Affirmative Actionless Oprah?

Oprah Winfrey, along with her gal-pal Gayle (who I love, if only Oprah was more like her. She's just fun), kicked off her $55 million network with a conversation, not so surprisingly, that centered on Oprah, and how successful she is (and she really is). This report from TMZ .com :

Oprah talked about her humble beginnings in Mississippi, and particularly about how her mother's highest aspiration for her was that she might end up cleaning white people's houses, because "they give away nice clothes." And then Oprah pointed out that now that she's Oprah, she has "all these white people" working for her, and that in fact there's only one black person on the staff.

What was that?

Oprah pointed out that now that she's Oprah, she has "all these white people" working for her, and that in fact there's only one black person on the staff.

Oh, OK.

I just want to point out to Oprah that the population of Chicago (home of Harpo Studios) is 30% African American. This community of a million strong has a 13% unemployment rate - nearly 3 times greater than the national average. Yet Oprah has a staff of all white people. Well if it makes Oprah feel better about herself I guess its ok with me.

Oh My Oprah.....

For the life of me I will never understand how Oprah (last name not needed) has become the American Icon. Without a doubt, she truly is. I am not even going to argue the point, she is an icon! It would be senseless to argue about it. Proof of this was yesterday, when every news show, every newspaper, every web site featured O's(full first name not needed) confrontation with author, James Frey. Only a true icon can demand that type of attention. But I have to ask, why? What has (I don't even have to say the name) done to earn such stature?

It's not to say I don't like Oprah, there is nothing really displeasurable about her or her show (well maybe we could do without all the tears), but really she is just a daytime talk show host. So what? You can't say she invented the genre, Phil Donohue did. You can't say she took the genre to a new direction (for lack of a better word), Jerry Springer did. She is not even a very good interviewer, recently she had Anthony Hopkins read the yellow pages to her, how original! I believe Johnny Carson had Eydie Gorme sing the yellow pages 30 years ago. Nonetheless, here we were yesterday getting Oprah Overload Disease (you won't find the cure here).....Oprah apologizing for being duped, outraged that she was lied to and shocked that she would be criticized for saying that the truth wasn't important. Indeed, shocked about being criticized, now that's an icon for you.