Oprah!

Carl Olson at Ignatius Insight dares take on the Mighty Oprah.

There's no doubt that Oprah has a tremendous impact on the views and emotional lives of numerous viewers. So much so that a December 2006 AP-AOL poll had Oprah in third place (behind President Bush and American troops, and tied with Jesus and Barack Obama) in response to the question: "If you were asked to name a famous person to be the biggest hero of the year, whom would you choose?" Pope Benedict XVI was far down the list, of course.

One of the few times I ever watched Oprah at length (more than 30 seconds) was when musician/singer Sting (aka, Gordon Sumner) was interviewed. When Sting described how he had left his first wife to be with his second and current wife, Oprah and the audience erupted in passionate, adoring applause. Apparently this was in response to Sting's earnest explanation that he committed adultery and abandoned his first wife (well, he didn't put it that way) because he "had to be true" to himself and he couldn't waste away in an unhappy relationship—after all, his mother had done so, and he saw what that did to her.

And that is likely a big element of Oprah's appeal: the constant message of "be true to yourself," believe in yourself, create your own destiny, follow your own path, blah, blah, blah. After all, it worked for Sting (no word, of course, about Sting's first wife. Celebrity trumps feminism, I suppose)... MORE

Olson is now trying to wait out the 30,000 Oprah fans who have surrounded his home demanding that he recant this heresy. Oprah must be obeyed without question. All hail Oprah!