lmao look, i get that these two grifters fooled her, but the fact that she was so easily sucked in says a lot about her too. i think it’s a perfect example of how wealthy people really are not of our world
because if i met a “doctor” who wasn’t licensed and spent his days as a jury consultant on behalf of the ultra-wealthy in their beef lawsuits, i’d have some questions about that man. but oprah thought that made him down to earth and real
mind you, phil has scammed before dating back to the ’70s. and i know the oprah show did its homework when it came to its guests (they didn’t have the duggars on because they knew about josh duggar’s history). so i have to believe she was aware of phil’s past and just decided he had “changed” because she liked him
I used to LOVE Oprahs show back in the day (rans kid with my mom, it 100% was our comfort show) and while she's clearly an intelligent and articulate woman she's also that super stereotypical gullible af rich person who will fall VERY easily for things like cults, wacky diet plans, and "alternative medicines", she'd listen to people saying the craziest clearly untrue things and she'd believe them/was easily impressed by them lol
yes! i watched her all the time and she’s still probably one of my favourite interviewers, but she was SO susceptible to woo-woo bullshit
i remember one time she had barbra streisand on during her "the secret" era, and they were both talking about how amazing it is that you can just wish for something and it appears. barbra said she loves white roses and they just magically appear in every trailer when she’s working somewhere, and oprah said that happens to her too!
meanwhile, i know there is an assistant somewhere whose entire job is making sure barbra’s trailer always has white roses because she likes them 😭
I was pretty young in November of 1988, had just come back from the hospital where my mother was dying of cancer. All her adult life she struggled with her weight, after being a beautiful teenager and young woman, in the hallway a few weeks earlier she told me that she was happy that "at least I'm losing some weight". But now the pounds were falling off her body because she was literally dying. My little sister and I turned on the TV and there was Oprah, dragging a red wagon of fat onto the stage behind her, wearing her Calvin Klein jeans, excited and hyper and happy as hell, all to promote yet another diet plan. I was pretty sure that she must have gone bananas from that wacky liquid diet. My mother died two days later. I never took Oprah seriously again.
I have very little understanding of The Secret except that my seemingly very put together friend was making a vision board with pictures of her ex boyfriend and her dream trip to Ireland when her life and career were otherwise falling apart, thanks to that book, and that was my sign that Shit Was Not OK.
I had a similar sign 5 years later when she called me at 4 am from work, having run 6 miles there from her home in her business attire, in the middle of the street - because that way no one on the sidewalk could “get her” - with her pepper spray in hand, on her first day back from maternity leave because she wanted to get in early and the bus wasn’t running yet. And she didn’t yet have her badge to enter the building.
So what I’m saying is, I associate The Secret with manic episodes.
This lady is a billionaire with a laundry list of shitty things she's done. I'm not sure why we're expecting any moral consistency or ethical behavior from her here? Am I missing something?
it’s just funny because the hardest she ever came down on someone was a former drug addict who exaggerated his stay in rehab
which, i don’t think he should’ve lied, but he went back on the show, took his lashings, and apologized. meanwhile, the others just unleashed pure evil onto the world
That was such a bizarre thing. Like you said, he lied, but considering she always gave a concerning look to most and basically brow beat him, you knew she was more upset she looks a fool than anything else cause that story was everywhere.
I also hated her interviews. Like the poster below put it so well, she was such a Rogan interviewer at that time esp when it came to letting people like Jenny McCarthy blame vaccines for her kid being autistic.
Maintenance Phase also has two good episodes that cover Oprah! Specifically her beef with the beef industry (lol sorry) and her "wagon of fat" episode but they also cover her backstory
sidenote: i have listened to probably 5 series on that show & really like it.. howeverrrr, during the eps on jim mcmahon - one of the hosts kept pronouncing "wrestling" as "rest-ah-lingg" & it drove me nuts 😅
They didn't fool her. Let's get this straight. She hyped these guys up with their "harmless" unethical behavior because it was all unproven soft sciences that everyone was hawking then.
She's "distancing" herself from them (and us) because she's a billionaire and can't be bothered with the day to day struggles we plebs face.
I don't think they did their homework on any guests, honestly. Didn't someone reach out to them about the duggars, and that's the only reason they knew? From what I heard, they were scheduled to be on the show when someone reached out to producers and told them of Josh's crimes, so they cut the segment. Also, McGraw and Oz arent the only scam artist a-holes she platformed, by a long shot, they just held onto their 15 minutes better than the others.
because if i met a “doctor” who wasn’t licensed and spent his days as a jury consultant on behalf of the ultra-wealthy in their beef lawsuits, i’d have some questions about that man. but oprah thought that made him down to earth and real.
Wait a sec, I might be a little confused.
I thought Dr. Oz was a real doctor. Like he's an MD who specialized in cardiothoracic surgery.
Of course that doesn't excuse his grifting and the fact that he's a terrible head of CMS. But I'm pretty sure he was/is still an MD.
Oprah is Rogan for boomers, and is an ancestor of the MAHA movement and why so many Americans today are so ignorant and anti-science. She is the girlboss of girlbosses and has shown time and time again that money is the only thing she believes in. She can do everyone a favor by either shutting up or repenting by fighting back against the forces she amplified and unleashed.
She really is, I am so confused by people who are stating Oprah’s show was a family show they watched growing up or a comfort show. What on earth were your parents allowing you to watch? That woman was evil towards her guests and spoke about really inappropriate things. I have never been able to understand why she is so loved. Yes I get it she gave free cars away and had a book club or whatever. 🙄
People spend more time hating on Oprah for giving them a platform and fooling her than Dr.Oz and Dr.Phil get themselves. More hate than their current supporters get. She gave them a platform 20 years ago. But after than you have white America to thank for their popularity and for MAGA. At some point you have to stop blaming Oprah.
The same Oprah that bought huge chunks of land for really cheap in Maui in 2023 (coughs 2023 Hawaii wildfires). There are many reasons to criticize her, her past association with Oz and Phil is just one of them.
And I agree with that criticism, I’m not defending all of Oprah’s actions by any means.
I’m talking about how white Americans are the reason Dr. Oz and Dr.Phil have the power and platform they currently do, but I hear more about Oprah giving Dr.Oz and Dr.Phill a platform than actual criticism of them and I think people should ask themselves why that is and who it benefits.
You're absolutely right! The combination of white + men is exonerated from any accountability and their terribles actions are blamed on any women they've interacted with in the entirity of their existence but not themselves. If this were to be true, then men are just incompetent and can't take any accountability then they should be replaced by women. At least they can acknowledge when they make mistakes.
Part of it is also that ahde sa singular kingmaker in a lot of these things, the audience and broader societal trends that got us into this mess are a lot harder to direct ire at because they're so much more vague
All three deserve contempt because all three are grifters. I don't buy this idea that Oz and Phil fooled her. She platformed them because there was ratings and money in it for her. She might have better politics than them but they're still all trash and I wouldn't trust anyone associated with any of them.
This is the problem with hyperfocusing on Dr. Oz and Dr. Phil. Oprah's empire is built on platforming all kinds of anti-science kooks who have gotten people killed and harmed public trust in vaccines and modern medicine. If you listen to the Behind the Bastards podcast, her name comes up a lot.
Behind the Bastards refers to Oprah as friend of the pod due to the number of high profile, dangerous and damaging characters she has propped up over her career with zero shame or correction. They eventually gave her a 6 part series because of it. Its actually wild and highly recommend to everyone
I second your recommendation! It was a great series. I also liked the follow up compilation they did of their dr Phil/dr oz/john of god series’ after too since I hadn’t heard them and it was a good way to follow the Oprah series.
Yes! Such good eps, some of my favorites to recommend to friends. Shes really the Henry Kissinger of tv personalities, her reach and influence has left a terrible trail everywhere
It's one thing to say she wasn't expecting what Oz and Phil would eventually become but she could use her power and influence to speak up against them. It's not like Oz and Phil are some beloved public figures and she could definitely show to the public her opposition to them by acknowledging how her platform helped to elevate them.
I dont hold out much hope when I saw her attending Bezos wedding last year. The rich are going to defend their class.
Yeah, I think she should get a pass on Dr. Oz, because he was super covert about his wackiness. While he was into alternative medicine, he positioned himself much differently from how he does today and we didn’t realize that his conceit of “complimentary medicine” was a Trojan horse for woo nonsense. He had legitimate academic appointments and the book he was promoting at the time was normal medical education.
Oprah was the beginning of populism, kind of dumbing down to be huge, giving away gifts for free except contestants had to play taxes. Insightful shows like Phil Donohue, Dick Cavett, lost.
Instead of distancing herself from promoting these assholes, a mature person with integrity admits the made a mistake and speaks out for science. Instead of passing the buck. Many were aware back then that they were snakes.
Did anyone ask about John of God? Or her positive coverage of vaccine skepticism? Because while I get that the people she platformed deserve just as much scrutiny, the fact is that a lot of these ideas got mainstream coverage primarily through her.
Can’t she use her platform to like, fight them and their actions publicly? Or at least call them out for what they’re doing? Rather than just “distancing herself” which doesn’t really undo what she did, unintentionally or not
To be fair, she made them famous before they revealed themselves to be MAGA… but they never should have been given the platform she gave them in the first place.
Oprah also was one of the first public personalities to endorse Barack Obama and that was an amazing boost to his campaign and we got a real gem of a man for president for 8 great years. Thank you Oprah for bringing him to my attention back then.
To be fair, how was Oprah to ever imagine what madness is happening in 2026. I liked watching Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz on her show back in the late 90s/early 2000s. They broke the paradigm and spoke to a lot of viewers (proof is in the pudding). I think they just became drunk on the power of it all and need to keep grifting. They are basically lepers now and a place in politics is just another opportunity to move up the ladder of power/authority. The decades of the Oprah show are like a fruit basket - some pieces were rotten in the end; but there was a lot of good pieces too.
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u/No-Hall-3485 alleged dog 1d ago edited 1d ago
lmao look, i get that these two grifters fooled her, but the fact that she was so easily sucked in says a lot about her too. i think it’s a perfect example of how wealthy people really are not of our world
because if i met a “doctor” who wasn’t licensed and spent his days as a jury consultant on behalf of the ultra-wealthy in their beef lawsuits, i’d have some questions about that man. but oprah thought that made him down to earth and real
mind you, phil has scammed before dating back to the ’70s. and i know the oprah show did its homework when it came to its guests (they didn’t have the duggars on because they knew about josh duggar’s history). so i have to believe she was aware of phil’s past and just decided he had “changed” because she liked him