Oprah is bad for our Country

Here is another brilliant reason of why Oprah Winfrey should not be listened to, is not a roll model and quite possible should be removed from the airwaves. This is a perfect example of her exploiting a family simply to hop on a hot topic on drive up her ratings, even if it is the wrong thing to do for everyone else involved. Though truth be told, I am way off the main stream on this one, because I can almost guarantee that if Oprah wanted to run for president of the United States, should would probably win in a landslide that would make the 1984 election look close.

This comes directly from Winfrey's hometown newspaper the Chicago Sun Times

Oprah shouldn't have put 15-year-old Shawn Hornbeck and his family on TV. Yes, she's the richest woman in entertainment and certainly knows her stuff.

But sexual abuse victims aren't celebrities. They are victims. When these sexually exploited children are rescued, adults usually protect them from the media floodlights....

"I don't know what this family was thinking. I don't know what Oprah's people were thinking," said Sheila Ribordy, a clinical psychologist and professor at DePaul University. "But I am relatively certain that this is a very complex thing for [Shawn]. It may take years for him to sort this all out," she said.

"At this point, I doubt he has the capacity to think about what are the ramifications of him going on national television. Adults have to be extra careful to protect him, even from himself."

Still, Ribordy, said a part of her can understand what caused the parents to go on Oprah.

"Perhaps your head is turned by the possibility of being next to someone who is famous and all of those things," she said. "I can see how a family would say wow to a chance of a lifetime."

She also pointed out that there is another point of view that Oprah may be representing.

"In our society, sexual abuse is a terrible thing, but we also feel like it is a shameful thing for the victim. I think Oprah has really campaigned to make it less of a shameful thing.

"But we have no idea what happened to this kid," Ribordy continued. "Under those circumstances, if one were going to interview him or the family, it could have been done in a much more sheltered kind of way."

When these child abductions cases come up, media need to practice restraint. We need to remember that these victims and their families are ordinary people.

What will happen to them when the floodlights go out?

I call this phenomenon the Oprahization of the media. This is where a talk show host or other media maven takes a single issue and either blows it out of proportion or simply exploits the principles in order to drive ratings. The effect of this is every person who watches then believes that their child, school, town, etc is susceptible to whatever the disaster, crime, etc. du-jour.

If we as consumers and viewers would just ignore this crap, eventually advertising would stop supporting the show, and they would just go away. See it is a perfect plan to rid the world of one person with an overbearing ego, and to remove insipid television from the airwaves.

Added 1/25/07 - So it seems I am not alone in my distaste for this maneuver by Oprah, another writer Robert Paul Reyes from Men's News Daily seems to be in agreement.