Too Little, Too Late: Oprah Missed Her Chance to Help Fetterman and Denounce Oz
By J. Max Robins, November 7, 2022
Late last February, Oprah Winfrey paused to reflect on the inevitable errors we all make. “Mistakes are a life experience designed to move you in the right direction,” she wrote on OprahDaily.com. “A mistake may be more important to your supreme destiny than a triumph. Know that your life is way bigger than that one experience—so when those ‘mistakes’ happen you use them to guide you to the next right move,” she concluded with astrological flair.
Sadly, Oprah had not taken her own advice two months prior regarding the highly notable blunder she made in both declining first to condemn Dr. Mehmet Oz’s dangerous candidacy, and then to endorse his Democratic opponent, John Fetterman, in the Senate race in Pennsylvania. Instead, Oprah stayed calculatingly neutral about the former cardiac surgeon she had made into a daytime TV star, a move that had earned them both tens of millions of dollars in the process. As I wrote last June, with “our democracy under assault, it was within Oprah’s power to derail the candidacy of her pal who had morphed into Donald Trump’s favorite MD. Instead, the Queen of All Media punted.”
That is…until last Thursday, when Winfrey, one of the nation’s most powerful voices, who had played such a crucial role in Barack Obama’s 2008 White House run – a move that had made her beloved by so many on the left and reviled by the Trumpian right – finally endorsed Fetterman’s candidacy. Oh, wait: Did you not hear about it? Perhaps not, given how muted it was. An article by Margaret Hartmann in New York Magazine covered the 11th hour endorsement with a most apt headline: “Oprah’s Unsatisfying Rejection of Dr. Oz Is Totally on Brand.”
Willing Partner
Throughout its 12-year run, Oprah relentlessly promoted of The Dr. Oz Show – a series she created – on her own monumentally successful chatfest, and on OWN network and O, The Oprah Magazine. But she then was a silent supporter when Oz was exposed for promoting all sorts of medical quackery and had been hauled before a Congressional committee for doing just that.
It’s easy to wonder if, had Oprah denounced Oz and given a full-throttle endorsement of Fetterman months ago – as she had done for other Democrats – the Pennsylvania race would still be the dead heat it is now on Election Day. For months, the media punditry has framed the Keystone State as the key to who will control the U.S. Senate. And the Media Queen is well aware how much is at stake in this midterm election. A sane approach to climate control. Reproductive rights. The fate of Ukraine. Let’s face it: Democracy, as we know it, is on the ballot, not only in Pennsylvania, but nationwide today. Oprah admitted as much at a Nov. 3 virtual town hall, where she finally endorsed Fetterman, as well as several Democratic candidates, and moderated a panel dubbed “Freedom is on the Ballot.”
Sadly, that and an audio spot for Fetterman that didn’t mention Oz was all the Queen of All Media deemed to do, unlike Obama and Biden who went all in for Fetterman in Pennsylvania rallies over the weekend. Oprah knew full well the explosive power her timely shunning of her former colleague would have had.
A Lesson Not Learned
Forbes estimates Oprah’s net worth at $2.5 billion. During that 12-year run, The Dr. Oz Show, made in conjunction with Winfrey’s Harpo Productions, easily contributed more than $200 million to the company’s coffers. Would it have been too much for Oprah to admit what a dreadful mistake it was to sit on the sidelines for so long in the Pennsylvania race, and then learn from it? Why couldn’t she have considered her “supreme destiny” the denouncing of a carpetbagger snake oil salesman she once dubbed “America’s Doctor,” and put the millions she made off him to work, along with her invaluable brand, in an effort to put democracy first?
Perhaps when you have raked in billions and bathed in widespread public adulation for so long, the next right move is sadly beyond your grasp. The TV Empress who has for so long been the sought-after public confession booth for many fallen politicians, celebrities and royals seeking primetime redemption is seemingly unable to do likewise for herself. Anyone who has listened to her message for decades, imploring each of us to be “your best self,” knows how well the Media Queen can preach her self-help gospel. Let’s hope, for her sake as well as ours, that come the first Wednesday in November, Oprah doesn’t come to wish she’d practiced what she preached.
J. Max Robins (@jmaxrobins) is executive director of the Center for Communication. The former editor-in-chief of Broadcasting & Cable, he has contributed to publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Columbia Journalism Review and Forbes. Read more from J. Max Robins at his website.
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Sadly, Oprah blundered badly in declining first to condemn Dr. Mehmet Oz’s dangerous candidacy, and then to endorse his Democratic opponent, John Fetterman, in the Senate race in Pennsylvania. Instead, Oprah stayed calculatingly neutral about the former surgeon she made into a daytime TV star, a move that had earned them both tens of millions of dollars. (Image: Flickr)
