We here at TV Zone have an old saying - when you get four hundred and eighty four comments on a single post (when we usually average around zero) it's time to do another post on the same subject. And so here I go again. Of course, last Friday I chided the Drudge Report for milking the Oprah/Palin controversy for all it was worth, and I stand here now accused of the same.
And guilty as charged.
But clearly this has "hit a nerve," to use the old cliche, and I'm left wondering: Why? Many of the comments on Friday's post seem to get close to the answer (and when I gotta minute, will address some in the jump, below): That this is about OPRAH, and a newcomer to our national political stage, and the power of media, and the resonance of long-standing and long-rancorous debates over women in the workplace, and the balancing act of motherhood, and race.
Of the latter I was particularity struck by some commentators who averred that Oprah's refusal to have Sarah Palin on her show was in fact "racist," and that the talk host was herself racist. It's almost beneath my dignity or anyone else's to address those, but I will try. I've written about Oprah Winfrey for twenty years, at least. I've known dozens - dozens - of people who know her, worked with her, and even one or two who once hired her. I've watched her show hundreds of times - hundreds - and sometimes, oftentimes, liked what I've seen, and occasionally think it can be silly twaddle too. I - and so have you - have seen her change her look, her style, her weight, her hair and her entire life in the process. I've read the wit and wisdom of Oprah (one of Bill Adler's many books.) I've seen many of her movies and TV productions. I've written about and reviewed some of them, too.
I think I know Oprah, and Oprah is no racist. She has her faults - who doesn't? - but she also has a superhuman empathy and a fundamental decency that has never, not once, cracked over all these years or made me regret my support. She is the antithesis of a racist, which is: A decent, good person with an open heart, who welcomes anyone of any race or creed on her show, and always has. She's a credit to American television and in fact American culture. We're lucky to have her.
I thought it important to say this just so you know exactly where I stand.
But I also think she's being foolish with her No Palin stand. Now to my ten reasons. You may see repeats here, or variations on the original five, but frankly my dears, I don't give a damn. I'm exploiting this topic for all it's worth, and if I have to repeat myself in the process, than so be it.
I stand by my original premise: Oprah should have Gov. Sarah Palin on her show, and the sooner the better.
Ten more reasons why:
1.) This could help Obama win. That's right, O. Since you've become the fifth wheel of the Obama campaign, this is something to consider. How? Simply because many long-time O supporters - including Hillary fans - have decided you're in the bag for him, and will therefore censor contrarian viewpoints on your show. By having Palin on demonstrates you're above this criticism - that you have nothing to hide, and that your show is indeed a big tent for many viewpoints. That only helps Obama.
2.) You're bigger than mere politics! You're Oprah! Not Judge Judy. You're bigger than the small and grubby concerns of everyday life of a TV show, which is a perishable commodity anyway. Rise above it. Lead your viewers to the promised land, if you really believe you know the way. Debriefing Palin reveals not only your inherent fairness, but inherent decency as well.
3.) This is the show to set the record straight. Yeah sure, Charlie Gibson will interview her later this week, but a news interview with Gibson is ultimately one dimensional (he'll ask the questions, with his glasses tipped on the bridge of his nose, and peer avuncularly at her), but the combination of Oprah, and the Tom-Cruise-damaged couch and a studio audience is intoxicating; it adds another dimension, a more human one.
4.) You won't feel like an ass when Barbara interviews her, and gets her to tear up when she's talking about Trigg or Bristol. Whether you realize it or not, O, or chose not to realize it, you're in direct competition with Babs for agenda-setting interviews like this.
5.) This is woman to woman, as only O can do it. Oprah at her best gets into the head of the interviewee - that's her empathy at work. O and the rest of the audience will go places that Gibson or Brian Williams could never possibly go. You, O, can talk about children and one of the most incendiary topics in American life - pro-life or pro-choice - because these are issues YOU'RE intimately familiar with; the big anchordudes are not.
6.) This is about your legacy, to some small degree - to establish that you're a serious person, and not just the lady who gives away her favorite things every Christmas. You're a world-beater, the woman who knows Nelson Mandela, the woman who HAS interviewed presidents, the woman who HAS had a massive and indelible impact on race relations in the United States.
7.) I mentioned that O had disenfranchised McCain supporters with her Obamapalooza tour. What about Hill supporters? I suspect THEY want to see you have the moxie and honesty to interview this lady, and maybe ask about Hill. Many of them may not vote for McCain, but they do vote with their remotes, and this may be a way to get them to watch your show again.
8.) No worries about equal time. You have, O, a cake-and-eat-it-too gig; you're not a news program that has to worry about the provision of equal time; you won't HAVE to get on crackpot candidates afterward just because they insist they deserve equal time. This is an entertainment enterprise, not a news one.
9.) Palin represents what so many of your viewers are interested in - women in charge, the compromises they make or fear they have to make to get power, motherhood, and (of course) she has a special needs child too.
10.) You're a newswoman at heart, O, and people really do need to know more about this woman - what DOES she think about the bailout of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae? What ARE her feelings about race and gender equality? Sure, she could answer these questions in a news interview, but in a good Oprah interview, Palin'd also have to offer an emotional dimension to her answers, not just the rote answer that the McCain campaign has taught her to answer.
OK, those are my fifteen reasons. I believe this is an open-and-shut case. O, it's your move now.
Chicago Tribune photo by José M. Osorio