What is the appeal of Oprah Winfrey?
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KellySD |
What is the appeal of Oprah Winfrey? |
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Posts: 1828 (11/19/2009 9:43 PM) |
Not meaning to dis Oprah or anything. But as a non-watching, it is tough to gauge her appeal to her massive audience. So I thought I would pose the question to
JJB. Since I am sure a lot of JJBers watch Oprah.
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BeaUtiFuLiMperFektiOn |
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Posts: 7205 (11/19/2009 9:47 PM) |
Well as a female that almost has a Business degree, seeing her achieve what she has is amazing. She has created an empire and I want to be like her. It's
also special because I'm a black female and so seeing someone that looks like me at the top of her game is wonderful. I think she also represents an
everyday woman in a lot of ways.
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SusieMC |
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Posts: 1509 (11/19/2009 9:53 PM) |
I think she does a lot to help people live better lives as well as helping out a ton of people who are less fortunate. Not to mention the fact that if she
calls for something to get done, like the pedophile law getting passed a few years back or showing pictures of the 10 most wanted pedophiles....it gets done
and people get put in jail.
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blackcherry |
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Posts: 1093 (11/19/2009 10:07 PM) |
I watch her pretty much every day and I don't really even like her. I just think she has great topics. It seems that a lot of people go to her first to be
interviewed.
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KellySD |
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Posts: 1836 (11/19/2009 10:09 PM) |
blackcherry wrote:I have noticed this a lot. Perhaps people trust Oprah and feel she will be sympathetic to them. |
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Dana278 |
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Posts: 75508 (11/19/2009 10:14 PM) Most Generous JJBer '07 |
SusieMC wrote: I actually forgot about that until now. Why doesn't she keep up with that? |
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tiawani |
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Posts: 4992 (11/19/2009 10:15 PM) |
i love the fact that she has achieved so much.... but i have never been able to make it through a single episode of Oprah.
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PuraVidaPanama |
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Posts: 17670 (11/19/2009 10:17 PM) |
Just the fact that she has been a top rated TV show and been on the air for this long is quite a feat in itself. She kind of dethroned Donahue in his day
Plus, she was able to talk about topics that were of true interest to women initially, but found greater appeal in mass audiences. Different from a lot of trashy talks shows of the same time. |
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daisy bouquet |
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Posts: 1827 (11/19/2009 10:18 PM) |
I dont know what her appeal is but I wish I could figure it out and have people follow me that hardcore.
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XxBlondeshavemorefunxX |
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Posts: 12466 (11/19/2009 10:18 PM) |
I wonder this as well. Everyone talks about her like she's God and I don't get it.
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SusieMC |
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Posts: 1510 (11/19/2009 10:21 PM) |
Dana278 wrote:She never said, but when she did that, she was giving out $100,000 checks to people who gave tips to bring these people in. She could only have kept that up for so long. She has done a similar show this season with pictures of missing children scrolling across the screen the whole show. It's kind of sad she's ending, to be honest, I haven't seen another show - short of maybe the news stations - that motivates people to get off their asses and do something like hers does. I don't think people talk about her like she's a God, she's just someone who has a positive influence in people's lives....which is more than most celebrities nowadays. |
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joey is a teapot |
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Posts: 69482 (11/19/2009 10:27 PM) Joey Fanatic '06
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Oprah gets on my nerves these days but there'll always be a part of me that completely idolizes her. Just the fact that she got where she is being a black
woman - just being black OR a woman makes it a lot more difficult to really make it in the media, and once upon a time, being both made it damn near
impossible.
That and many of us gays have a special relationship with Oprah because of her support for the gay community. In the early days when her show was more about sensationalistic topics, she gave a lot of visibility to the GLBT community, which she continues to do today, but her show was one of the first to give more positive exposure to us. Especially the transgendered community, who in those days were often painted as freaks of nature, especially by sensationalist bullshit like Jerry Springer, which continues to exploit the transgendered community and paint them as complete freaks and perverts. She also stood up for the gay community on several occasions, back when it wasn't the most popular thing to do: An example of one such show by Winfrey occurred in the 1980s where for the entire hour, members of the studio audience stood up one by one, gave their name and announced that they were gay. Also in the 1980s Winfrey took her show to West Virginia to confront a town gripped by AIDS paranoia because a gay man living in the town had HIV. Winfrey interviewed the man who had become a social outcast, the town's mayor who drained a swimming pool in which the man had gone swimming, and debated with the town's hostile residents. "But I hear this is a God fearing town," Winfrey scolded the homophobic studio audience; "where's all that Christian love and understanding?" During a show on gay marriage in the 1990s, a woman in Winfrey's audience stood up to complain that gays were constantly flaunting their sex lives and she announced that she was tired of it. "You know what I'm tired of", replied Winfrey, "heterosexual males raping and sodomizing young girls. That's what I'm tired of." Her rebuttal inspired a screaming standing ovation from that show's studio audience.I guess that's why, as annoying and self-righteous as she is and as much of a self-parody as she's become, she still appeals to me. |
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guesswhatelse |
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Posts: 27907 (11/19/2009 10:27 PM) |
PuraVidaPanama wrote:Reminds me of something Paul Mooney said about her. I can't repeat it tho. |
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DoesThatSparkle |
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Posts: 6395 (11/19/2009 10:29 PM) |
The bitch got lucky, plain and simple. It's obvious she's ignorant on a lot of things, and obviously a HORRIBLE interviewer/host. It's called luck
and having a good team of people around her to make the important decisions/build her empire. She's just the face and name of it all.
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orangepeel19 |
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Posts: 16029 (11/19/2009 10:30 PM) Friendliest JJBer '09
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Oprah inspires a LOT of women.
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yankeefanNcali |
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Posts: 5447 (11/19/2009 10:34 PM) |
I like her shows because they are entertaining when I'm not in class. There are topics that I learn and she imo is a woman who used her brains and
inspiration to women and men. Plus a lot of things done on talk shows now she originated it. She taught women how to be confident and her topics go from
health, movies, news, family and bringing attention to many things. I love her "favorite things". Like my grandmother said one time. It was about
time for a woman to prove that we can use brains and class to be successful. Sometimes the sad topics are too emotional for me. She's done a lot of great
things for people and educating them. A lot of people admire her because she has good taste and have given good advice.
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joey is a teapot |
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Posts: 69483 (11/19/2009 10:35 PM) Joey Fanatic '06
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I fucking LOVE Favorite Things. I love watching people completely lose their shit over fucking cupcakes.
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PuraVidaPanama |
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Posts: 17673 (11/19/2009 10:37 PM) |
guesswhatelse wrote:Say it. If I know Paul Mooney it is something crazy |
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DoesThatSparkle |
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Posts: 6396 (11/19/2009 10:37 PM) |
Why are people acting like Oprah is the one actually putting these shows together and doing all this stuff herself? She has a team of people and producers,
etc. that are the ones who build the shows and topics. Absolutely any woman could have done what she has done given the opportunity. She goes out on stage and
talks to people...it's really not that difficult. She just came along at the right time.
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joey is a teapot |
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Posts: 69484 (11/19/2009 10:40 PM) Joey Fanatic '06
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DoesThatSparkle wrote:If that were the case, Queen Latifah, Roseanne, Vicki Lawrence, Gabrielle Carteris, Megan Mullally, etc.'s shows would all still be on the air. There has to be something there to make a talk show successful enough to last more than a year or two. |
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DoesThatSparkle |
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Posts: 6397 (11/19/2009 10:42 PM) |
joey is a teapot wrote:Yeah, it's called the crew, the producers, the "behind the scenes" people, etc. It has nothing to do with Oprah herself and everything to do with her marketing, and the people behind the scenes who do the real work. She was blessed/lucked out with a good team and reaps the benefits of it. |
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