Is Oprah Irrelevant?

Oprah refuses to have Sarah Palin on her show, lamely stating she doesn't want to use her TV show to promote political candidates, this after she clearly launched Barack Obama on the same show. Oprah throws women under the bus. So much for all her happy-talk about empowering women, when it comes down to it she doesn't walk the walk.

Is Oprah becoming irrelevant? She's already a billionaire, so maybe she doesn't care about the success of her media empire, as she's inspired a backlash among her base:

Ms. Winfrey angered many of her fans last year when she ventured into politics for the first time with her endorsement of Mr. Obama. The demographics of her audience was a closer fit to the profile of the typical supporter of Hillary Clinton than of Barack Obama, and may also be closer to the typical supporter of Sarah Palin: As of last fall, her daytime audience of 8.6 million viewers were 75 percent women; more than half were older than 50; about 44 percent made less than $40,000 a year, and about 25 percent had no more than a high school diploma, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Whatever the damage to Ms. Winfrey’s own standing among her fans, there is no denying her influence. A study earlier this year by two economists determined that her endorsement of Mr. Obama gave him a boost of about one million votes in the primaries and caucuses.

But that was before his association with the racist Rev. Wright was known (even Oprah had the sense to withdraw from Wright's church years earlier). Now with her denial of Gov. Sarah Palin's obvious appeal to women, Oprah is squandering her unifying appeal and retreating to one segment of identity politics, much as Barack Obama has.

-crossposted at UNC0RRELATED