Oprah Begs: Charybdis of Lake Michigan Takes to Twitter to Save Failed OWN Cable Channel
Nikki Finke over at DeadlineHollywood reported today that Oprah Winfrey — the now and forever Charybdis of Lake Michigan (as she was affectionately known when she was still berthed here in Chicago) — has taken to Twitter to beg people to watch OWN (Oprah’s Weird Noises), the failed cable channel that has just dozens of viewers at any given time.
What’s saddest about this is that Oprah’s so out of touch with reality at this point that the charybdis woman doesn’t even seem to know how the Nielsen TV ratings work. There’s no “box”, like it’s a flight crash recorder on an airplane or something magical that arrives at a person’s house.
I was only a Nielsen household once in my life, in the late-90s, and back then I was issued a notebook to record by hand (or hoof/flipper, in Oprah’s case) everything watched on every TV in my home. I believe I had to do this for a two week period — and remember a crips, never circulated, absolutely pristine $5 bill was included with the notebook as a thank you for doing this.
Today, I bet the Nielsens work differently and a record is kept digitally somehow. I doubt, however, the company sends people “a box”, since I’d imagine they’d lose a fortune on those who “lost” that box and never returned it.
No one in the media ever seems to write about this, but I can’t do an article on Oprah without noting that he popularity waned the moment she went all-in for Barack Obama in 2008. It was obvious to a great many people that the only reason Oprah did this was because of Obama’s skin color. It’s very similar to how people like Samuel L. Jackson openly talk about supporting Obama because “he is a black man”. Racism is alive and well in this country — but it’s black people who engage in it the most, particularly in the voting booth.
While it’s true that OWN (Oprah’s Weird Noises) was flawed at its premise (an entire network dedicated to weird noises Oprah personally makes, or assigns to friends to make) and occupies a slot so far up the cable dial that most viewers never realize it’s there, I think the biggest reason for her loss of power was the simple fact that her support for Obama collapsed the decades-old charade that Oprah “transcended race”.
Oprah sided with the black man against the white woman in the 2008 primaries — and the mostly white women in her audience took note and have remembered that.
Her magazine sales plummeted. Her ratings nosedived. Then her new endeavor, OWN, bombed no matter how much chili she ate to summon her creative juices for programming content.
Couldn’t happen to a more deserving, racist, power-glutton.
© 2012, Kevin DuJan. All rights reserved.
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This is so pathetic! The idea of a free market is to win others to you because you have something to offer that is perceived to be more valuable than what the viewer is perceived to spend to watch this program. She offers nothing. She pleads for viewers, but what is she offering? Her emotions? That's worth what? She has spent her worth when she used her show to endorse the very man who is responsible for the day to day misery we feel today. If she wants to keep OWN afloat (not literally), she will have to pony up to the table.
Actually, there is a box…or at least there used to be. My parents had one for several years. In fact, I think they had to have a box for every television in the house. I've gotten the notebook in the mail, too, but I believe they use that data to determine statistical data about people, including how much television they watch, to potentially select people to send the box to. I'm almost certain my parents did the notebook before they got the box. They may also use that data as a second check to make sure they're still getting accurate info from the "box-holders." I'm not really sure how they make those decisions, but one day they just told my parents they were taking their box away and they did. No explanation. (My parents tend to leave their TV on all day long, even when nobody's watching, so that may have something to do with it.)
Anyway…just thought I'd let you know. It's still really pathetic that she has to tell people to watch her show. It actually makes me feel sad for her.
Oprah lost half her viewership when she shilled for Obama. As an astute business woman she should have known what the risks were. She brought her decline and possible demise on herself. I have no pity for her and the fact she has now resorted to begging makes me have zero respect for her as well.
Exactly. I can't call her behavior pathetic because it completely lacks pathos. She brought this on herself; begging for an audience now is just contemptible. I don't find it sad. I actually find it rather satisfying.
You hit the nail on the head in your analysis; I haven't watched Oprah since the day she endorsed Obama and ignored Hillary and Sarah Palin. In the interest of fairness, she could have brought them all on as guests and interviewed them…but no, she sided with the black man and I think she very well knew of his history. How could she not have known? She went to church with him for several years.
I think she did throw a small crumb to Sarah Palin, but made it into a show detailing Palin's view of out-of-wedlock pregnancy in light of the fact that Bristol was preggers without benefit of marriage at the time. In other words, she purposely avoided real "policy" questions in favor of painting Palin as some sort of aberration who really (like every other conservative) hated women. And yes, she should have realized that when Obama said he wanted to "spread the wealth," he was talking about people like HER, unless she expected her support to translate into an "Oprah exemption" with regard to higher taxes and / or Obamacare for all of her employees.
Begging, nor divine intervention will save OWN from going offline.
I'm not sure about Nielsen, but back when radio ratings were also done by diary (notebook), it was a HUGE no-no to tell people to write down they were listening to your station. That was grounds for excluding a diary from tabulation.
I imagine Nielsen has the same rules. BTW – radio now is done like Nielsen rating with a passive "people meter" that particpants wear and it just listens for subaudible tones in radio broadcasts to collect the data.
Ask her is she seen any good George Cloony movies lately? Don't mix your politics with my entertainment! As Laura Ingrams so aptly put it, "Shut Up and Sing"
Nielson has agreements with all the cable companies and the Dish networks. They collect the data through the cable boxes that you pay $2 a month for. Of course they don't want the consumer to know that they are paying for the data collection boxes so they sell them as 'remote control boxes.'
I have just recently learned how ridicilous these ratings are. Neilsen started calling me several weeks ago, but whenever I answered the phone, no one was on the other end. Then I started receiving postcards that said, "Thank you for agreeing to participate in Neilsen Ratings!" Huh?
Then, finally, this week I received their "real" mailing – with the same $5 that you received Kevin, except my envelope contained five crisp $1 bills. The mailing contained a booklet that required me to record what I watch every 30 minutes on Thursday nights. It went in the trash.
The next day, I received another postcard telling me how excited they will be to receive my survey.
Tonight, I received yet another call.
I never agreed to do a Nielsen-anything. Now that I know what a joke it is, I'll never pay attention to their ratings again.
It's very sad that Oprah is so desperate that she seeks their ratings. I don't think Nielsen Ratings are going to save OWS.
http://www.romneyexposed.com/2011/06/20/an-open-l…
… For the last five years Romney and his supporters have cultivated an image of Romney as a fiscal superstar and who ran a very tight ship as Governor of Massachusetts. Indeed, DeMoss claims Governor Romney “turned a $3 billion deficit into a nearly $1 billion surplus, without raising taxes.”
But that statement is simply not true.
The reality is that Romney’s tenure as Massachusetts governor was an economic disaster for the state.
"Governor Romney passed a host of new tax and fee increases,
hitting the corporate world hard and devastating job creation.
As Peter Nicholas, chairman of Boston Science Corporation, stated,
“tax rates on many corporations almost doubled because of legislation supported by Romney.” (1)
The Cato Institute reported that in his first year as Governor, Romney “proposed $140 [million] in business tax hikes through the closing of ‘loopholes’ in the tax code.” (2)
As Nicholas explains,
“Romney’s tax policies were not helpful for many small businesses… when Romney took many IRS subchapter S businesses in Massachusetts and almost doubled their tax rates, it was an important disincentive to investment, growth and job creation.” (3).
As Joseph Crosby of the Council on State Taxation stated,
“Romney went further than any other governor in trying to wring money out of corporations.” (4)
Romney also raised taxes on business again in 2004 and 2005, for a grand total of $309 million levied upon the corporate sector. (5) He then increased taxes on business property (6), tried to raise taxes on hotels (but was stopped by the Democrat legislature!) (7), joined a coalition lobbying congress to tax internet activity (8), and supported a tax on out of state commuters. (9)
Nor did Romney fight the passage of higher rates on death taxes; indeed, his official position on a state bill was “no position.” (10). Moreover, Governor Romney supported gas tax hikes both for Massachusetts and for the federal government. (11)
He also proposed a new excise tax on SUVs and a new sales tax on all used cars. (12)
Indeed, Romney failed to reduce ANY of the myriad taxes Massachusetts imposes on its citizens, even though the previous two Republican governors, William Weld and Paul Cellucci, were both able to reduce tax rates.
As Governor Cellucci confirmed, Romney
“did not have any broad-based tax cuts in his four years as Governor.” (13).
Indeed, while Romney raised over a hundred different fees and taxes, the two previous Republican governors signed more than 40 tax reduction bills, even though Democrats controlled the legislature.
Nor are there any taxpayer groups in Massachusetts in agreement with the notion that Romney never raised taxes.
As the Massachusetts Taxpayer Foundation stated,
“fees and taxes have increased more than $700 million per year under Governor Mitt Romney….” (14)
For a detailed list of the fees and taxes raised by Romney, go here: http://romneyfacts.com/assets/Romney_taxandfee_hi…
We should not also forget that Romney refused to support the Bush tax cuts while governor, (15) and when campaigning for Governor, refused to sign the “no new taxes” pledge, calling it “government by gimmickry.” (16)
He only signed the pledge when he began to campaign for the presidency.
By Romney’s last year in office, Massachusetts was ranked by the Public Policy Institute of New York on its Cost of Doing Business Index, as the 4th most expensive state in which to do business in. (17)
Data compiled by the Tax Foundation reveals that during Romney’s term, the per capita tax burden increased from 9.3% to 9.9%, a .6% increase.
In real dollars, the per capita tax burden increased $1175.71 during Romney’s term. (18)
Contrary to DeMoss’s comments, Romney didn’t “turn a $3 billion dollar deficit into a nearly $1 billion surplus.”
Rather, the deficit was $1.3 billion according to Factcheck.org (19) and he balanced the budget with mostly tax and fee increases with very little spending cuts. According to the Massachusetts Taxpayer Foundation, Romney
“proposed four budgets while in office…each budget increased spending over the previous year.” (20).
As Club for Growth echoed, Romney’s last budget
“was a whopping 10.12% larger than the preceding fiscal year.” (21)*
Out of the 25 freshmen Republican Governors rated by the Cato Institute on fiscal issues, Romney had the 2nd worst score. (22)
Indeed, Carla Howell, president of the Massachusetts-based Center for Small Government, is blunt about Romney’s record:
“Romney claims to have cut the Massachusetts budget by ‘2 billion.’ Sometimes he claims he cut it ‘3 billion’… but these cuts were merely budget games… not only did Mitt Romney refuse to cut the overall Massachusetts budget, he expanded it. Dramatically… Romney initiated massive new spending –without any prodding.” (23)
The alleged budget surplus DeMoss refers to is also mythical.
The Massachusetts Taxpayer Foundation and the conservative Massachusetts think tank, Beacon Hill Institute, both challenged that notion (24). In fact, Romney left a billion dollar deficit for his successor. (25).
Romney’s budgets were also full of pork and he was infamous for lavishing money on staff salaries, incurring outlandish travel expenses, and granting pay hikes for state officials and lawmakers. (26). Moreover, he had no problem with corporate welfare, granting millions to local corporations in an effort to persuade them t o NOT leave the state or to hire more workers, hardly a sign of a fiscal conservative… (27)
I wonder if the cable DVRs send info back to the companies to tell them exactly how much and what we watch. I know when I leave the cable news on, the DVR shuts off transmission after about 6 hours or so, and I have to press "OK" again. I think that is a way they double check that you are actually watching.
Regardless, what little respect I had left for Oprah I lost in 2008.
Yes, the DVR's do send your watching info back to the companies, BUT you need to watch what you record within 24 hours of the show airing for it to count.
And mine does try to shut off after so many hours, but that's because I haven't changed the channel, so they're turning off the power for us.
I have watched OWN a few times. You can see the behind the scenes filming of Oprah’s show. What you see is her staggeringly huge ego. That’ll turn anyone off.
The demise of the Dixie Chixs wasn't instructive for Opie. She's just a slow learner.
She got slapped for becoming desparate for viewers. This was NBC5 this morning. This is sinking to a new low for her. It is just a matter of time. But for me, when she makes the connection between her feeling of entitlement that she can manipulate the political landscape and her current level of desparation, that's when I'm convinced she will have learned her lesson. Who knows, perhaps there is a line in the current bloated beast of a budget that calls for money to bail her out? I'm not kidding!
Knowing Ofat Winfrey's network is tanking gives me goosebumps, and hope that this country will vote our Fraud-In-Chief out in November. Oprah's learning first hand when you sleep with dogs, you wake up with fleas. Charybdis of Lake Michigan, how appropriate. LOL!
I love the fact that she's begging! Now let us see if the fat
b*cth can do some tricks before OWN goes the way of the Dodo Bird.
Good news for you Chevy Volt fans, you can now get OWN piped in to your sound system.
Don’t forget the free cremations that come complimentary with you Volt purchase!
“That’s re-VOLT in’!”