First of all, I am not trying to be ugly or disrespectful towards your opinion. However, this is OPRAH's website. A place where Oprah fans can read about her shows, comment on message boards, and receive lifestyle tips. If you don't like Oprah - get off of her website! There are plenty of other message boards on other websites that might interest you more.

Venom is such a dirty word. How about rant, or even...insightful articulate argument!

I don't watch Oprah. I see the commercials while watching the afternoon news and occasionally catch someone I respect going on there (Moore, Cosby, Russell Simmons, Clinton, Obama....) so I check it out if I'm around.

This is EXACTLY the place to talk critically about Oprah. No one else out in cyberland much cares. It is here where the apostles sit is and it is here where I will stay and try to keep their eyes open. Hopefully not alone.

You're exactly right. Talk shows have gone down the drain. Less than 5 miles from Mecca.(I mean Harpo) sits NBC studios where Jerry and Jenny shows were taped and where Steve Wilco show is taped now. TMZ, Entertainment Tonight, Extra, Access Hollywood, have all led (with the advent of YouTube and cell cameras) us into this "gotcha" world, where no one can be human anymore. Meaning people are prone to make mistakes, but usually they didn't end up on a cell phone camera.

However....Oprah and her "Angel Network." Oprah and her "Finding your spirit." Oprah and her "bookclub." Oprah and her Academies in South Africa and elsewhere (does she even have ONE stateside???). Oprah professes to be "above it all" and seeks to educate the masses in what KRS-1 calls "edutainment." Meaning a mix of education and entertainment. Yes it's important to shake your tail and have fun, and catch up on the latest movie stars hawking their movies, or authors and their books (as long as they truly wrote them), but as someone who professes to be above the fray, and as everyone on here claims has been #1 for over 15 years (although I prefered Rosie and now Ellen's shows), she is held to a higher standard.

As people here claim she is "more famous" "more powerful" than any female politician. That puts her in a precarious position of having to harness that power for good. Does Oprah do good? I'll admit she does some, but I believe she is off her game and I'm going to call her on that. That is the power of free speech and the power of "finding my spirit." I feel that many people out here on this site need to stop looking for a savior. That savior is within each and everyone of us, individually. It doesn't matter if I have $1 or $100m each one can teach one. Oprah's extravagance and need for self love is what I dislike the most. It's not the money, it's the lack of humility.

spngal said:

"Another analogy, a relatively unknown J.D Rowling's fictional account of a wizard
boy got millions of children eager to read a 400 page novel. That power of
motivation for children was virtually unheard of before Harry Potter. Yet I
don't see adults blasting the writer for having a 'following'.

BTW, another hype bandwagon I ain't jumped on, but I do know it's JK Rowling not JD. JD is the author of Catcher in the Rye.

Whatever...and both books are immensely popular despite.

So thank you for highlighting the Rye book. Those that have read the literary gem will appreciate the shout out.

PLEASE don't make Catcher the next Oprah book club selection. I may have to burn my copy from high school!!!!!

Oprah fans of the world unite. It's the morning after Black Friday..Girl what did YOU buy? I hope it came with some common sense as the free gift.

Bump....anyone, anyone, Buehler Buehler...???

Note - I am responding to the original, first post here...

Oprah doesn't get 'it' - she is a fallible human being and she shows it. Consequently she will never get 'it' - say the truth about some things in life - she is closed to. She goes along with 'popular truth' most times - sure she speaks against child abuse and other such matters courageously - such as women's issues...etc.

However, in the area of religion - she is of course, pro-Christian, and is not critical of Christianity - it's history and philosophy, etc etc. And I do say there are major flaws present. The same with politicians, the US government and so-called democracy - she doesn't ask any hard questions of the politicians or the government. Like with Dr Ray Griffin's summary about the inconsistancies regarding the events of 9-11.

With Christianity - there is the matter that the God explanation does not make any kind of sense at all. eg. All the intricies of nature - people will say - Oh, they show a marvellous design? Don't they - so there must be a Creator, and that Creator is God. Sure, that makes sense! Doesn't it? Only that - who created the Creator? And so that explanation does not explain itself, does it? You can only say the Creator must have popped out of thin air - because you will have no explanation otherwise. There are many things that need to be covered, in regards to religion and beliefs, etc --- which should be discussed in depth one day - but Oprah is hardly likely to show the clear thinking and truthfulness needed.

Anyway Oprah doesn't seem to display such critical thinking. Like the time when she and her friend visited an Amish farm on their big road trip. They were shown the quiet Amish lifestyle, then taken to the milking shed... And what did the viewers see there? Modern milking machinery being used to milk the cows. Why didn't Oprah ask? But you believe in a simple life, with no modern machinery, such as cars, etc. The obvious answer is that they don't want to do the hard manual labor of having to milk so many cows daily themselves, leaving little time and energy to do anything else. And so the Amish are quite willing to use modern technology when it suits them.

I wish she would open her mind up, and start thinking about things in depth... Maybe in 25? years a light bulb will finally go off in her head by then? Seeing her and Nate lavishly redecorate a poor woman's NY apartment for her, and don't tell the viewers about the cost of it (which the woman could not afford herself to do) - has got to be one of many examples, sensible viewers will have a hard time accepting. While it is nice charitable thing Oprah has done - it is not a good lesson shown.... not really...

Harvey

I think all the focus on the negative is an Americanism. We often point out the negative traits more than the positive.

As far as an intelligent Creator the bible says that no man will every no God from start to finish. Also in our imperfect state we can't imagine God had no beginning and not end. We can't imagine anything beyond our own reasoning. I am filled with amazement by the cell’s magical ability to pass on to successor cells the data they wish reproduced. Some Divine Intelligence surely must have planned these phenomena.” Just contemplating the marvels of our universe seems to me compelling reason to believe some omnipotent and omniscient power planned the universe, set it in motion and presides over it.

BUMP...SO sick of Seinfield post...

Moonhues,


I totally agree with this post, it was well written.


I especially love this comment from your post"And secondly you sure put a lot on Ms. WInfrey's shoulder as her responsibility. And doing a lot of dictating as what she should or should not do."

You are so right, about these people going on and on in rants about this and that, and don't list any real solutions. I am convinted that these people come to these boards to air thier negativity because no way who is seeing them face to face wants to hear what they have to say. So they vent, and vent, and pollute until the conversation is no longer interesting.

Remember: Life is about perception, and the way you look at things. Every taping that Oprah does can be seen either positive or negative depending on the viewer. Change your view, and look at Oprah's show and her endevors to see what you can learn from them, instead of focusing so much energy on listing what isn't right, and what you don't like. As, I said before Oprah or her Guests aren't perfect so don't expect them to be.