Re: virus: Why does everybody love Oprah?

Zloduska (kjseelna@students.wisc.edu)
Mon, 01 Feb 1999 02:23:54 -0600

tinkerer wrote:

>you should now stop believing what richard says BECAUSE he was on oprah.

Nah..... I don't think that the lie of what Oprah and her show is takes away from the truth of what Richard Brodie has to say at all.

>everything is about money: this is true... but for example cooking
>shows: sure the broadcasting company makes money from advertisers...
>but you LEARN HOW TO COOK SOMETHING!

I'm not saying you can't learn great basket-weaving skills from Oprah and Martha, but the Frugal Gourmet doesn't promote himself to be the crusading superhero that Oprah does, now does he?

>youre being a little too critical of a celebrity...

It's true I am being critical of her. But I think you misunderstand: I don't _hate_ Oprah as a person, since I don't know enough about her. I don't think she's a good or evil person. What I tried to empathize in my original post about her, and my post to Reed is this- Oprah's image and popularity upsets me, and overall, she and her show really, reeeeeeeeally rub me the wrong way, and that's putting it lightly.

But see, it's pretty much my right to be repulsed by her and have a strong negative opinion. At least that's how I see it, especially when she's throwing her "I'm Every Woman" crap at everyone. (DId I mention she rubs me the wrong way?)

I know plenty of women (mostly older, white housewives, by the way) who absolutely adore Oprah and almost religiously buy EVERY SINGLE book that she recommends on her show, and listen to her advice as though it were the gospel. (Richard, one of the people who ordered your book was probably my aunt in IL, because she does this as well.) That kind of sheer empty influence really irks me.

>i can no longer write music because
>youd just assume i did it only for money... (and i intend to make money
>too!) and every book you ever read was only published so the publisher
>and author could make money... where does media stop being bullshit and
>start being true?

No, no, no...I'll have to strongly disagree with you on this point. See, I make a very large distinction between television and ART. Do you honestly think that talk shows and sitcoms are creative, inspirational works of Art? I certainly don't. Personally, music is essential to my life, as no doubt it is to yours. Like anyone else, I make lots of judgments. One is this: Music, books, films, etc, are considered art. TV shows, and esp. talk shows and sitcoms, are pure rubbish. Of course there are subjective differences between all those, separating what's "good" and "bad" art, but to me television is just pure entertainment. Two points:

  1. When you listen to a song, be it your own or another artist's music, are there sponsers and commercial breaks by Pespi? (Negativland aside for a moment here.) A medium that you hear or view, like an album or a book is direct communication (and a higher and purer form at that) between the artist and the listener/reader. Televison is almost always too filtered and tainted by consumerism to be genuine art. In between the person and the subject lies a corporation.
  2. I am assuming that you make music, and I write fiction, because we LOVE to do it. Whether anyone hears/sees it or not doesn't really matter; the main satisfaction is creating it. Think of television. If *anything* on it was created but not viewed, it would be dead. Gone. Kaput. How can a talk show be truly inspired and arty if it were non-existent without greed, money, and ratings?

Uh....what was my point again? I don't know, but this all started as my simple slam on Oprah, and being peeved because Reed unjustly attacked my views, and caused irritation about a misunderstood remark involving Philosophy. I didn't mean to condemn the whole world as it sometimes seems.

For future reference, put a little mental note by every one of my sentences that reads "In My Humble Opinion". I don't think I'm the end-all of good taste and judgment. After all, the sharing of thoughts is what this list is all about, right?

"Bring Me The Head of Geraldo Rivera",
~kjs