Oprah and America

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Ezra sez:

I didn’t exactly wake up this morning thinking, “what I need to read is a brutal, almost overwhelming, takedown of the pseudoscience and snake oil that has come to define a large chunk of Oprah Winfrey’s show and brand.” But I’m sure glad I did.

Really? I’ve popped out of bed on many mornings thinking exactly that. And this week’s cover story in Newsweek delivers.

In fairness to Oprah, she’s not really any worse than the thousands of other purveyors of freak show voyeurism, inane pop psychology, and pseudoscientific nonsense that practically define the modern media universe. But she’s by far the most influential. Anyone who’s responsible for foisting even more of Jenny McCarthy on the world deserves whatever Newsweek can dish out.