Oprah Winfrey

This is a really scary thought.

On this weekend's syndicated Chris Matthews Show, the Huffington Post's Howard Fineman actually said the most powerful and "unifying" media figures in the country today are "the daytime women talk show hosts. It's Oprah, Ellen and The View" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on Wednesday called Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson an ignoramus for criticizing his weight last year.

Appearing on MSNBC's Morning Joe, the Governor said, "As far as I’m concerned, guys like that shouldn’t have a platform to speak because they’re so ignorant” (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Given the obscurity in which her new OWN network is languishing, maybe Oprah didn't think anyone would notice her bad judgment. Winfrey, the former daytime talk show queen, has decided to honor Dan Savage for his anti-bullying work. Savage is a sex-advice columnist and gay activist known for nasty scatological attacks on social conservatives or anyone who disagrees with him.

In her O Wow! List, which lists 15 "dreamers, doers and thinkers" whose "breakthrough ideas took our breath away this year," Oprah touted Savage as a "crusader against gay bullying" - neglecting to mention Savage's own incendiary rhetoric and bullying comments.

Sally Quinn pronounced Oprah Winfrey  "America's high priestess" and a "true religious leader" in a Thursday item on The Washington Post's "On Faith" website. Quinn, who waxed ecstatic over Oprah Winfrey's final episode, even went so far to compare Winfrey's last hurrah to a papal Mass: "The pope couldn't have done better."

The writer launched right into painting Oprah as a spiritual guru in her blog post, entitled "Oprah: America's high priestess":

Talk show pioneer. Best selling author. Incredibly successful business woman. Actress. Philanthropist. Billionaire. "Most influential woman in the world." Oprah Winfrey, the King Midas of her day, is ending her 25-year, multi-award-winning talk show this May, signaling the end of a staple in 21st century television.

But amid all the fawning retrospectives and misty tributes, it's important to remember just who Oprah is, the biased viewpoint she represents and the damage she's done to popular culture.

Before Rosanne Barr called Oprah "the African Mother Goddess of us all," a prominent cultural researcher called her the "Queen of Trash" for the sleazy, exploitative nature of her early show. Since then, the more "uplifting" "Oprah Winfrey Show" has been a more insipid influence, steadily eroding the culture with a combination of weepy emotionalism, New Age spirituality and an embrace of alternative sexualities and gender roles.

Brace yourself for a shock ... Oprah Winfrey, of all people .... she's one of them ...

At least if judged by the same jaundiced standard that Rachel Maddow applies to Newt Gingrich.

On her MSNBC show last night, Maddow criticized Gingrich for asking why Obama waited as long he did before releasing his birth certificate (video after page break) --

Lisa Ling, a self-admitted "severe gay rights activist," was much tougher on Christians who hold fast to the traditional teachings against homosexual behavior on the Tuesday episode of her series on the Oprah Winfrey Network, "Our America." Ling wondered if ministering to homosexuals with this belief system "cause more harm than good." By contrast, she was sympathetic of a camp for teenage homosexuals where "they can feel accepted as both gay and Christian."

At the very beginning of her hour-long program, Ling featured the annual conference of Exodus International, an interdenominational ministry that preaches "freedom from homosexuality" for people who have same-sex attraction. As she headed into the conference, she stated that "I just want to go into this with the intention of trying to understand why people believe what they believe, and that's it." The journalist gave a similar line during a February 22, 2011 online interview, but then made the following admission:

NewsBusters predicted early Friday that Sarah Palin-hating media members were going to love Oprah Winfrey's attack on the former Alaska governor in the upcoming issue of Parade magazine.

Living down to expectations, MSNBC's Chris Matthews almost got a thrill up his leg reporting the news (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Oprah Winfrey thinks America is going to fall in love with Sarah Palin - as a reality TV star that is.

In a Parade magazine interview scheduled for publication this Sunday, the daytime talk star also said she's not afraid of Palin running for president because she believes in 'the intelligence of the American public":

In case Arianna Huffington plotting to spend an estimated quarter-million dollars on buses to the liberal Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert rally didn’t paint it as an Obama event, how about Oprah Winfrey? The Obama-endorsing, Obama-campaign-stumping Winfrey appeared via satellite on Thursday night’s episode of The Daily Show to announce that she was going to fly Stewart’s audience to Washington, D.C., for the so-called Stewart half, the “Rally to Restore Sanity."

"I know that you've got this huge event coming up, and I'm really excited about it, because I think that we need a bit more sanity in the world," she said. "I'm sorry, Stephen, I'm not for the fear part, I'm for the sanity part. And I wanted to show my support for you, Jon, and also for your audience...(applause) so here's what I did. I had my staff sneak into your studio early this morning with a little gift. Okay?" She told the Daily Show audience to look under their seats, where they found red envelopes, which they opened. A woman screamed at the top of her lungs: "We're going to the rally!" Oprah repeated "You're going to the rally" four times.  “Now get out there and restore some sanity!”

Colbert crowed: “I've gotta say, just for the record, Jon, your rally was supposed to be about sanity, and that was insane!”

Comedian Stephen Colbert on Thursday ridiculed Rick Sanchez, the much-maligned CNN personality that deservedly is the butt of many jokes.

After telling his "Colbert Report" viewers that Jon Stewart's Washington rally next month has been endorsed by Oprah Winfrey, Colbert informed them that he too has gotten a "major media figure" in his corner.

Upon learning the endorsement is from Sanchez, Colbert said, "Wow. Rick Sanchez. The coveted Sanchez bump. That could get me tens of supporters."

After showing a clip of the CNNer making a fool of himself on the air, Colbert panicked, "Oh, my God. It's like I'm a freshman and I've just been befriended by a loser upper-classman" (video follows with transcript and commentary, h/t Right Scoop):

The lengths Keith Olbermann will go to attack his adversaries knows no bounds.

On Tuesday, he selectively edited and cherry picked from a Rush Limbaugh radio transcript in order to make the talk show personality look racist.

Most disgracefully, the "Countdown" host completely avoided telling his few viewers that Limbaugh was referring to truly disgusting statements the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Cynthia Tucker made on ABC's "This Week" Sunday.

With total disregard for the truth or any sense of journalistic integrity, here's what Olbermann said during his "Worst Person in the World" segment Tuesday (h/t Meredith Jessup):

Every week Oprah Winfrey encourages over 44 million Americans to "Live Your Best Life" - the mantra of her billion-dollar brand.

"The key to realizing a dream," Oprah said in the Sept. 2002 issue of her O magazine, "is to focus not on success but significance - and then even the small steps and little victories along your path will take on greater meaning."

Maybe Oprah should revisit that statement and add, "Unless we're talking about sexual abstinence. In that case, just throw in the towel."

In a Jan. 22 interview, Oprah criticized Bristol Palin, the teen daughter of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, for recently telling In Touch Weekly that she was pledging abstinence until marriage.

Barack Obama's approval rating is the lowest it's ever been, but MSNBC's Chris Matthews thinks most people would give the President a "B" grade for his first year in office.

Such was revealed during a "Hardball" discussion with MSNBC political analyst Pat Buchanan and the Washington Post's Eugene Robinson.

After playing a clip of Obama telling Oprah Winfrey that he would give himself a B-plus for his performance, Robinson not surprisingly agreed with the President, while Buchanan countered with a C-plus.

Matthews followed, "OK, so that averages out to a B. OK, that`s probably what most people would say."

Really? Is that why the most recent Gallup poll found only 47 percent approving the job Obama is doing, a new low for him?  

Not surprisingly, Matthews didn't bring up this inconvenient truth (video embedded below the fold with transcript, h/t Story Balloon):

Mark December 13 on your calendars, for Oprah Winfrey will be doing a primetime Christmas special with Barack and Michelle Obama.

In fact, and not coincidentally, it's called "Christmas at the White House: An Oprah Primetime Special."

With all the money this woman has, they couldn't come up with a better name?

Apparently not according to THR's Live Feed:

In today's Chicago Sun-Times, columnist Mary Mitchell elevates talk show host Oprah Winfrey to a new level:

You might not think you're going to miss Oprah, but you are. There are stories that only Oprah can do, and there are things that only Oprah and God can make happen.

Mitchell's adulation for Oprah is shared by many in the mainstream media.  From early shows devoted to male-bashing through attacks on free enterprise and limited government to her campaigning for Barack Obama's election, Winfrey has burnished her liberal credentials.

In bracketing Oprah with God, however, I wonder why Mitchell didn't include Obama, as in "There are things that only Oprah and God and the Federal government under the unparalleled leadership of Barack Hussein Obama can make happen."

The Hollywood trade newspaper Variety reports that Oprah Winfrey has a surprising project in the works. Her Harpo Films has made a deal with HBO to team on "a sexually charged hourlong series pilot about a woman who leaves her seemingly perfect marriage and children in Santa Monica for the underbelly of L.A., where she indulges her secret fantasies and desires."

The adultery-and-child-abandonment plot is being written by Erin Cressida Wilson, best known for writing the 2002 indie film "Secretary," which starred James Spader and Maggie Gyllenhaal film in "the story of a boss-secretary relationship that veers into S&M."

Winfrey and Harpo Films president Kate Forte will be executive producers along with Wilson: 

"It is unsentimental and pretty shocking, and there is something complicated and destructive driving her," Forte said.

The Left and the media may hate her, but Sarah Palin is a ratings sensation.

Such appears to be the case given the announcement that Monday's episode of "Oprah" was the most watched for the daytime talk queen in two years.

Palin even drew more viewers than pop singer Whitney Houston when she sat with Oprah earlier this year.

Just imagine all the sighs and rolling eyes in newsrooms from coast to coast.

As THR.com reported Wednesday (h/t TVNewser):

Sarah Palin, in an interview that is a part of the lead up to the Nov. 17 release of her new book "Going Rogue," appeared on Oprah Winfrey's TV show on Nov. 16.  Aside from the questions about the campaign, she expressed her irritation with "CBS Evening News" anchor Katie Couric, or as she referred to her - "the perky one."

"Now, obviously, you've why didn't you just name some books or magazines?" Winfrey asked.

Palin explained that she didn't want to come off as unprofessional, but she detected an elitist vibe from Couric with the infamous question about her reading habits.

As NewsBusters reported last month, an interview between former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and daytime television star Oprah Winfrey is scheduled to air next Monday.

On Thursday Oprah released a couple of previews.

Most interesting was the snippet of Winfrey asking Palin about her controversial interview with CBS "Evening News" anchor Katie Couric (video embedded below the fold with transcript):

Deadline Hollywood shocked the entertainment world Thursday when it predicted Oprah Winfrey would soon give up her syndicated television program to move it to her OWN cable network.

On Friday, the website TVNewser wondered if this might open the door for Fox News sensation Glenn Beck to move into such a syndicated arrangement.

This was on the heals of the New York Times lavishing praise on Beck for being the new Oprah when it comes to helping the sales of fiction writers. 

Newser's Chris Ariens wrote: 

"Virtually every novelist in America fantasizes about being picked to appear on Oprah Winfrey's talk show. But now an increasing number of writers have discovered a new champion: Glenn Beck."

Hold onto your seats, for that's not a quote from the National Review or the Weekly Standard.

It's actually the opening paragraph of an absolutely glowing piece about Beck's impact on the book industry published Thursday by -- drum roll please -- the New York Times (h/t Mediaite):

MSNBC entertainment editor Courtney Hazlett spent all of two minutes on "Morning Meeting" with Dylan Ratigan and still managed to get her facts wrong.

Noting former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's scheduled November 16 appearance on "Oprah," Hazlett told viewers that the former Alaska governor "famously said no to appearing on Oprah" during the 2008 presidential campaign, because Palin knew "you get more publicity rejecting Oprah than possibly going on."

The only trouble is, as my colleague Noel Sheppard noted earlier today, that is patently false. It was, in fact, Obama-endorsing Oprah Winfrey who refused to book Palin on her program during the campaign season, although she expressed an interest in having her on after the election.

What's more, while Hazlett seems to portray Oprah as doing Palin a favor, Washington Post TV columnist Lisa de Moraes today noted that the scheduling move may serve Oprah's best interest by reaching out to disaffected conservative women who used to be fans of her program:

As NewsBusters reported a few hours ago, Oprah Winfrey has finally decided to allow former Alaska governor Sarah Palin on her highly-rated daytime talk show.

Shortly after it was announced, People magazine's web article on the matter falsely informed readers that Palin refused Oprah's invitation during the campaign last year (h/t NB reader Christy Ellsworth):

Oh, what a difference a multimillion-dollar book deal makes.

About a year after Sarah Palin famously turned down a campaign season appearance with talk show host – and major Barack Obama supporter – Oprah Winfrey, the former GOP vice presidential candidate has agreed to take her turn on the couch. 

Actually, as ABCNews.com reported last September, it was Oprah that refused to have Palin on her show: 

Having been shunned by the daytime talk queen before last year's elections, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has decided to finally go on "Oprah" in November.

As announced moments ago at Oprah.com:

In a world exclusive, Oprah Winfrey will interview former Alaska governor Sarah Palin for an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show to air Monday, November 16, 2009.  Winfrey and Palin will meet for the very first time on the episode, which will mark Palin’s first interview to discuss her upcoming book, Going Rogue: An American Life and her first-ever appearance on the Oprah show.  

Unfortunately, judging by some of the comments being left at her website, Oprah's fans are not pleased: