CNN Headline News' Showbiz Tonight host A.J. Hammer invited HGTV host Lauren Lake and Extra's Carlos Diaz on to the program yesterday to discuss Oprah Winfrey's refusal to book Governor Sarah Palin on her show.
Both Hammer and Lake teamed up on Diaz and bombarded him with why it was not a political decision for Oprah to refuse Palin on her show while endorsing Obama.
HAMMER: Carlos, it’s the Oprah Winfrey Show. She said what she was going to do. She sets the plate, and she’s sticking with it, so I don’t really get what the problem is.
DIAZ: No I agree. I agree, but my point is it’s tough to back one candidate and then completely ignore the Republican Party. I know she’s sticking to her guns, but still.
HAMMER: So because she’s Oprah Winfrey, it’s almost like a different set of rules apply?
DIAZ: No I, I...
LAKE: It shouldn’t be that. It shouldn’t be that. C’mon, Carlos. Once the woman makes a statement…now she can’t have them…she can’t let them back her into the corner of…y’know…going against her word. She’s just saying …'look me personally, I am separate from my show', and that’s what people don’t understand.
DIAZ: I understand, but now you’re getting into kind of muddy water here, because she’s really backing Barack Obama, but isn’t she supposed to like…
LAKE: But she’s not saying that on her show everyday, Carlos.
DIAZ: No it’s true, but...
(crosstalk)
LAKE: She's not. She's not.
DIAZ: She’s saying that by not having Sarah Palin on her show.
LAKE: She’s not using her show her show as a political platform
(crosstalk)
LAKE: But if she was drinking out of a Barack Obama coffee cup on her show, then I’d say then maybe, 'Oprah you should have Sarah on.'
Lake's logic was bizarre to say the least. She was adamant that Winfrey's self-titled show should have nothing to do with politics.
This is nothing but disingenuous, especially when Lake would find it wrong if Winfrey drank out of an Obama coffee cup on her program but not invite Palin on.
Otherwise, publicly campaigning for the Illinois senator and refusing Palin is okay as long as the HARPO cameras are not turned on in the studios while she is doing the cheering.
Lake and Hammer may think that legal semantics like this can work in a courtroom, but a good portion of Winfrey's audience will see right through it.
