Was Oprah's Show Good Or Bad For America?
Today marks the final episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show. Over at National Review Online, Charlotte Allen, Julie Gunlock, Lisa Schiffren, Cal Thomas, Rod Dreher, Glenn Stanton, Tim Graham, and others, including me, weigh in on the question of whether the show's run has been a net gain or loss for American culture. Looks like most folks had nice things to say. I, on the other hand, offered this:
If you support the widespread practice of pseudo-confessional but ultimately self-justifying defensiveness, the unleashing of hayseed morons such as Dr. Phil and trust-fund prevaricators such as James Frey, the spreading the New Age teachings of “The Secret” and normalization of a generic spirituality that views all religions as equally truthful, and encouraging grab-bag materialism over time-honored virtue, there is no question that Oprah Winfrey has had a net positive on American culture.
What do you think? Net gain or net loss for the culture?
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Comments :
May '11
Re: Was Oprah's Show Good Or Bad For America?
It's TV! And only TV.
Oct '10
Re: Was Oprah's Show Good Or Bad For America?
She was clearly a bad influence, spreading ostensibly compassionate New-Ageism and mindless liberalism to every corner of the country. Her intentions might have been good and I don't doubt her sincerity, but this is a case of undeniable charm put to bad purpose.
Jun '10
Re: Was Oprah's Show Good Or Bad For America?
Like many people of her generation, the ethics and good manners that Oprah learned growing up were divorced, at some point (in her mind,) from the source of the ethics, and she started to believe that they were somehow natural and automatic. They most certainly are not natural to human beings. They come from following God's plan. When people just follow their own feelings, as she does now, it is the road to destruction. Because, where do you go to PROVE that Adolf Hitler's "feelings" are less valid than yours or mine? You have to go somewhere.
May '10
Re: Was Oprah's Show Good Or Bad For America?
I think her worst legacy is the popularizing of moral relativism.
Jun '10
Re: Was Oprah's Show Good Or Bad For America?
Bad.
She didn't invent moral relativism... but in an environment of relativism she thrived... like sugar in the cavity of Western Society.
Aug '10
Re: Was Oprah's Show Good Or Bad For America?
I have to agree, Oprah Winfrey was very deterimental to our society in this regard.
Oct '10
Re: Was Oprah's Show Good Or Bad For America?
I haven't watched enough Oprah to answer the question. Every time I have seen her, I've wondered why anyone does. I'm curious about the comments associating her so clearly with moral relativism. Is that her calling card? If so, that is a sad statement on the quality of thought Americans consult on such matters. The woman is, as best I can tell, deceitful and self-serving
May '10
Re: Was Oprah's Show Good Or Bad For America?
Never seen the show, but anything that encourages people to sit on their butts passively in the middle of the day when they could be doing something productive is pretty much by definition detrimental to society.
Apr '11
Re: Was Oprah's Show Good Or Bad For America?
Oprah's effect on the culture has been mixed, and the comments in the National Review symposium, as here, capture the good and bad quite well (Mollie is one of the more stringent critics). Yet several contributors at NR acknowledge seeing only a handful of Oprah's shows, so it seems they offer sharp opinions built on slight foundation. Also, it strikes me as high-handed to ignore her many charitable works. Oprah did a lot of good, even promoting some dead white male authors so effectively that they returned to the best-seller lists. As I said, mixed.
Re: Was Oprah's Show Good Or Bad For America?
Was Oprah's show a net-plus or net-minus?
Let's do the math: 25 seasons, 4,561 episodes. At 60 minutes an episode, that's 273,660 minutes of air-time.
Time millions of Americans otherwise could have spent:
1) Reading a book
2) Visiting a museum
3) Exercising
4) Mentoring a child
5) Performing countless acts of kindness and charity
And so on and so forth . . .
Will I miss her show? That's a big N-O.
Edited on May 25, 2011 at 12:02pmMay '10
Re: Was Oprah's Show Good Or Bad For America?
I draw a straight line from Oprah Winfrey to the presidency of Barack Obama, and to the inability of the American people to properly evaluate both the candidate and the President.
Oprah championed the kind of shallow, emotion-driven blather that became "Yes, We Can!", and "We are the change we have been waiting for!" She encouraged an empty focus on celebrity and personality that has seen its most complete expression in this White House's communication style. And of course she helped out by launching Obama's campaign on her television show.
Finally, the unhinged, narcissistic, and brainless egoism she displays in her reality show should seal the deal for anyone who is paying attention. Count me as not a fan.
Nov '10
Re: Was Oprah's Show Good Or Bad For America?
Ah, yes: The Big O. She might not have been the first to do it--I really don't know for sure--but she's the first magnate I recall who chose to use a photo of *herself* on the cover of every. single. issue. of her magazine. That's Oprah, Inc. in a nutshell: That's the narcissism and "brainless egoism" that Daniel refers to above.
Second, otherwise bright folks who point to Oprah's book club and say, "But she got America reading!" strike me as folks who, frankly, didn't read Oprah's book club picks. Now, it's true that she eventually reached to the back of the bookshelf and began pulling out a few classics, but...c'mon. Her early picks were pretty standard Victimology 101 fare. So you pump these (mostly) women full of this garbage and then hook them up to the Dr. Phil psychobabble IV drip and what do you have? "We're the ones we've been waiting for!"
Obviously not a fan.
Re: Was Oprah's Show Good Or Bad For America?
I'll take the contrary view.
I don't know her show, so I don't dispute what others have said about it.
But what of her personal story? Her example?
If you are a conservative who supports pulling yourself up by your own boot straps, overcoming odds, hard work, the ACQUISITION OF CAPITAL, the use of acquired power, and willful, uncompelled charity after you've earned capital, then Oprah is a national treasure.
Apr '11
Re: Was Oprah's Show Good Or Bad For America?
I don't know that net gain or loss is the way to look at it. She simply reflected the culture in my view. She clearly drove people to certain views/books/etc, but if she didn't, someone else would have, and I don't think that someone else would have been significantly different. I think you have to give her a lot of credit for recognized her niche and fitting it to a tee.
As for all of the talk of moral relativism, that's exactly what people want to hear. They don't want to hear that they need to take a hard stance on decisions in their life. They are simply looking to validate the poor decisions they make.
May '10
Re: Was Oprah's Show Good Or Bad For America?
After acquiring her capital, she then used it to promote an agenda and an administration that are all about compelling us to "invest" in "charities" such as left-wing activist groups, Wall Street financial firms, and government employee labor unions. I guess Oprah is the only one who gets to give uncompelled charity.
Oct '10
Re: Was Oprah's Show Good Or Bad For America?
Oprah has never struck me as left-wing. She supports Obama probably because he's black. Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about, but I don't view her as a political figure or a pundit.
Oct '10
Re: Was Oprah's Show Good Or Bad For America?
Oprah has never struck me as left-wing. She supports Obama probably because he's black. Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about, but I don't view her as a political figure or a pundit.
Mar '11
Re: Was Oprah's Show Good Or Bad For America?
You cut to the bone here. Jerry Springer, Phil Donahue, ect. was she not really just the most successful of the many tabloid talk show hosts that have plauged us in the past 20 years? The moral relatisvm and mindless liberalism that many here note as a her hallmarks were not created or even sustained by her show, they were simply the ocean around her in which she thrived.
Apr '11
Re: Was Oprah's Show Good Or Bad For America?
Daniel Frank
After acquiring her capital, she then used it to promote an agenda and an administration that are all about compelling us to "invest" in "charities" such as left-wing activist groups, Wall Street financial firms, and government employee labor unions. I guess Oprah is the only one who gets to give uncompelled charity. · May 25 at 2:36pm
Please tell me of one person/show that doesn't promote a 'left-wing' agenda on day time television. Elisabeth Hasselbeck on The View is the only one I can think of off the top of my head. Like I said in my previous post, if Oprah didn't exist, TV would have invented a substitute. I don't find anything about Oprah to be all that unique, but at the same time you have to give her credit for making the most of her talents & opportunities.
Sep '10
Re: Was Oprah's Show Good Or Bad For America?
She could put bad books on the best seller list and bad candidates in the White House. And she did it all by appealing to people who didn't have jobs to go to during the day.
Oprah truly is an American success story, but her success does make me think less of Americans.