Stop The Presses! Lock Your Freezers! Oprah Ends Her 'Vegan' Experiment!
IF YOU ARE AMONG THE SHEEP WHO HAVE CLICKED ON STORIES REGARDING OPRAH SAMPLING A VEGAN DIET FOR THREE WEEKS, CONGRATULATIONS ON BEING PART OF THE PROBLEM.
This is what passes for news? Let me correct you: this is example of the incestuous nepotism that America's corporate media passes for reporting. You are being fooled.
At last count, Oprah has business ties with CBS, ABC, Oxygen, Discovery, the Food channel, Hearst Publishing, the entire publishing industry save Random House (that tie was shattered into a 'Million Little Pieces'). And these are the ones that are are obvious. Not to mention the bumps she produces for the tabloids, the celebrity mags and the producers of her "favorite" products.
Now she's expanding her power to the White House and will soon lord over the Lincoln Bedroom. Oprah does little without personal gain. So I congratulate her on risking the wrath of her audience for backing Barack Obama. Let's remind the media to keep an eye out for the deals Mr. Obama will make for her when he grabs the throne.
Whether you think Oprah is "good or diabolically evil," she has every right to pursue any business or personal relationship she likes. It's the media that has the obligation to connect the dot between her relationships. How can they fulfill their duty when they count on her to sell for them? Even the mighty New York Times has fallen victim to her wiles when The Oprah Winfrey Show cunningly renovated a cultural reporter's home. The reporter, Jesse McKinley, was ordered to reimburse the show but was allegedly quoted a price by the show far below the market value of the work. This is the insidious way TOWS works. Curiously, you can't find any mention of this moral lapse in the Times free archives.
Curiouser still is that Mr. McKinley continues to cover Oprah-related matters.
Here's a viewing suggestion for you: go rent Lions for Lambs for a crash course in media manipulation. Pay close attention to the movie's last scene when Iraqi war propaganda ticks by in type while some celebrity's hijinks commands the full screen. Then see if you can continue to read the news with your eyes wide shut after watching the movie. Here's hoping not.
Posted June 25, 2008
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