Supporting grifters is one of Oprah's favourite things
Long before social media started spreading misinformation, daytime TV hosts were giving grifters a platform. Now we're all paying the price for it.
Hello! I have too many thoughts about lots of issues, so I rebranded this newsletter so I could write other posts that don’t just focus on being a singleton. I hope you enjoy what I — a difficult woman — have to say. Here’s my first post under my new title.
I recall when I was a teenager watching an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show in which Winfrey interviewed a consultant who was talking about being safe at the airport.
One of the tips he gave was that women should never hang their purses on the hook on the back of a washroom stall door. He then showed a video of the hand of a male robber reaching over the top of the door to grab the purse hanging on the hook, all while the woman sits on the toilet to pee.
I remember thinking something along the lines of “holy shit, this guy and Oprah are inflaming people’s paranoia, and this segment is ridiculous.”
I thought of that show last week when I learned that newly re-elected U.S. President Donald Trump had nominated Dr. Mehmet Oz as an alternative to oversee the U.S. Medicare system.
While I can’t recall the name of that airport safety consultant, we know Dr. Oz well from his appearances on Winfrey’s show. It was Winfrey who gave Dr. Oz a huge platform more than two decades ago. From that stage and his own, Oz would go on to spread all kinds of questionable advice to viewers. Now here we are facing the possibility he will oversee Medicare in the U.S.
We blame social media for spreading misinformation and disinformation, and Facebook, Twitter/X, and other sites certainly have increased the speed at which that mis/disinformation gets around.
But grifters have been around for a long time, and people have been giving them stages for just as long. That includes daytime television programs and their hosts.
These shows and hosts tap into the worst instincts and reactions of humans. And the audiences lapped up the stories and information as quickly and with as much gusto as my cats do when I serve them food with extra gravy.
Let’s consider the following:
Jerry Springer and his show was basically a bar fight streaming into your living room in the middle of the afternoon. The show’s episodes were frequently violent with fists flying, chairs being tossed, and the clothes being ripped off guests. The audience cheered it on or got into the action.
Ricki Lake and her show focused on revealing secrets to guests, including affairs, failed relationships, and guests whose newly hot exes were “revealed” to them long after they were dumped.
And, as far as I can tell, Maury Povich and his show only ever hosted episodes that focused on paternity tests, literally profiting on the question, “who’s your daddy?”
Over the years, Winfrey used her show to give a platform to all sorts of grifters. There was Jenny McCarthy, who was a show guest in 2010, and who said childhood vaccines may have played a part in her son’s autism.
Dr. Phil [McGraw] had numerous appearances on Winfrey’s show, which led to McGraw getting his own show. Dr. Phil has a long list of lawsuits, including one filed by his former staff who alleged McGraw promoted a toxic work environment.
Gary Zukav, who writes and teaches about “human consciousness and spirituality” appeared on Winfrey’s show 30 times started in 1998. He also appeared on Winfrey’s “Super Soul Sunday.” I don’t know how to describe Zukav here as I never understood what he was saying, but it sure sounded like bullshit.
Dr. Oz first appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 2004 and was a regular guest until 2009. That year, Winfrey helped him produce his own show where he talked about health issues, including weight loss.
In 2014, Oz went before a U.S. Senate hearing committee where he was questioned about the tactics he used on his show to promote weight-loss products. Senator Claire McCaskill has this to say about Oz and his show: “I’m concerned that you are melding medical advice, news and entertainment in a way that harms consumers.”
Oz was long affiliated with Columbia University, which ditched him in 2022, just as Oz was running for the senate himself.
Oprah’s own love of misinformation was even personal. Winfrey long shared her struggles with weight loss on her show. You will likely remember the July 1988 episode during which she walked on stage dressed in jeans, a sweater, and boots, hauling behind her a wagon filled with fake fat that represented the 67 pounds she lost on a liquid diet. Yes, a liquid diet.
Winfrey isn’t the first person to buy into unsustainable diet plans and she won’t be the last, but she was the one with the biggest audience to profit off people’s own body insecurities and their own searches for a quick fix for weight loss.
What daytime talk shows and social media have in common is they are not only tapping into people’s love of scandal, gossip, drama, violence, and foolish nonsense, but also their gullibility and search for a shortcut. And the hosts, like the social media moguls, are getting rich off because people are buying it.
Jerry Springer’s show is like those neighbourhood community groups on Facebook that get into arguments and even name calling and racist and sexist posts.
Gary Zukav’s ramblings could easily be transcribed into inspirational quotes that are shared across social media.
Dr. Oz’s show is like those weight loss scams and recipes that make the rounds on social media.
Dr. Phil and Ricki Lake’s shows are like all those rumours, gossip, and family drama that included, sadly, their own children, which people share on their own profiles or on X, and even now on Bluesky.
Now, here we are with Dr. Oz being nominated to head Medicare. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we learned that Oz had shares in the company that produces hydroxychloroquine, which he promoted as a treatment for COVID.
Is Dr. Phil next in line for a top spot in the White House administration? Nothing is a surprise.
Grifters are only as good as the platforms they are given, but we forgive the hosts of the platforms and let them do it because of their wealth. People want to be rich, too, and are willing to try anything, even exploiting people’s naïveté, to get rich.
In May 2018, Winfrey gave a commencement speech to that year’s graduates of the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism. In her speech, which was made less than two years into Trump’s first term as president, Winfrey told the students they would be the “new editorial gatekeepers” who would fight against misinformation and the “hysteria” of the political climate.
The truth exonerates, and it convicts," Oprah said. "It disinfects, and it galvanizes. The truth has always been and will always be our shield against corruption, our shield against greed and despair. The truth is our saving grace. And not only are you here, USC Annenberg, to tell it, to write it, to proclaim it, to speak it, but to be it. Be the truth. Be. The. Truth."
It was a shame then that Winfrey didn’t acknowledge the truth of her own part in sharing misinformation over the years. Maybe she should have started her speech with that.
And no, men aren’t going into women’s washrooms to steal purses hanging off the hook on the stall door.
As always, thank you for reading,
Suzanne