Oprah Winfrey and a Bag of Lies?

Oprah Winfrey's supposed ordeal in Zurich is coming more and more under scrutiny. And it seems that her story is starting to show cracks. It doesn't even matter if she is right, the publicity stunt has already gone wrong. Next time, she might talk it over with her public relations team beforehand. There are more positive ways to get in the headlines if you are desperate to get noticed.

Oprah Winfrey was feeling the pinch, and decided she needed to get some headlines to promote her little television network. As Tina Turner has become a very private person in old age, she was hindered from making Tina's marriage a newsworthy item to promote herself. What does the wise woman do? You take something out of context, blow it up, and hey presto, you're in the headlines again. Other fading former stars have to go to the jungle to get noticed a bit.

Going to not English speaking country always gives you the possibility of being misunderstood if you are too stupid or too lazy to learn the local language (and that works the other way round, too). Rather than attributing it to your own inability to master even one more language than English, you cry racism. How convenient. How racist. In Oprah Winfrey's case, the recipient of the unfounded allegation was a poor shop girl earning a few Swiss Francs an hour for all her work. Yes, we are so proud of your hoarded millions, Oprah Winfrey.

Meanwhile, Oprah already had to retract her fabrication publicly. This is what you call a publicity stunt gone wrong. Having millions in the bank (overseas?), the 'I am a poor black woman hounded by racism' wasn't the brightest ploy to brighten her eclipsed stardom. But then, nobody ever accused Oprah Winfrey of being bright. But it makes you wonder what she is paying all the guys and girls in her public relations department for. They could have told her that ages ago.

Meanwhile, that dratted handbag is causing the next storm for Oprah Winfrey. PETA activists have closed in on the bag in question and have identified it as real crocodile leather. They are crying foul, and point at Oprah Winfrey for having chosen that bag after receiving the PETA award in 2008. Are animal activists now racists, too?

What can we expect next in the unraveling of Oprah Winfrey? Will PETA retract its award? Why should it, Barack Obama still holds his Peace Nobel Prize and nobody knows why he got it in the first place, too. More probably, we will get another stupid stunt by Oprah Winfrey herself, as she seems so desperate to get headlines.

Further reading
If Short On Facts, Then Invent
JLS: Selling Off Aston
Being Politically Incorrect