Letters to the Editor
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Oprah's big eg- oops, i mean... "give"...
My wife watched the Big Give tonight, which seems to be designed to make us all feel guilty for being such horrible, self-centered people. And yet, it seems to me that the whole "contest" would be moot if Oprah would just go ahead and give a million dollars to ALL these people. I mean... what's a million dollars to OPRAH? It's like me giving a dollar to a homeless guy.
I'm not exaggerating either. According to the Internets, her net worth seems to be between $1 and 2.5 billion. Therefore a million dollars amounts to less than 1/1000th of her money. Given my account balance, one dollar is MORE THAN 1/1000th of my cash. (My "net worth" is probably actually negative!) Hence.... that day last week when i gave $5 to a hobo? Makes me WAY more generous than Oprah. But you don't see me running around calling it "DAVE'S BIG GIVE" now, do you?
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Correction
We've actually got two weeks left after this coming one :-)
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same old, same old
We have the two Gurus for all things "unselfish and giving." Dr. Phil and Oprah. What does this say about us? yeah, and a visit from the guy on "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," right? And guest hosted by Oprah's home makeover guy. More idolatry, more fluff and noise. It signifies a bit more than nothing. Sort of.
She started with this premise about what would you think of people given money to spend to make other people's dreams come true without EVER asking what's in it for them? BUNK. Anyone who participated in this knew it's from Oprah. So there's a prize. There's ALWAYS a prize. AND there is national publicity with the world giving you "atta boys." It isn't that the woman has never done good. Not at all. It's just that this show seems like every other reality competition, but perhaps it is subtlely even worse. It is a COMPETITION for a prize, but is supposedly all about altruism? Doesn't that strike ANYONE as somehow a little wrong? Perhaps even obscene? We have Oprah's ego. the Oprah magic and hooplah. People jumping up and down and screaming. And judges.
I watched the first and lat five minutes. I clicked over a couple of times to try to see whether there was substance. Nope. Looked like every other "reality" show. yeah, this one will have done some good somewhere, but I watched "Animal Planet." Somehow saving the Lions and Tigers and Bears seemed more real. Oh my.
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Oprah's big, nasty exploitation
I simply could not watch "Big Give". Every time I tried I saw someone's pain being exploited for my "entertainment". It was the worst form of voyeurism. I think Oprah Winfrey is the antichrist and I am throughly sick to death of her.
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Oprah gives away sponsor's money, not Oprah's money
Didn't watch it, didn't need to. Oprah gives away corporate money from sponsors and takes personal bows for it. Happens all the time on her regular show.
The bigger question is, since it's not her personal money, why are the regular giveaways so meager? Game shows give away more, and they give it more often. Where's the big deal over Oprah giving away some sponsor's money?
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I don't know. . .
Every letter here has been very negative. While I don't discount your views, I watched the show and I enjoyed it.
It's better than "Big Brother" and a lot of other reality crap. (I call it crap, but I watch a lot anyway because I love to see how people will react in certain situations. Sometimes more interesting than anything a writer can come up with.)
On the con side, we have Oprah's big ego; we have contestants supposedly altruistic, but really just doing it for the fame and/or money; we have greedy corporate sponsors.
On the pro side, we have people being helped. However well or not so well the contestants help these people in need, a small number of needy people are being helped.
Sorry, but that's good enough for me and I enjoyed it.
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Where the money is going
Ok I started to watch O's Big Give and I could not believe on who was getting the money. The lady with kids who husband was shot-killed at Home Depot and who was going to lose the house, no income coming in. This should be a commercial for Life Insurance to take a little affordable responsibility to your family. The doc who was going to have his student loans payed for, O where were you when I needed you with my student loans. This should have been a commercial for how bad are Health Care is in the US.
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@doctor dave
From where I sit your beautiful eyes look green....with envy! Oprah wasn't born with a silver spoon in her mouth or white-skin privilege, yet she forged a way in America to be a billionaire today. For that I'm proud of her and consider her a great inspiration to all, no matter your colour or station in life. Don't be play hating on her. Go get rich yourself. This is America. It can be done!