Oprah Winfrey has given a speech at the Golden Globes on 7 January that made a lot of people believe she might consider running for president in 2020. The question is what will her opponents say about her? It’s not difficult to find all the scandals that could ruin her campaign.
Thinking of it, it’s a pretty solid case: the talk-show host is a cultural icon that has promoted a fake book, is an advocate of mystical healing powers, hates hamburgers with all her heart, was involved in a child sex abuse scandal and the list could continue.
Let’s add some details about it all and see how much of a chance could Oprah have against other candidates.
The Scandal Involving Child Sex Abuse
In 2007 Oprah opened a school for poor South African girls. That school was meant to educate and make live beautiful for the children that went to that school, but it later turned into a nightmare. A dorm matron was accused and arrested for sexual harassment. She was accused by about half a dozen girls that were in seven and eight grade.
Oprah had the headmistress dismissed, but a couple years later, Oprah got accused by the headmistress, who has been defamed. The headmistress was acquitted of the charges, because the girls’ accusations were contradictory and not credible.
Oprah and the Cancer Patient
American healthcare could be endangered by Oprah’s view on medicine. Her top doctor in America is Mehmet Oz, known as Dr. Oz. He’s popular, having his very own show, and promotes treatments that have no scientific basis.
Not only she supports his views, but she has also promoted Jenny McCarthy’s anti-vaccine stand.
On top of that, Oprah has been embracing ‘The Secret’, which claims that good thinking can cure people from emotional, health, financial and what-not problems. Kim Tinkham, a cancer patient diagnosed with breast cancer was inspired by Oprah’s opinion on ‘The Secret’, that decided not to get immediate treatment and surgery. Kim Tinkham decided to heal herself and despite Oprah tried to convince her to get the mastectomy, but three years later, the cancer patient died.
The Hamburger Panic
Winfrey might not get support from California or Texas, since the beef lawsuit.
She brought to her show a vegetarian activist that told people the mad cow disease ‘could make AIDS look like the common cold’ and Oprah responded with ‘It has just stopped me from eating another burger’. Her show made the beef price crash to a 10-year-low the very next day, making a lot of ranchers angry.
She then started getting sued by a lot of ranchers, for defamation and loss of millions of dollars.
The Fake Book Incident
To make it short, author James Frey got invited to talk about his memoir, ‘A Million Little Pieces’, on how he overcame alcohol and drug addiction. She recommended the book and upped the sales to 2 million copies in just two months.
Some of the details that are most scandalous in the book have been made up, but Winfrey stood by the author, even though he admitted he exaggerated some of his stories. She got humiliated by critics who called her deluded and then invited the author on her show to actually shred him. One year later, she denied annihilating the author and invited him on her show to apologize for how she acted.
Some Americans ‘Just Have to Die’
Yes, that’s what she stated: ‘There are still generations of people, older people, who were born and bred and marinated in it, in that prejudice and racism […]. And they just have to die’. Well, that doesn’t sound great when it comes to bite you back in a campaign for presidency.
