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November 14, 2006

Category: Audio

Okay, I was just going to write about this, but then I figured what the heck and decided to do an impromptu AUDIO POST about the ridiculousness and insensitivity of the bit that I caught from today's Oprah episode. There is some bad language (nothing terribly graphic, though), so you might want to turn your speakers down or cover the ears of small children in the vicinity or not listen to this at work.

Wes rambles on for 3:30 (minutes and seconds!) on November 14, 2006

I should clarify my comments in the audio post and say that I can understand why someone would want to interview this guy, but not within the context of a daytime talk show (except to provide more sensationalized crap for the Stepford Wives crowd, which was obviously Oprah's motive). For example, if one were performing some scholarly research the nature of mental illness crimes, I can definitely see interviewing this guy. The rotten kinds of questions that Oprah asked, however, would still probably be off-limits. Good lord.

I have also found that, oddly enough, placing the microphone behind my chair -- as opposed to on my desk in front of me -- helps to reduce the amount of noise in the recording. It has little effect on noise from barking dogs in the background, however. 🙂

-posted by Wes | 6:07 pm | Comments (8)

8 Comments »

dave says:

November 14, 2006 at 8:52 pm

I saw Bill O'Reilly on Oprah, and they agreed that they support the same values. It was wierd, because the audience seemed planted, if you ask me. There were a few "Heil Fox News!" types and the audience was well behaved to an extreme extent for a random audience.

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Wes says:

November 14, 2006 at 9:04 pm

I saw that too -- and apparently the audience was planted. Not in the sense that the audience was made up of actors who had been told what to say beforehand, but there was apparently a selection process in which people with specific views were picked from an applicant pool or something.

I didn't really think Oprah agreed to anything, though. O'Reilly agreed to it for her and she didn't disagree -- possibly to avoid alienating her viewers who do agree with O'Reilly -- although Oprah pretty much makes it a point never to choose sides (at least explicitly) on any remotely controversial issue. Some folks call it smart and good business sense and whatnot; I call it cowardice and irresponsibility.

It was sort of neat to see a more subdued Bill O'Reilly, but overall I thought the discussion during that episode was marginally interesting but ultimately pointless.

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De says:

November 14, 2006 at 10:57 pm

I'm awfully curious as to why the guy agreed to the interview in the first place. I seriously doubt he would have had his meal privileges revoked for not sitting down and talking to Senorita Winfrey. In fact, why does anyone agree to go on any show thinking they'll have a chance to tell their side of the story.

The last time I watched an entire episode of that show was when her guest was the local woman whose husband attempted to burn her alive at work. The woman's story should have been clue enough that it was an awful thing without having to cut to people weeping in the audience. The "best" part was the promo for the next episode: Catching up with Mary Jo Buttafuoco. I guess she was due another 15 minutes for getting shot in the head 14 years ago.

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Molly says:

November 15, 2006 at 12:16 am

The other day I caught part of Oprah and it was this episode about people who'd survived catastrophic injuries. There was this woman who had had her legs mangled in a machine. They talked about it in gory detail. Then Oprah was like "And we have a very important guest coming up. We'll meet the man who helped save this woman's life!" It was, like, the EMT Coast Guard guy. So they come back from commercial and she basically just asks the guy to confirm that all the stuff she has said before commercial break is true, then she asks mangled leg lady if she has anything to say to the Coast Guard guy and victim is like "Yeah, thank you!" and the CG guy just nods and then is ignored for the rest of the segment.

I know someone already posed this question but WHY do people agree to go on Oprah? Does she pay them a ton of money? Like hi, we fly you in, stay overnight, come on our show and get three seconds. I can feel the love.

When normal journalists ask questions, it's to get insight and information.

With Oprah it's like "So explain this to me because I don't get it and oh by the way I will totally forget about you the second you walk out of here and please use small words and before you finish talking I will totally interrupt you and then make some comment that suggests I am hip and amusing. Hello, this is the OPRAH show. It's all about me!"

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Becky says:

November 15, 2006 at 1:51 pm

I think people go on Oprah to try to get their 15 minutes of fame and possibly a book deal out of it or something. I don't think they get paid for it, but the exposure is "payment."

I saw a preview for that show, and I thought "why in the hell would I want to watch something like that or even care?"

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Wes says:

November 15, 2006 at 7:44 pm

De: Well, if I were sitting in jail after having murdered my kids, I'd probably be pretty upset and eager to talk to anyone -- and he probably didn't expect Oprah to slam the killings in his face the way she did. Hell, I dislike Oprah a whole lot, but even I was shocked to see her asking those kinds of questions. Oprah is often tacky (especially in terms of the show's subject matter), but she's rarely downright tasteless and nasty.

Molly: What Becky said -- people go on Oprah for their 15 minutes of fame. Or, in the case of authors, they go on Oprah to sell lots of books, since people will blindly buy any book featured on the Oprah show (although if my experiences at the bookstore are any indication, they often inexplicably think that Oprah wrote the book herself).

Aaand Becky: Why in the hell would you even care? Because it's on OPRAH, duh! And a whole bunch of people seem to have Oprah confused with God or something.

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Keeper says:

November 18, 2006 at 2:08 pm

Wes, you really should be in broadcasting , maybe even have your own talk show.
I will check and see if Ophra will give you a contract, you are so much better than Dr. Phil.

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Jenny says:

November 19, 2006 at 1:52 pm

Wes, I love your audio posts. And god I hate Oprah. Posts like this make me so glad I don't have a tv and thus don't even ever encounter ads for her show. But I do see her face on that damn magazine every time I go to the grocery store. And I know this topic has been beaten to death, but what kind of person starts a magazine and insists on putting herself on the cover EVERY SINGLE MONTH? I can't take it!

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