Quote:
| Because I’ve fallen somewhat behind on my reading, I was only able last night to catch up to this excellent Newsweek expose of the public health menace that is Oprah Winfrey. No matter how bad you feared it was, Oprah’s even worse than you could have imagined, letting her “experts” push ideas such as “diet will prevent you from catching HPV, so don’t worry about the vaccine” and otherwise encouraging her viewers to take health measure that will actually degrade their health and work against their interests. It also functions a neat examination of the sort of motivations that keep health woo alive, despite all evidence and common sense against it. I somewhat disagree with the authors, who seem to think that the emphasis on woo on Oprah’s show is all about her massive ego. It actually seems to me that it’s ratings-grabbing pandering, and Oprah just has, for whatever reason, a real ear for those things that will trip up her audience’s wishes and anxieties... |
