Oprah, Satan’s chosen one
By Dane Mannina
Oprah Winfrey is quite possibly the Anti-Christ.
Heavy is the head that wears the crown for the highest paid African-American woman in the world, as well as the highest paid television personality. Grossing more than $260 million a year from the Oprah show and its subsidiaries, the next highest-paid television personality is Britain’s bad-boy talent scout Simon Cowell, posting a paltry $45 million.
Some say Oprah must make a ridiculous amount of money from her television show and its subsequent products – 1.9 billion, total – but Oprah is damn near the most charitable person alive! After all, she has her own reality TV show titled “Oprah’s Big Give.” And let’s not forget Oprah’s “Favorite Things” seasonal episode where she gives tons of free gifts to audience members.
But do you know what else she loves to give away? Tax bills. For all the “gifts” that Oprah gives, audience members must pay a hefty tax fee stipulated by the IRS of up to 44 percent the total of those gifts.
Recently Oprah gave a Pontiac G6s to each person of the 256-member audience. Everyone went apes**t on live television, but that reaction probably couldn’t compare to the one they gave after the show when the cameras were turned off and they discovered that their new $28,000 car came with a $7,000 tax bill. On another show, Oprah saluted her audience of hard-working teachers with $8,000 worth of gifts. Realistically, Oprah’s “Favorite Things” episode is just a shameless plug of items she is paid to endorse. In all honesty, though, the poor can’t afford Oprah’s charity. Furthermore, Oprah’s giving only amounts to about 2 percent of her net income yearly, which is nothing compared to a real philanthropist like Bill Gates, who has given more than $36 billion of his once-estimated total of $101 billion. This also included a generous $1 billion donation to the United Negro College Fund.
But that’s nothing compared to what Oprah has done for African Americans, right? After all, Oprah opened that school for South African girls. That’s got to buy her some street cred in the category of “living saints,” right?
You tell me. Oprah built and donated a $40-million “girl’s leadership academy” to the children of South Africa. It has 28 buildings, including a yoga studio. The girls have spacious closets, 200 thread-count sheets and eat on fine China. It’s surely every poor South African girl’s dream.
Well, it is only the dream of 150 South Africans. That’s right – only 150 girls out of nearly 15 million children in South Africa attend the school.
But worse than telling us what items to buy on a seasonal basis, Oprah tells us which books to read. Besides the stock value increases of all products that Oprah puts her trademark stamp upon, every book that Oprah adds to her globe-spanning book club reaches the best-seller list.
Everyone recalls the “A Million Little Pieces” incident where the author, James Frey, was caught lying about subject matter in his novel about his personal struggle with drug addiction. He was brought back on the show and berated by Oprah for his treason. But this incident is my case in point: For a time, America was happily reading a book of lies spoon-fed to them by the hand that feeds.
Oprah also tells us which political candidate to pick. Oprah recently endorsed Barack Obama with her household name. A recent release of the “Celebrity Trust Index” named Oprah as the most trustworthy female celebrity. Obama’s wife recently wrote a tribute in Time’s Top 100 People in which she said, “[Oprah] challenges us to make the world as it is the world as it should be. And she is always the first to show us how it can be done.”
Personally, it frightens me that the future First Lady of the United States is taking notes from Oprah, first and foremost.
Daily, the Oprah show has an estimated viewing audience of 14 million people, which is only a few million shy of the national average of Christians who attend mass weekly in the U.S. Altogether, Oprah has two television shows, the famous O magazine, an XFM radio broadcast, and an upcoming launch of her new television station, The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN).
Worldwide, Oprah has 49 million “devout followers,” as the Associated Press calls them, in 132 countries. Wasn’t there someone else who had 49 million devout followers? Oh, that’s right: Hitler. But, unfortunately for him, Hitler chose politics instead of capitalism. Perhaps if Hitler had launched a book club and radio broadcast program, we’d all be speaking German right now.
Oprah recently put her seal of approval on Eckhart Tolle’s book, “A New Earth,” a new age book which contemplates the possibility of numerous ways to get to “heaven” besides just accepting the savior or beliefs of standardized religions. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for the freedom of religion or the right to choose not to practice.
However, a lot of people say, “Oprah has always been pushing ‘new age’ ideas; it’s no surprise that she endorses this.” And that is precisely what scares me most.
She constantly pushes New Age reasoning that calls for the breakdown of organized religion which, she must have realized, is quite possibly the only force capable of stopping her from taking complete control of a large faction of the world. If the average person isn’t turning to the institution of organized religion to help them with their life choices and daily living, who will they turn to? The one person who tells them what to read, what to buy, how to lead their own lives and how to raise their children. Oprah Winfrey, their new savior.
Now you may think I’m crazy, and you may be right. But let’s just leave it at this: I’m not going to be purchasing any Oprah-endorsed Kool-Aid released in the near future.
Originally Published: Issue 657 - July 2, 2008
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