Tarnished?

After pushing a third faux memoir loaded with inaccuracies and fabrications, ABC is wondering if Oprah's brand is tarnished. She is the queen of schmaltz, the empress of melodrama, the shameless promoter of wildly unrealistic expectations (for her viewers) and the celeb asskisser-in-chief. Her endorsements are usually a signal to me that I should steer clear of the book in question, but to a lot of people, she is the sole literary authority in their lives. Which makes me sad.

I am exceedingly pessimisstic when it comes to the prospect of dethroning of Oprah. For some unfathomable reason, people love her. She's ridiculous, and her apparent cultural importance says more about us than it does about her. We thrive on schmaltz. It's depressing.