On Sep 9, 5:10*pm, D Peter Maus wrote:
bpnjensen wrote:
On Sep 8, 5:43 pm, RHF wrote:

Oprah Winfrey has a Duty and Responsibility to her Viewers*
* The All American Women's TV Audience -or- Are Only Liberal
Democrat Women ALLOWED to Watch 'The Oprah' ?

No she doesn't. *She can have on or not anybody she likes, just like
any other talk show. *If a *conservative talk show guy/gal just wants
McCain and Palin on, that's his/her business.

* *Actually, yes, she does. Oprah has declared her program, for the
purposes of McCain-Feingold, a NEWS program. In that case, yes, she
DOES have a duty and responsibility.

I understand why she would do this, but I am very unclear why
declaring herself a NEWS program gives her a duty or responsibility to
her viewers, to give equal time to all opposing viewpoints. There are
plenty of news programs on both sides that are as lopsided as a one-
legged horse. For that matter, there are lots of non-news programs
that do likewise, and I doubt they are in violation of McCain-Feingold
any less than she might be (emphasis on word "might" - the lawsuits
aren't settled yet).

Where did you get this "All-American" slogan from? *Is that hers?
* *Yes, actually it is.

Does she say this on her broadcast? If so, that's just silly. I have
no intention of watching her to find out, in any case.

Anybody can watch or avoid her show. *I don't think her program
amounts to a hill of beans in this election, frankly, so who cares?
This amounts to the same level of effectiveness as those misguided
nuts sitting in trees on the UC-Berkeley campus.

* *She does have considerable influence. Whether or not she can
swing an election among female voters is a legitimate question. But
clearly she thinks she can, or she would not have defined her
program as 'news.'

Whether she thinks she can or not is beside the point. I do not
believe she has a significant amount of influence. She is one voice,
albeit a loud one, out of hundreds, all of whom clamor for whatever
they want you to hear.

* *Then, again, media believes itself to be the Fourth Branch. Which
isn't anything new. History points overwhelmingly to Robert
McCormick being responsible for the election of Abraham Lincoln.

You must be referring to Joseph Medill, the predecessor to McCormick
in Chicago - Mr. McCormick the elder was far to young to have much
effect on Mr. Lincoln's election (he was not yet 12 years old at the
first one), and his son Robert was born after Lincoln had been gone 15
years.

Bruce Jensen