A Very Oprah Christmas
filed on Thursday, December 02, 2004 at 4:53:16 AM CST

You're probably just back from some planet outside the Milky Way if you haven't heard, in one form or another, about the gift giving that Oprah Winfrey did, starting off the latest season of The Oprah Winfrey Show.  For those of you who were out of the solar system at the time, she gave each person in her studio audience a brand new Pontiac G6.

It wasn't long afterward that every tax adviser who wanted five minutes on television came out of the woodwork and spoke about the fact that the people who had received these cars would have to pay the taxes on them, and how this great gift might not be so great afterall.  Of course, while I have no real experience in the matter, I do know that typically, governmental agencies will allow you to set up installment plans to pay off huge amounts of money that you owe them, and if you work with them, they'll work with you.  It's fiction that every governmental agency would prefer to take your property and/or throw you in jail.

Still, I digress... at the very least, barring a tax payment setup, the owners of these brand new cars could, very well, sell of those cars, pay the taxes they owed, and still have enough left over to purchase a lower-end car brand new, or an equivelant model used car, and have money left over for a few tanks of gas.  Particularly considering that the base MSRP on a G6 is $21,300 (according to Pontiac's website — see link above).  In reality though, if someone hands me a brand new car, I think I'd find the way to pay the taxes on it.  It's not every day that someone hands me a new car.  If someone wants to, please, go right ahead... I'd love to receive it.  (And the first one of you who sends me a Matchbox or a picture or a model of a car will become the lucky recipient of the Most Unoriginal New Car Joke of the Year Award.)

So on to the point of this babbling...  I was watching the news a few days ago, and they were going on and on and on and on about the influence of Oprah.  How she can turn a product into gold just by saying she liked it.  How books can become bestsellers overnight simply on her recommendation.  How the sale of ugly boots went up 40% because she'd worn a pair.  I thought to myself, "Big deal."  See... there's this thing about Oprah.  She's got integrity.  People trust her.  If she recommended a pile of guano as an appetizer at a dirty, disgusting restaurant, she'd kill that integrity in an instant.  The reason that people trust Oprah is because she's repeatedly recommended things that people did find were good.  You can recommend a book all day long, but if, by the third book you recommend, people have discovered you recommend bland and boring books, you're not going to be able to create a book club out of your recommendations.  By comparison, I'm certain there aren't hundreds of thousands of people running out to buy Sally Jesse Raphael red glasses.  I can't imagine why.

What brought on the media attention this time?  Oprah's Favorite Things show, where her studio audience gets a bunch of gifts for the holidays that Oprah herself loves.  This year it was watches and laptops, and a bunch of other stuff.  Her studio audience was comprised entirely of teachers.  When I heard that, a smile came to my face.  What better group of people could you do something nice for than a bunch of teachers who spend their daily lives giving of themselves?  We all know that, in general, teachers don't make a ton of money.  Comparitively, they make less in areas with higher costs of living than elsewhere in the country.  The things they received are likely things they either could not afford themselves, or would not have spent the money on.  Sure, they probably didn't need these things, per se.  Receiving them as gifts from Oprah sure seems like a very nice way to start the holiday season though.  After all, it's the season of giving, and giving to those who give seems very appropriate.

So this nit-wit reporter comes on and says that he feels sorry for people who attend other episodes of the Oprah show.  Perhaps they get stuck on Barry Manilow day, and everyone gets a free CD.  He could hear audience members saying, "This is all I get?  A lousy CD?"  That people attending her show now have high expectations of receiving cool, classy gifts.

You have got to be kidding me.

Anyone attending Oprah's show should be there to enjoy the show, not trying to get in line for whatever freebies are being given out.  What's worse is that this stupid reporter vocalizing this on the afternoon news only perpetuates and encourages that kind of greedy behavior.  In fact, his whole attitude during his report was that not only are people expecting these things, but that in a way, Oprah should be living up to them because she's created this "problem."

Maybe I'm becoming more and more unique in this wonderful world of ours, but when someone hands me something, whether it's a Barry Manilow CD that I'll probably listen to once, or the brand new video game I've been waiting for months to play, I say, "Thank you."  When grandma gave me a wooly sweater that I'd only wear on Christmas, I said, "Thank you."  Why?  Because when anyone gives me something, whether it being a close friend with sentiment attached, or some company trying to lure me in to buying their product, they've given me something that I would not normally have received.  At very least, they deserve my thanks, and when it's got sentiment attached, it's all that much more important to say thanks.

People can say what they want about Oprah, but I'll guarantee you that she's a lot more down to earth than a lot of people think.  Sure, we've seen her house and her kitchen, and her large property in Los Angeles or wherever it happens to be...  She's got money, and she's spending it.  Big deal.  She surely earned it.  That doesn't mean she's without feeling and without thought.  The giving away of the G6s to those in her audience (which, by the way, were all people who needed a vehicle, not just people who happened to walk in off the street) was a thoughtful act by someone who had the power to make it happen.  The filling of the audience with teachers wasn't just a coincidence, it was an act of kindness.  Anyone who thinks she does these things just for the ratings is probably a pretty shallow person looking greedily upon what others have received and thinking, "Why couldn't that have been me?"

I, for one, applaud Oprah for what she's done for others, and what she continues to do.  It's a terrible shame that the media has to put the negative spin on it, and everything else they talk about these days.  A terrible, terrible shame.