Classical Values :: Getting up to speed with the eyelashes and backlashes

September 08, 2008

Getting up to speed with the eyelashes and backlashes

Abe Greenwald has a post titled "Oprah Windbag" -- the gist of which is that Oprah Winfrey is (surprise) putting politics ahead of her purported tear-driven concerns about children with Down's Syndrome.

Apparently, her concerns are so tear-soaked that her false eyelashes are affected:

The web of "spiritual" gobbledygook around the Oprah Winfrey phenomenon is as thick and tacky as the fake eye-lashes she cried off her face during Barack Obama's speech last Thursday. But if you do decide to "Live Your Best Life" and venture into the misty realms of Oprah's "Angel Network," you'll find on her web page a dropdown menu under "Spirit," and the last option there-after "Know Yourself," "Inspiration," "Emotional Health," and "Body Image"-is "Martha Beck." Beck is one of the luminaries in Oprah's pantheon of guru saints, and if I were her I'd be severing all ties with Oprah today.

I can't sever my ties with Oprah, because in all the years she's been on I have never watched an entire episode of the show. The snippets I did see on occasion (when flipping through the channels) struck me as emotional, manipulative, and insincere. So I just wasn't a fan, and I can't sever my ties. Nor do I wear false eyelashes which might detach if I started bawling.

But I guess millions of people are influenced by Oprah's falling eyelashes. And something called a "kindness chain":

...if she believes in a fraction of what she celebrates about Beck's story and really wants to "start a kindness chain" as she professes on her website then she should explain to Beck, and her own audience, why she's refusing to have Sarah Palin on her show. What greater living exemplar of all the sentiments expressed above than Sarah Palin - a woman whose unconditional love for her Down's Syndrome child could serve as a the most effective public object lesson imaginable. Oprah should explain to Beck, and her trusting audience, why on Dec 4, 2007, she put out a casting call for "10 to 11 year olds with DS [Down Syndrome] and good speaking skills" to "say a line for [her] Martin Luther King episode," but after crying her eyelashes off on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream Speech," she is refusing to have on her show a mother who embodies the spirit of love and acceptance professed by Dr. King. She needs to tell Martha Beck: "Yeah, I know about your son, and I know about my whole pledge to change lives for the better and all that, but you see, the thing is I signed on to support Barack Obama, and I have to stay true to his message of hope, change, and the American promise."

I don't know how the show works, but maybe Oprah needs more tears and more detachable eyelashes to deal with the inevitable backlashes.

Millions care.

(Really?)

posted by Eric on 09.08.08 at 09:37 AM

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Comments

Oprah lives in Chicago. She has her studio in Chicago. It would be unfortunate for her if there was a bad fire in the studio or she was a victim of gang warfare.

The audience fall off may be costing her money. The alternative question is how much is it worth to her to stay alive?

M. Simon · September 8, 2008 11:19 AM

When the chips were down, all the concern for others took a back seat to identity politics.

Assistant Village Idiot · September 8, 2008 12:32 PM

Could it be a financial problem in another way also? Using her celebrity to promote Obama is one thing, but using her show to promote him alone has a $$ value doesn't it?

Could that be why she's refused to have any of the candidates on since she publicly announced her support of Obama?

Not that I care a great deal either way. I've never been a fan of her show because it's always "struck me as emotional, manipulative, and insincere" as well.

Donna B. · September 8, 2008 07:14 PM