OPRAH AND TOWN: A claim is not a "revelation"...

 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17, 2021

...even when made by a royal: Frankly, we were shocked by something we saw in this morning's Washington Post.

What we saw involved an accurate journalistic assessment. Here's the first part of what we saw:

Michelle Obama addresses Meghan’s accusations

That link was proffered on the Post's web site, on the page called "Today's Print Stories." 

Already, we were surprised. When we clicked that link and went to to the "story" in question, we were shocked—and pleased—all over again. 

Why were we surprised and pleased? The headline stop the "story"—actually, it was a news report—actually said this:

What Michelle Obama had to say about Meghan’s claims of racism within the British royal family

Goodness gracious and holy smokes! There the Post went again! 

Basically, it's unheard of! The editor or editors who composed that link and that headline actually understood an amazingly elementary fact. That amazingly elementary fact would be this:

Even if a person being interviewed is a celebrity or a royal, the fact that she has made some claim doesn't mean that her statement is accurate.

We're sorry, but no. A statement doesn't become a "revelation" just because a celebrity makes it, on TV no less! It remains a claim, or an accusation, until it's furthered explored. Amazingly, the journalists who compiled that link and that headline in today's Post understood this amazingly basic fact.

In the matter under review, the claims in question are those which were made by the former Meghan Markle, who is now a semi-royal. The claims were made during Markle's recent interview with Oprah Winfrey, who's a bit of a royal herself within the childish understanding which widely prevails in Our Town. 

During the two-hour interview, Meghan made various statements and claims, all of which may be perfectly accurate. But you can't be sure that a statement is true just because a celebrity made it, on TV, as she spoke to an even larger celeb.

You can't assume that a statement is true just because a celebrity made it! In the wake of this "globe-rocking interview," very few of our major journalists seemed to be familiar with this astoundingly basic point.

Meghan made an array of claims during the two-hour session. To the extent that her claims were precise enough to be assessed, all of her claims may be true. 

That said, at least one of her claim has already been contradicted, or so The Daily Beast has said. It's possible that this claim was based on a misunderstanding of some kind. As with every other claim, it's possible that this claim wasn't wholly accurate.

We don't know if that statement was inaccurate; we just know that it could have been. It's possible that the challenge to the claim is bogus. How's a rube to know?

You'd think that every journalist would understand this basic fact—a statement, claim or accusation doesn't automatically count as a "revelation." But in the wake of this globe-rocking session, very few major journalists seemed to.

Here, for example, is the way Emily Yahr described the interview in a lugubrious profile in praise of Oprah in the Washington Post. She did so with the permission of her editors, or perhaps at their active direction:

YAHR (3/12/21): The special also cemented Winfrey’s reputation as one of the best interviewers in the business—a fact that garnered renewed attention this week after Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, dropped bombshell after bombshell in an explosive interview with Winfrey on Sunday night on CBS. The next day, the Internet was abuzz with the horrifying revelations, including the royals declining to offer help to Meghan when she suffered from suicidal thoughts and Harry’s conversation with a family member who expressed concern about the darkness of his son’s skin color.

The next most-discussed topic, however, was Winfrey herself. In news articles and on social media, viewers dissected her “master class” in interviewing. They focused on her shrewd ability to zero in on the most important details, as well as ask follow-up questions that elicited shocking responses, while expressing empathy and appearing so personable that viewers felt invested.

Oprah knew how to elicit shocking responses. It was a master class!

Within the framework offered by Yahr (and her editors), the Duke and the Duchess dropped bombshell after bombshell during the lengthy session. It had been an explosive interview.

Thanks to Yahr's editors, these bombshells were instantly granted the status of "revelations." Somehow, we were supposed to assume that the bombshell statements of the celebrity royals were all true. 

The statements weren't just revelations, they were also horrifying. Yahr cited two examples, omitting the bombshell in which the Duchess lodged her claim about which royal made which royal cry about the bridesmaids' dresses.

As we noted yesterday, that had bene Bombshell #2 in a listing at New York magazine. Even the rollicking gods on Olympus chose to avert their eyes.

We'll assume this framework came from Yahr's editors, not from Yahr herself. That said, it was a very common journalistic framework across the sweep of the upper-end press corps.

Journalists rushed to assume the accuracy of every word the Duke and the Duchess had said, while falling on the ground in supplication to Oprah's manifest greatness. Our upper-end press corps has functioned in such ways for decades at this point.

As Yahr continued, her editors forced her to spill with praise for Our Own Royal's manifest greatness. Such disinterested figures as Gayle King and Al Roker were quoted as they gushed on the subject, though we'll admit that we were drawn up short when we encountered this passage:

YAHR: “There’s nothing like the reach of a broadcast TV network,” said [Ted] Harbert, who stepped down as NBC Broadcasting chairman in 2016 after 40 years in the TV industry, including serving as ABC’s president of entertainment. And Winfrey is well aware of the power of the platform: Nearly 18 million people in the United States tuned in to see Meghan and Harry, making it the most-watched entertainment special since last year’s Academy Awards.

Say what? The CBS show which rocked the globe was an entertainment special? The performance which won Oprah all that praise hadn't been an attempt at journalism at all?

Citizens, can we talk? Across the spectrum, journalists reacted to this two-hour entertainment special in a way which ought to be shocking, but certainly wasn't surprising. They seemed to think that a statement achieves the status of obvious truth just because a Duke or a Duchess has made the statement to Oprah.

It really can't get dumber than that. But as our nation has slid toward the sea,  our journalism has labored under such childish frameworks  for a very long time now. 

For those with two brain cells in their heads, the lengthy discussion of the bridesmaids' dresses should have registered as an abomination. Just for a moment, consider:

Children are drowning in the Mediterranean, with their parents, as they try to reach Europe. Low-income kids have gone without school or a year in this, our very own nation.

According to the New York Times, "The frequency of mass kidnappings of girls and boys at boarding schools in northwestern Nigeria is rising in part because abduction has become a growth industry amid the country’s economic crisis." And  there sat Oprah, worrying hard, and at great length, about the crying over the bridesmaids' dresses, a royal / celebrity crisis which dates to 2018.

In a world which cared about anything at all, behavior like that would consign the entertainer in question to the lowest rungs of society. In our society, this disgraceful misplacement of royal concern was instantly scored at the latest proof of Our Own Queen's manifest greatness.

(For a film which comments on the inability of many people to care about anything at all, we'll direct you to Promising Young Woman, a film which has seemed to make some high-end journalists nervous.)

Around the dial, the children went wild, nowhere more so than at Slate. The children have little on their tiny minds except the frameworks they find in their scripts, and the children were eager to prove it.

Once again, we're going to postpone the roll call from Slate. Tomorrow, we'll plan to start right there, then move on to the claim by the Duchess, and then by the Duke, which drew the most attention.

We refer to the allegations of racism, or of something very much like it, which emerged from Oprah's master class in entertainment journalism.  These are the accusations and claims to which Michelle Obama has responded in the "story" in this morning's Post.

The scribes all claimed to be upset by these horrifying revelations. As our nation continues to slide toward the sea, how much of that was mandated, scripted—performative? 

To what extent were our upper-end journalist simply performing their latest scripts? And while we're at it, let's try to parse this:

What did the Duke and the Duchess actually say about this important topic? What was their actual statement? What was their actual claim?

Tomorrow: The Queen's rather obvious fail


43 comments:

  1. "with Oprah Winfrey, who's a bit of a royal herself within the childish understanding which widely prevails in Our Town."

    Somerby just loves to disparage women with power. Oprah is a huge financial and professional success and thus is a household name. No one considers her royal in the US. This is Somerby's childish way of taking her down a notch.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is Somerby's childish way of taking her down a notch only in your emotionally subjective and neurotic evaluation, nothing else. It's not anyone else's fault you are crazy and have no sense of power or self-worth.

      Delete
    2. Do you imagine this defends Somerby in some way?

      Delete
    3. No one need be defended against the subjective bleatings of an obsessed, insecure lunatic.

      Delete
    4. Took you a long time to come back with this -- did you have to look up the big words?

      Delete
    5. "subjective bleatings of an obsessed, insecure lunatic" describes Somerby to a T.

      Delete
    6. No, it describes you. A major journalist would not call and commiserate with Somerby's ideas if he were as stupid and as insane you are, someone who isn't even capable of understanding what Somerby's overreaching premise is, let alone see how it is important.

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  2. Why? Because Oprah, unlike the King we just bounced, is a successful businessperson?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Could be worse. Oprah could be distracting us with fantasies about cancel culture.

    ReplyDelete
  4. "Somehow, we were supposed to assume that the bombshell statements of the celebrity royals were all true."

    The only evidence Somerby cites of untruth is a quibble over whether the backyard wedding described as occurring 3-days before the public wedding was strictly legal under the rules of the Church of England, which says it does not perform backyard weddings at all. There is no dispute about whether a "wedding" of sorts took place, only about its legal status, which is moot given the ceremony three days later. The Church calls this a misunderstanding. Somerby wishes to call it an untruth.

    Life can be complex. Somerby's black-and-white thinking about such issues, calling something that is complicated "untrue" instead of describing the nuances, is unhelpful. He obviously does this to besmirch the statements of the royal couple and undermine Oprah. In a larger view, this is part of Somerby's campaign to undermine the credibility of the media so that people will believe rumors and garbage from Tucker and Fox News (who he rarely criticizes) while being highly critical of everyday media reports.

    Nitpicks about the status of the informal garden wedding do not change the larger claims. They do not reveal Meghan and Harry to be liars and they do not defend the royal family against charges of racism. They just make Somerby look desperate to discredit what was said. And why does Somerby go to all this effort? He doesn't say, but he is clearly working overtime to show that when a famous movie star says that even she experiences racism, she must be full of shit, because women never tell the truth (even Oprah).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Somerby has said this :

      “During the two-hour interview, Meghan made various statements and claims, all of which may be perfectly accurate. But you can't be sure that a statement is true just because a celebrity made it, on TV, as she spoke to an even larger celeb.”

      Is it too exacting to say that Markel’s claims may be entirely accurate, but at this point we don’t know to what extent they may be influenced by misperceptions or misunderstandings.

      Afterall, is it too fine a point that Markel either did not know that she wasn’t legally married in her backyard of that she was so imprecise in her description of what happened as to have caused the church to have made a public correction?

      Such misperceptions or unintentional misinformation doesn’t make her a bad person, or unreliable as to everything. It means that she human like the rest of us.

      Which is such an obvious a point that you have to accuse Somerby of bad faith, being too literal or persnickety, overwrought...all the things Somerby has NOT called Megyn and Harry... in order to discredit what is common sense.

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    2. If you have been here for a long time, as you claim, you will know that Somerby always protects himself by saying something reasonable before proceeding with the trashing or the opposite of that reasonable statement.

      Somerby cannot have this two ways. Either her statements are accurate (perfectly accurate is a ridiculous standard, which permits him to find flaw) or they are not. If he has reason to believe they are not, he can dispute them, but you cannot say that she should be disbelieved just because she is a celebrity and celebrities shouldn't be assumed to be truthful.

      In interactions with others, people assume that those who make statements are being truthful unless there is evidence otherwise. It does not facilitate conversation or social cooperation to assume the opposite. Yet Somerby is urging just that. It violates the pragmatics of communication, that's why it is specious reasoning and an unfair debate tactic.

      All communication is influenced by differences in perception and by misunderstandings. You clarify these by asking questions, not doubt everything.

      Are you aware that you are misspelling Markle's name? Shall I assume that was intentional? Somerby would, since it hasn't been proven that your intentions were sincere.

      Somerby hasn't proven that she lied about anything, nor that she was mistaken about anything. If a ceremony was held, then she told the truth, regardless of how the Church of England regards it. The Church's snotty correction is an excellent example of the animosity directed toward Markle. Someone who liked her wouldn't have bothered embarrassing her that way, especially given that she is a royal. It is a subtle way of telling her that she doesn't belong and isn't wanted there (a Briton would have known better). It is certainly not her fault, which you imply by excusing her.

      Your "common sense" and mine seem to have no overlap.

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    3. Anonymouse 2:17pm, here we have more argument on the line that Somerby is not really saying what he said. He’s no asking you to not to jump to a judgment, he’s telling you to not believe..... and anyway, not believing the couple is a denial of racism...

      So round and round... the circle we go...with you deep thinkers.

      If you had bothered to read the Daily Beast piece you would know that the record was corrected because the church has been deluged with reguests for home weddings because of the pandemic.

      I realize details like don’t matter. All that does matter is what you pull out of your butt from day to day.

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    4. I did read the Daily Beast piece and I don't recall that part. I don't think it justifies embarrassing a member of the royal family, as they did. I still think that it was a flimsy excuse and that their attack was an example of racism. I think this because there were so many similar attacks on Meghan and they can't all be for mundane reasons like the one you cite, especially when Kate didn't get the same treatment.

      Maybe this is a matter of you not placing anything in a broader context, taking everyone at face value, in exactly the manner that Somerby presents it. In other words, being unable to read between-the-lines on social issues.

      If Somerby can pull things out of his butt, so can I. You seem to like it when Somerby does it, but not when I do. That suggests support for Somerby's butt farts, and that in itself is more proof that Somerby is no liberal and that the things he is saying here are not anything liberals would endorse or believe.

      Like I said, it is always nicer when you aren't here. One dose of Somerby is enough without you making your stupid quips and shitting on everyone else's comments.

      Delete
    5. Not surprising that a Trumptard like TDH has conservative followers, trolls like Mao.

      But where is deadrodent ? Did TDH finally decide it wasn't worth posting under a psuedonym ?

      Delete
    6. Anonymous 4:27pm, quit making idiotic comments and I’ll quit disputing them.

      No, people don’t take it for granted that other people are automatically telling the truth when they make claims that cast other people in a bad light.

      How does your behavior here reflect that nonsense?

      No, it’s not just a matter of asking accusers further questions in order to verify their claims. Yet another asinine (forgive the pun) statement you’ve pulled out of your butt.

      The Queen has expressly responded that other people’s recollections vary. Are they people too? Should you be declaring that we should default to their recollections because they perceived what they perceived?

      If so then Oprah and her audience can just move on about their business merrily merrily merrily life is but a dream.

      You, on the other hand, will keep tugging at your bum and pulling out gems cuz Somerby...

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    7. So, you want to throw out psycholinguistics in favor of your personal opinion. Have at it.

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    8. Anonymous 9:23pm, you’ve thrown out all common sense simply in order to diss a blogger.

      Psycholinguistics asks that you very kindly leave it out of your nonsense.

      Delete
  5. 'Children are drowning in the Mediterranean, with their parents, as they try to reach Europe. Low-income kids have gone without school or a year in this, our very own nation.'

    And Somerby spent the entire 4 years attacking liberals, Rachael Maddow etc. and defending Donald Trump, Roy Moore, Ron Johnson, Devin Nunes, Brock Turner etc.

    Somerby's professed concern for children is a lie. He is a pathetic Trumptard who wanted Trump to win, and is now trying to pretend otherwise.

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    1. Somerby has done no such thing.

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    2. "Somerby has done no such thing."

      Sounds like a claim to me, not truth. I was here and I saw him repeat conservative memes and defend Trump over and over, coupled with attacking all of the liberal candidates for president, continually attacking liberals and the so-called liberal press, and claiming that Trump was going to win. And in all the discussion of why Hillary lost, Somerby has never admitted that Comey and Russia helped Trump gain office. Just like a conservative. And then, he said nothing about the insurrection either, just like a conservative.

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  6. "They seemed to think that a statement achieves the status of obvious truth just because a Duke or a Duchess has made the statement to Oprah."

    I would say that people think the statements of Meghan and Harry are being taken as obvious truth because we have all seen how the royal family operates, over decades, and we have seen how British colonialism lingers. We are capable of evaluating those statements ourselves and don't need Somerby to tell us that Oprah is not God.

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    1. Historically, royals are held to a higher standard of truth-telling than commoners. There are obligations placed on nobility that make a gentleman's word sacrosanct. Challenges of lying were grounds for a duel, not that long ago. It would be shocking to the British people if a royal lied with impunity. Our own exposure to Trump may make Somerby's claims about lying plausible but they wouldn't be in British culture.

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  7. "Children are drowning in the Mediterranean, with their parents, as they try to reach Europe. Low-income kids have gone without school or a year in this, our very own nation."

    This is Somerby's lame attempt to name situations that are more important than Meghan Markle's problems with the royal family.

    He omits the one that just happened -- 8 women were shot yesterday for no other reason than that they were Asian and female.

    I'm really sorry that so many kids had to stay home (like many of their parents) during a pandemic, to keep everyone safe, but I really don't think that is a bigger deal than the way in which women are a target of male violence. The #textmewhenyougethome movement, in which women describe their inability to walk public streets without fearing men, is gaining momentum while Somerby lauds a male-fantasy revenge movie in which violence against women is portrayed as inevitable and unsolvable.

    At least part of Meghan's problems arise because the women are the targets in the royal family, just as Diana and Camilla were, while Charles hides behind his mother's skirts.

    And Somerby is a huge part of the problem, when he suggests that women's complaints should be automatically disbelieved, because who can know what is true, even when royals are speaking to Oprah?

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    1. “ And Somerby is a huge part of the problem, when he suggests that women's complaints should be automatically disbelieved, because who can know what is true, even when royals are speaking to Oprah?”

      Aside from the lie that Somerby has suggested that anyone should be automatically discounted, where’s the logical fallacy in saying we should reserve judgment with these claims.

      “...even when totals are speaking with Oprah”? Why would that cause us to accept anything as gospel rather than withholding judgment!?

      Would you suggest that we should automatically believe the claims of bullying that some of Megan’s household staff brought against her?

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    2. "Aside from the lie that Somerby has suggested that anyone should be automatically discounted"

      Somerby repeatedly says that "anything is possible" and "there is no way to know" and "I have no idea if this is true" and sentences like this, usually juxtaposed with a quote that he wishes to dispute, but has no actual basis for doing so. It is his way of calling someone a liar without having to have any evidence. It is an weaselly way of discrediting someone else and it stinks.

      He is not saying "we should reserve judgment." He wants you to disbelieve the person he has just quoted.

      You don't have to believe anyone automatically, but you shouldn't disbelieve them automatically either. That's what "reserve judgment means." It doesn't mean disbelieve them because they haven't been proven to be truthful.

      I suggest that you should believe the claims by Meghan that she cried over her interaction about those bridesmaids dresses. Somerby wants us to disbelieve that she even cried, that she felt what she reported feeling, as if any person is not an expert on their own feelings.

      Similarly, staff may have felt bullied and reported that to the tabloid press. That doesn't mean she necessarily bullied them. We do not have enough facts to make that judgment. So you don't support Meghan or her staff, don't take sides.

      Somerby does take sides. He said yesterday that Meghan doesn't even know whether she cried or not and thus we should reduce her statement to a "claim" when she was the person doing the crying. That is too much caution, in my opinion, and when you are urged to disbelieve such things, it amounts to spreading misinformation, just as when someone says don't take the vaccine because we cannot know whether it works or not. The likelihoods of truth in both situations are so high, that someone urging disbelief has an agenda for doing so. Somerby definitely has an agenda.

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    3. If I now ask you what makes you think that you are being told to discount something rather than being asked to suspend judgment, you would say, “Somerby”. Somerby is like such and such ...he does this and this ....etc....

      Yet if instead, I were to ask you what makes you implicitly believe what Meghan and Harry have claimed, you will reply with some statement that boils down to “racism”. The fact that racism exists or that you feel it is inveterate, is enough to verify these claims. No details needed.

      Therefore, you think that any other consideration is an attempt to distract from what is true, and so is a backhanded way of calling the couple liars.

      Neither one of these approaches is logical. They both are you saying that you believe because you believe. Both formulations say, “The claims are true PERIOD.” You are saying it is unreasonable and offensive to suspend judgment when it comes to what the couple claimed. It is a denial of racism No if ands or buts.

      I suggest you go with the above paragraph. That way discussion is over. No time is wasted. You have laid your cards on the table and you have cut out the middle-man (Somerby).

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    4. Cecelia, Somerby himself has provided two examples of racism against Meghan: (1) the Church of England's statement, and (2) the uproar over how much money Meghan spent to renovate her house, when it was half what Kate spent. I would count Somerby's own reaction to her interview with Oprah as a third.

      I believe Meghan and Harry because there is a huge cost to the things they have said and a great deal to be gained by not saying them. For them to accept that cost suggests they had reason to say what they did. Harry is defending Meghan by giving this interview. You don't defend yourself against nothing.

      Somerby doesn't see things this way at all. He is too busy parsing everything for small details he can use to make a case against them. And yes, he is calling them liars when he suggests that even celebrities can be wrong about stuff. What do you think that means, when he takes the trouble to say it in this situation? Of course he is implying that they are not telling the truth (remember, Somerby doesn't like the word lie).

      Harry and Meghan largely talked about their feelings. Feelings are "true" for the people experiencing them. It IS wrong to "suspend judgment" when someone tells you how they felt. That is their reality.

      Somerby is a huge asshole. He never comes out and directly says what he is implying, but it is obvious to anyone with an ear. He always tries to maintain "plausible deniability" when people call him on his bullshit. But his reactions are not those of any liberal, nor are they those of any normal person. That much should be clear from his out-of-step evaluation of Oprah, without any real evidence to support it. Somerby thinks Oprah should have played gotcha, trying to tell a woman who built her entire fortune on her interviewing ability how to do her job. And you seem to think that the remote possibility that the royal family has no racist(s) in it justifies Somerby's critique. Get real.

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    5. Anonymouse 4:16pm, it’s not racist for the church to inform the public that despite the impression given by Meghan and Harry, the church cannot preform legally binding marriages in backyards.

      It is not a sign of racism when the future Prince of Wales has a bigger housing allowance than his brother or the future king’s brother.

      Royalty is a tightly structured system that bestows differing levels of rank and importance from the womb.

      Delete
    6. Once again, you entirely miss the point. You are hopeless, I give up. I am beginning to think that the difference between Republicans and Democrats truly is intelligence -- conservatives are the dumbest people on earth.

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    7. Let me address your line about the cost to Meghan and Harry to go out on a limb by making these claims.

      What is the private cost of being a royal in a family where you have a duty to perform that is your and your family’s reason for existence?

      You are there for no other higher reason than to represent the monarchy and the country. This is why the family exists. There is no personal ambition that can take precedence over that and there is no rank or station that you can aspire to that advances you above the throne and it’s control. Not a military rank or a private one.

      Imagine you’re an ambitious actress who has worked hard and aspired to much. You fell in love with a prince, married him, and had only words that described the road ahead of you. Suddenly you’re living it. No more reaching for stars and no more autonomy. Even the money you might earn in any private endeavor will be under public and private scrutiny.

      It would most certainly be a shock. No thinking person could be surprised at anyone finding themselves in this position and balking. Of looking at all the possibilities of this vast new fame and adoration and being dismayed that it too was out of their hands to control and to use.

      It is not astounding that someone might’ve feel suicidal at finding themselves in this situation. Someone who had worked so hard to achieve as much as they could. Imagine being surrounded by people who regarded any complaint as moot to everything they and now you were about.

      Can you imagine that someone might be desperate to justify an escape from this and also have a desire to use what they now have attained through the marriage to personally advance, as they have always tried to do through whatever fortune has given them.

      It ain’t an improbable notion that someone might hotdog things in order to justify losing the baggage and while retaining the status and using it. Thats no indication that this couple did, but the plausibility belies the notion that they had nothing to gain.

      But then, I didn’t really have to tell you any of this, you’ve known it all along.

      Delete
    8. Cecelia,
      Now do one explaining to Republicans that governing is a job. Call out Mitch McConnell and the Republican Senate's obstruction, while the citizens of the United States suffered through the worst economic crisis in 7 decades, if you have to.

      Delete
    9. Anonymouse 9:41pm, I’ll get right on it.

      Delete
  8. Yesterday Somerby complained because someone said "revelation" instead of "claim". Today they said "claim" and Somerby is still calling women liars. The media can't win, apparently.

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  9. "claims of racism within the British royal family"

    Whoa, dear Bob, 'claims'?

    All White People Are Racist

    Q.E.D. What 'claims' could possibly be made here?

    ReplyDelete
  10. If Oprah is indeed an entertainer, then why must she talk about the kidnappings in Nigeria, which Somerby only knows about through reports in the mainstream media?

    Didn’t a certain blogger give up teaching black kids in inner Baltimore to be an entertainer, hobnobbing with other entertainers like Roseanne Barr? Should they be consigned to the lowest rungs of society because they ignored child poverty to do their acts?

    And as it turns out, Winfrey has done a lot of charitable activity, including:
    Coronavirus Relief Efforts
    Pathways to College
    Morehouse College
    Puerto Rico Disaster Relief
    Time’s Up
    N Street Village
    ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ Campaign
    The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls
    Ron Clark Academy
    Rise Against Hunger
    etc.

    You can read it here if you can put aside your contempt:
    https://www.gobankingrates.com/net-worth/business-people/how-oprah-winfrey-gives-back/

    I’m not trying to defend Oprah, just push back on the idea that an interview she did with Meghan and Harry is all you need to know about her and is sufficient to relegate her to the lowest rungs of society.

    On the other hand, I would say that Tucker Carlson deserves to be there for his ongoing pernicious lies about Covid and the vaccine.

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  11. Just what do the royals represent other than an abundance of white privilege and the fond memories of the bygone days of subjugating entire countries and piking heads on London Bridge for the public’s viewing pleasure? These family squabbles keep them relevant. The next Dianna or Meghan is surely roaming this planet today. So lighten up folks. Harry lived through his lilly white mother’s ordeal; he should have known better than drag his wife into hostile territory in the first place. And Somerby can add Oprah publicly to his list of powerful women to deplore for doing what she does. Empathizing with the queen is not on my to-do list.

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