Oprah Winfrey – The Story of an Entrepreneur

OPRAH – SERVING THE PEOPLE contd...

Oprah was chosen to host the interfaith prayer service held at New York City's Yankee Stadium on September 23, 2001, to mourn the victims of the September 11 terrorists'attacks on the WTC. Rudy Giuliani, Mayor of New York City, believed that Oprah was the only national personality who had the ability to host such a profoundly religious service that involved people from different faiths. Oprah lived up to his expectations; her service both comforted and inspired mourners.

She said that ‘loved ones turned to angels after death and are always near to the people's hearts.'Oprah reminded the people that hope, prayer and love never die and asked them to use every moment of their lives to create a deeper meaning to their lives and to find out what really matters. According to an article published in April 2002, Oprah had become an icon of ‘church-free spirituality'and a spiritual guru to her over 22 million devoted viewers. Her influence was such that the Wall Street Journal even credited Oprah with introducing a new technique of interpersonal communication, ‘Oprahfication'(i.e. ‘public confession as a form of therapy').^[10] This technique became so popular that a magazine even used Oprah as a verb: “I did not want to tell her, but she Oprah'd it out of me.” Reportedly, this technique also became popular with politicians, who began holding ‘Oprah-Style'town meetings to understand their constituents.

Some employees even criticized Oprah for being a tough task master who drove her employees hard to meet her expectations. A former Harpo employee described the environment at Harpo as “an environment of dishonesty and chaos,” and said, “everyone undermines everybody else to get more access to Oprah, and I think she encourages it.”

Oprah accepted the fact that she gave her employees a tough time. However, regarding the confidentiality agreement, Oprah said, “You would not say it is harsh if you were in the tabloids all the time.” Oprah did not respond to other criticism about the work culture at Harpo.

Oprah's decision to invest in Oxygen Media also tarnished her reputation. In 2001 it was reported that the message boards on Oxygen Media offered links to websites featuring sex themes and kinky-pleasure stuff (Oprah banned such stuff on her talk show in the initial years itself). This was attributed to the alliance between Oxygen Media and ThriveOnline, a women's health site. Though Harpo's spokesperson defended Oprah by saying that Oprah was away on a vacation and was ignorant of these aspects of Oxygen Media, some people suspected Oprah of permitting such material on the website.

Some sections of Oprah's audiences criticized her spirituality shows such as ‘One Way to Live'and ‘Remembering Your Spirit.'They said that in the early 21st century Oprah had become more of a ‘preacher woman'than a confidante and a friend. Some viewers even felt that Oprah was a hypocrite. They said that while she preached about the need to disregard material things and focus on the spiritual aspects of life, ‘O'featured advertisements of luxury items from companies such as BMW, Louis Vuitton and Lancome, earning huge revenues for Harpo. They even criticized Oprah for keeping the ticket price for her popular ‘Live Your Best Life'series of shows as high as $ 185.

^[10] www.christianitytoday.com, April 1, 2002.

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