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Secretly control the TV,
anywhere, any time!

Plus all that stuff about not being Obama's wife.

Oprah is obviously fulfilling a need, her success is testament to that. We should be looking at why people flock to her, what is missing in people's lives, and try to deal with that in socially and culturally positive and productive ways.

People have always liked snake oil salesmen, Canadarm. They give you easy answers to difficult questions.

All that stuff may seem "harmless," but the Jenny McCarthy crusade is going to have a body count when childhood diseases re-emerge.

According to:

http://www.jennymccarthybodycount.com

169 preventable deaths have occured since McCarthy started her campaign against the health of children. I don't know how she can live with herself.

I'm sure she has an elaborate rationalization for that, Croydon Bob.

To me, the REAL question is: Why would anyone take JENNY McCARTHY's opinions on medical matters seriously?

Same answer. Let's replace snake oil with something real instead of blaming the victims.

It fits with her willingness to believe literary hoaxes. Someone coined the word 'truthiness' to describe her way of approaching these things - not, 'Is this true?' but, 'Does this have truthiness?'

The medical experts she has on as regular guest are pretty dubious as well. This guy, Mehmet Oz, (http://www.oprah.com/contributor/health/droz) has been getting a lot of bad press for shady internet and pharmacy deals (it seems he sold a lot of personal information to pharma companies). He is now pimping Revastrol, an anti-oxidant that is linked with increased breast cancer:

http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/DSH/resveratrol.html

(just for the record I am not claiming that I know what is best for you but simply that there is no proven benefit for this product and some statistical risk).

OK, most of this stuff is quackery, but you've got to admit, Suzanne Somers looks pretty good for somebody who's, what, 879 years old?
Still, I'm not sure it's worth it:
"And once a day, she uses a syringe to inject estrogen directly into her vagina."
OUCH!
"... Next come the pills. She swallows 60 vitamins and other preparations every day. "I take about 40 supplements in the morning," she told Oprah, 'and then, before I go to bed, I try to remember … to start taking the last 20.' ... she also starts each day by giving herself injections of human growth hormone, vitamin B12 and vitamin B complex. In addition, she wears 'nanotechnology patches' to help her sleep, lose weight and promote "overall detoxification." If she drinks wine, she goes to her doctor to rejuvenate her liver with an intravenous drip of vitamin C. If she's exposed to cigarette smoke, she has her blood chemically cleaned with chelation therapy."
YIKES!

The list of dubious things Oprah has endorsed is, of course, much longer than what the Newsweek article covers. My personal beef with her is that she launched the TV career of "Dr. Phil," a bogus therapist from my old neck of the woods (north Texas). Phil is not really a doctor, and all the advice I've ever heard him give (admittedly a limited sample, since I don't watch his show except when it's on somewhere I can't get away from) was bad.

Still, I don't think Oprah actually means harm to her many followers. She just has an awful lot of airtime to fill, and there are only so many legitimate guests likely to keep your ratings up. On some level, she probably believes all the stuff she promotes, which is what makes her show compelling.

"...but you've got to admit, Suzanne Somers looks pretty good for somebody who's, what, 879 years old?"

Does she really look that young or are all those modeling photos she does for her products retouched? No, they wouldn't be that dishonest, would they?

TV doesn't show wrinkles very well especially with all the makeup that is standard issue for anyone going on the air. It would be interesting to see her in person, up close. Hair color can easily be changed to hide the gray but I bet there would be a few more wrinkles.

"But The Secret really works!"

Hilarious! Thanks ostrakos. That deserves a thread of its own.

Truthiness was coined by Stephen Colbert.

Oprah just needs to realize that people take her very seriously. If she really cared about her audience, she should be acting with more responsibility in vetting the people and ideas she has on her show.

"Phil is not really a doctor, and all the advice I've ever heard him give (admittedly a limited sample, since I don't watch his show except when it's on somewhere I can't get away from) was bad."

According to wikipedia, he has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, but after being sanctioned in Texas, he didn't renew his license so he can't represent himself as a psychologist.

I think Phil's "PhD" is from some mail-order diploma mill.

OK, I should have read the Wikipedia article before commenting on it. Cranky's right, as always. "Dr." Phil's PhD is from the University of North Texas, which is a reasonably respectable institution.
Wikipedia also has this interesting note: "After run-ins with several faculty members, McGraw was guided through the doctoral program by Frank Lawlis, Ph.D., who later became the primary contributing psychologist for the Dr. Phil television show."

It's also true, though, that Phil McGraw hasn't been licensed to practice psychology in Texas or anywhere since 1989. He apparently claims that what he does on his TV shows is for entertainment only and doesn't constitute practice of psychology.

The whole Wikipedia piece has a number of eye-opening facts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_McGraw

Don´t you just wish sometimes?
http://www.atom.com/funny_videos/oprah_dead/

A little thing like being dead wouldn't stop Oprah. It wouldn't even slow her down.