Oprah's 'Soft Landing' In the U.S. Media

By John W. Lillpop

When the 'Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls' was established in South Africa, America's foremost talk show host reveled in praise and adulation from the liberal media. It was almost as though this humble black girl from Tennessee had transcended the collective goodwill of the Virgin Mother and Mother Teresa, all in one fell swoop.

Oprah thus became the unchallenged Queen of Good. A model for all compassionate governments to emulate, she was the hostess with the mostest, and a billionaire with heart.

Those initial press clippings have turned decidedly less positive as a result of recent allegations of sexual assault and physical violence visited upon pupils at Oprah's academy.

Understand that no one is accusing Oprah of being directly involved in any of the shenanigans. Still, the academy is her baby as they say, and she should be held accountable.

After all, the 'Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls' was supposed to provide hope to 'underprivileged' young girls.

To naive right wing nut cases, sexual assault and violence should not be in the school curriculum for young girls, underprivileged or not. And rather than 'Leadership Academy,' a more appropriate name would be 'Perversion Prep.'

But rather than being excoriated for whatever her role might be in the Johannesburg scandal, Oprah has been exalted as the real victim of the fondling and head smashing episodes. To hear the media tell it, Oprah has suffered more pain than all the pupils who were actually assaulted. Combined!

To put Oprah's soft landing in perspective, imagine for a moment that the kerfuffel had involved a conservative, pro-family champion like Phyllis Schlafly.

If Phyllis Schlafly were in a position even remotely similar to that of Oprah, the media would be tripping over themselves with BREAKING NEWS! headlines, leaving absolutely no doubt as to Schlafly's guilt.

Leftist pundits would be speculating about when Schlafly would actually be escorted out of her home in handcuffs. The best and brightest media reporters and technicians would camp 24/7 outside the Schlafly mansion hopeful of recording the thugess in a much-deserved perk walk off to jail.

A Panel of 'experts,' convened under the objective banner of Nutball host Chris Matthews, would pontificate about whether Phyllis Schlafly would be likely to get a sentencing break because of her advanced age and obvious dementia. Obvious because of her conservative politics, of course.

Nutball experts would also speculate about where the withered old Schlafly would spend her final days--in a minimum security play ground for demented seniors, or in the cell vacated by drug king pin and mass murderer Frank Lucas after the filming of American Gangsters was complete?

Oprah: A victim with a billion dollars in her checking account and a tear in her eye. Schlafly: Heartless thug about to get her just rewards.

Still, there is no liberal bias in the media, right?