PrintFebruary 11, 2011
Oprah demands R-E-S-P-E-C-T -- for Obama
Oprah Winfrey doesn't like those mean critics of President Obama. (I do not remember her addressing critics of President George W. Bush the same way.) According to Politico:
A president who needs a learning curve! Can you believe she said that? He should be respected because he needs a learning curve! America in economic turmoil, Iran developing nuclear weapons, Russia on the offensive, Egypt falling into the clutches of Islamists -- and Obama needs a learning curve.Oprah called on President Obama's critics on Friday to "show some level of respect."
"I feel that everybody has a learning curve, and I feel that the reason why I was willing to step out for him was because I believed in his integrity and I believed in his heart," the influential TV host said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" in Chicago.
Of the negative mood of the country, Oprah added, "I think everybody complaining ought to try it for once."
She said the presidency is a position that "holds a sense of authority and governance over us all," and that "even if you're not in support of his policies, there needs to be a certain level of respect."
I thought we were told to ignore his lack of experience because his superior judgment would win out. These same critics were the ones who warned of his inexperience, and now we're told to shut up. We used to refer to him as the Not Ready for Prime Time Player and Hillary said he would not be ready for the 3 AM call....
Oprah apparently agrees but wants us to overlook his lack of readiness for the job.
Thomas Lifson: Oprah may well be worried about respect because her new cable television network isn't getting much of it. Inside TV:
Oprah Winfrey's new cable network is having some early growing pains.After exploding out of the gate in the ratings (and on a Saturday, no less), viewership for OWN has declined significantly.While OWN's premiere averaged 1 million primetime viewers last weekend, Sunday dropped to 822,000. Monday fell to 394,000, followed by Tuesday hitting 315,000. In the network's target of women 25-54, OWN went from an opening night rating of 0.6 to a 0.2 at the start of the week.
And it got worse the second week. The Hollywood Reporter:
For its second week, ratings for OWN fell about 20 percent among its target demo of women over 25 years old, according to the New York Post. The average audience in prime time was 310,000 people.
And worse. TV By the Numbers:
In its fifth full week of programming (1/31-2/6), OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network was down 17% vs. last week with last week among women 25-54 in total day (40,000 vs. 48,000), and down 34% among women 25-54 in primetime (54,000 vs. 82,000).OWN is now well below last year's women 25-54 averages for Discovery Health . OWN replaced Discovery Health which averaged 51,000 W25-54 Total Day, and 84,000 W25-54 in Prime Time during 2010.
Both Oprah and Obama are failing. Hard to respect failure.
