The Person Who Conditioned Others
The Person Who Conditioned Others
Journalism is classified within our minds into certain categories. I had to smile when Tiger Woods gave his first interview after his tragic fall from grace. One of the press reporters audaciously asked him, “How could you lie to so many for so long?” That, coming from a journalist, had to be the most ironic thing I had heard for a long time. But whether we like it or not, the media news is part theater and part information. Journalism that is crude or provocative is branded “tabloid.” There is a long list in this category. But if we can do the same thing with recognized personalities, we call it a talk show. Strange thing, this hero worship of ours.
Just reading a list of the programs featured by Oprah leaves one thoroughly perplexed by the power of an individual who, though clearly indulging in shock television, is passionately defended by her fans who don’t see her that way. Her interviews on sexual matters have often gone beyond the pale, and leave one questioning the true motives here. One of her biographies gives a word-by-word description of perversions that were the subjects of some of her programs, viewed by millions. In one instance, she interviewed a transsexual quadriplegic whose boyfriend’s sperm was inserted into her sister. The quadriplegic became the biological aunt/uncle and also adopted the child. When Oprah was strongly criticized for the program she said, “[Meeting the child] was just a moving thing. I thought, ‘This child will grow up with more love than most children.’ Before, I was one of those people who thought all homosexuals or anything like that were going to burn in hell because the Scriptures said it.”8
Quite clever, isn’t it… turning a story of criticism into a heroic one? Jeff Jarvis, the former television critic, wrote to her after one terribly explicit show, saying,
Oprah, you can’t act as if you don’t bear considerable responsibility for this. You brought sex to afternoon TV. Now I don’t think you should be fined for that and I don’t think you should be taken off the air for that; I just don’t watch you. But you’re doing nothing different from Howard Stern—except getting away with it. So cut your holier-than-thou disapproval of sex on the rest of TV. You are the Queen of Trash.9
This is where we are today. We locked Jim Bakker of PTL behind bars for years because he defrauded people of money. But there is no similar law against the seductive power of stories that actually exploit people. This is the postmodern version of the freak shows of years gone by. But here is the crucial step in impact: Once you have gained a following of such magnitude; once you can do no wrong by virtue of the adulation you receive; once you are one of the richest people in the world and can buy the companies that sponsor you; once you have a magical impact on the minds of people… is it not a short step to playing god in the minds of your followers?
But every human god-maker needs a god while playing god. Fame and success alone do not satisfy. Spirituality was truly the next step. You can’t make people feel good just by telling stories. You have to be drawn into the story itself and become a hero or heroine in that story. And so… the spiritual side of Oprah’s programming. Mystics, spiritual masters, all are in the lineup to give the viewer the feeling that she who has become all but deified in their eyes can now make each viewer just like them. What better way to do good than to make each person listening feel good while the spiritual master is instantly made rich just by being interviewed and the host becomes the pathway to hope and peace in the process? This is a win-win-win situation: The host, the guest, and the audience benefit… to say nothing of the advertiser and the station.
This is the free market at work, and the best win out. It is a long way from the wanderings of a Buddha or the sacrifice of the Son of God, but it has eye appeal in a time in history when gullibility is king and riches control appetite.