people received great parenting until very recently. The "greatest" generation, the boomers, and the silent generation all had copious amounts of trauma and learned very "old-fashioned" (read: abusive) parenting methods from their elders.
Oprah was and is as carny as anyone else in daytime TV, she just packaged it better. She only went after the book guy because she felt personally affronted by him. The other stuff was all by her own plan so her ego was not affected lol
She actually defended him at first with "no big deal" - It was the immediate, vicious backlash to her defense of him (from her own audience) that turned her.
Yeah I mean that's just it, she goes with whatever protects her own image and ego, and I'm not saying that's even any different than most people but people treat her like she's some arbiter of taste and decorum but she's just reading the room.
Oh look another mediocre white guy seeking attention randomly attacks a fabulously successful Black woman over the bad behavior of other mediocre white guys.
also! one time I was on a job and some people came in who had just had a meeting with her that day. They said she had the keyboard clicks on her phone turned on!!
You're leaving out the part where (when the accusations first came to light) she made a big show of supporting James Frey publicly. It was only after her audience turned on her that she suddenly got self-righteous and dressed him down publicly.
I don’t think she foresaw Americans’ plunge into worshipping celebrities as political leaders. I mean right now, the trashier the entertainment train-wreck, the more people seem to idolize someone based only on their edgy trolling behavior. Audacity and shamelessness shouldn’t be a leadership style.
You are forgetting the people who were acquitted of satanic abuse charges in the court of law so Oprah re-litigated the case on national television in front of millions like the world's shittiest unofficial witch finder general.
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Or something.
They were both right.
but damn that update was so fucking depressing. i hope she kicks that cancer's ass & is safe from DV now
https://youtu.be/ImDj57VeaC0?feature=shared
She also refused to let anyone shelter there
it’s just so pathetic.
Trump unrolled his plan on Oprah
She was keen
They had our respect back then.
But just like Rudy (once Americas beloved Mayor), they became grotesque, egoic, opportunistic clowns all while claiming to be Xians.
We should have never gave them space in r heads. Deep down we knew who they were.
Don't forget Preacher Barry Minkow. She promoted him as a business wizard. Started a multi million dollar carpet cleaning franchise that turned out to be a Ponzi scheme. He ripped off hundreds of investors before getting caught. Now he's a convicted felon.
My goodness.
I wonder if they covered THAT on "Behind the Bastards"?
Nope. A functioning democratic republic was never hidden under the studio audience chairs.
Oprah is just another garden variety billionaire.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/behind-the-bastards/id1373812661?i=1000684824696
I can smell integrity from a mile away
She's great.
Dear God i had no idea she promoted him
(I'm hoping by a fellow Duplicitous Slut?)
(I am expressing myself in a goofy way but I genuinely would like to hear/ learn more about WF.)
shame
violates first rule that military and police tell people
their rationale is that if you talk about guns in public, criminals will know where there are 'free guns'.
i was told 80% of crimes use these weapons
And having guns on display not only invites theft, but it is so freaking dangerous. Smart and responsible gun owners keep guns secured in safes.
Both the Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz show were created and bankrolled by Oprah. Harpo Productions was involved with the creations of both shows for multiple seasons. Their platforms would not have existed in the form they did without Oprah.
many of the people in the cult of Oprah are now Trumpers. She was the queen of consumption as her audience squealed in delight over freebies & her favorite things. Later she promoted manifesting your material desires. With less disposable income did they go fash?
She was clearly leading them to say what she wanted them to.
http://archive.today/QH43S
“You’re being scammed, primate!”
“Are you blaming women?”
(The person is clearly blaming Oprah)
My comment was about tendency to jump on people’s posts bc we are all in fight or flight mode and also was unnecessarily snarky
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-behind-the-bastards-29236323/episode/part-five-is-oprah-winfrey-a-262089681/
But she would have had a Nigerian Prince who needs $100 on her show, no doubt.
Is The Secret not real?
I have been putting all my eggs up in there for two decades.
My house is just papier-mâché copies of “A New Earth” and print offs of Deepak Chopra tweets.
They all turned. Every single egg went bad.
Dr. Oz never said one goddamn word about eggs rotting.
Starting to doubt the value of his twice-a-day colloidal silver enemas.