Supporting Obama Costs Oprah Dearly
Filed under: 2008 elections, United States — Michael van der Galien, Editor-in-Chief on April 9, 2008 @ 3:38 pm CEST
When Oprah Winfrey decided to endorse her friend Barack Obama for president, she took quite a big risk. Never before had she been politically active in this regard, never before had she endorsed a candidate. The reason that she didn’t was, obviously, that she knew that endorsing a candidate may very well result in her becoming less popular and, therefore, seeing her ratings plummet, and her influence decrease. With Obama, however, she decided that the risk was worth it. So she endorsed Obama. The result? Oprah’s favorability ratings have gone down considerably.
Long considered the “queen of daytime TV,” Oprah Winfrey has enjoyed sky-high popularity as a media personality for two decades. “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” launched in September 1986, is currently the longest-running daytime program on television and is the highest-rated talk show in American television history…
Ten years following the launch of her talk show, the January 1996 Survey on American Political Culture found that more than three-quarters (78 percent) of Americans held a favorable opinion of Oprah.
Survey data suggest Americans held Oprah in high regard throughout the decade that followed. In December 1997, an NBC News and Wall Street Journal poll showed that more Americans admired Oprah than President Bill Clinton, former President Ronald Reagan and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, an icon at the height of the dot-com boom.
And on and on. She became increasingly more popular and influential. But then:
And then, seemingly out of nowhere, Oprah announced on CNN’s “Larry King Live” on May 1, 2007, that she would officially endorse her longtime friend Barack Obama for the presidency — the first time she had ever thrown her support behind a political candidate. “I think that my value to him, my support of him, is probably worth more than any check,” Oprah told Larry King. At the time, Oprah did not indicate whether she would campaign for Obama.
Almost instantly, Oprah’s popularity in America plummeted. An August 2007 CBS News poll showed only 61 percent of Americans were favorably disposed to her — a considerable drop of 13 percentage points from a similar survey conducted just seven months prior. An October 2007 Gallup/USA Today poll that showed Oprah with a slightly higher 66 percent favorability still reflected a drop…
But by the time Fox News/Opinion Dynamics asked Americans about their attitudes toward Oprah in a survey conducted about 10 days later, Dec. 18-19, Oprah’s favorability ratings had dropped even further — to 55 percent — the lowest level of favorability ever registered for Oprah in opinion surveys. Oprah’s negatives also spiked, with one in three respondents (33 percent) reporting unfavorable impressions of her.
The results of a March 26, 2008, AOL Television popularity poll of television hosts reveal Americans may now embrace Ellen DeGeneres over Oprah by a wide margin. Forty-six percent of the 1.35 million people who participated in the poll said the daytime talk show host that “made their day” was Ellen, compared with only 19 percent who chose Oprah. Nearly half (47 percent) said they would rather dine with Ellen, compared with 14 percent who preferred Oprah.
I think that Oprah believes that she can overcome this problem. She can, she probably thinks, get back to the level she was at in a couple of months, perhaps a year or two at most.
Will that be the case? No one knows for sure yet. On the one hand I’d say it’s possible that she guessed correctly; after all, Americans have short memories. On the other hand, however, it happens quite often that when a celebrity endorses a political candidate this strongly, he or she becomes considerably less popular and stays less popular than he or she was before he / she endorsed the political candidate.
Often it’s not wise for entertainers who endorse specific candidates. Those who admire them but disagree with them politically may lose their admiration.
1 Supporting Obama Costs Oprah Dearly | Barack Obama Chronicles
April 9, 2008 @ 3:48 pm CEST[…] Michael van der Galien added an interesting post on Supporting Obama Costs Oprah Dearly […]
2 Claudia
April 9, 2008 @ 3:51 pm CESTYawn, I much prefer this analysis of the whole affair. Simply put Clinton’s base is women, which constitutes an overwhelming share of Oprah’s audience. So count Republican women and especially ardent Clinton supporters who will be miffed at Oprah for her opinion.
It will pass, if you can’t count on short term memory in daytime television viewers then things are really messed up
3 obama for president
April 9, 2008 @ 7:04 pm CEST[…] […]
4 Paul Kekai Manansala, Obama Blog
April 9, 2008 @ 8:20 pm CESTI’m sure she was aware of the risks. It might eventually "pay off" is Obama is elected president, not only politically but poll-wise.
5 ALDO
April 10, 2008 @ 12:57 am CESTLET’S ALL JOIN TOGETHER TO FORMULATE A STRONGER, WEALTHIER, HEALTHIER AMERICA. I DIDN’T LIKE OBAMA AT FIRST, BUT NOW I SEE HIS PASSION TO REBUILD AMERICA. YOU MAKE YOUR OWN CHOICE, BUT LET’S NOT FIGHT, LET’S UNITE. I ONLY WATCH OPRAH ABOUT ONCE A MONTH, BUT I’M SURE SHE IS DOING JUST FINE.
6 Interested
April 10, 2008 @ 1:11 am CESTwell lets see - Net worth - 1.3 Billion
I would say she has not much to worry about and quite possibly supported because she did feel it was the right thing to do.
7 The Change Oprah CANT Believe In « My Flag in the Sand
April 10, 2008 @ 4:37 pm CEST[…] business savvy by building a media empire. That awareness seemed to translate into realization of the damage Obama was doing to her image well before national polls figured it out. She has decided not to take a Huckabeean […]
8 tango
April 10, 2008 @ 8:34 pm CESTI do not watch Oprah. I do watch Ellen if nothing good on TV. Now, with Ellen endorsing Hillary and out right going on message with gender is so stupid, I do not watch her show any more.
9 mark
April 15, 2008 @ 5:01 am CESTWhy is it that Opray for the first time supports a candidate? Isn’t it because he is black. White voters resent that. We have embraced her and yet she embraces a man who teaches his children to hate whites, every sunday. He says he is Christian, yet the basis for Christianity is love thy neighbor as thyself. Not hate them because their ancestors were mean to ours. He says he is christian but was raised by a Muslim step father, whom he forgets to mention. Instead he says he had a Muslim father, who left when he was young. He also has a political adviser who is close with Farahkan and Quadafi. Both of whom make no pretenses of hating whites. Both also hate everyone not Muslim!
Obama is close with Rezko, Chechen Terrorist, Odinga, another terrorist, William Ayer a bomber, Wright, who thinks it is Ok to bomb 9/11. Why doesn’t Opray check into who she is supporting, or doesn’t it matter because he is the first African American!
10 Claudia
April 15, 2008 @ 10:45 am CESTMark, congratulations, you’ve packed more lies, misconceptions, mistakes and distortions into one short comment than I’ve ever seen. you make dozens of assertions that are totally devoid of any factual basis, and do so with a self-righteous attitude of someone who is barely able to read the smears on message boards and chain emails.
11 Kaser’s STAR PULSAR
April 16, 2008 @ 5:04 am CEST[…] president, she took quite a big risk. Never before had she been politically active in this … poligazette.com/2008/04/09/supporting-obama-costs-oprah-dearly/ See all stories on this topic: […]
12 ohreally
April 22, 2008 @ 8:16 am CESTClaudia, point out the lies to us, please.
13 Claudia
April 22, 2008 @ 2:07 pm CESTSorry, it’s not my job to fact check every comment that the blog receives. A fairly simple google of Obama, his life, his family and his career would be quite sufficient for any reasonably intelligent individual to see the difference between reality and conspiracy theory. Of course, some people decide they hate a person first, and then twist and turn the facts to try to justify that hatred, or are perfectly willing to accept as fact anything that reinforces their preconceptions.
14 Reason
April 29, 2008 @ 7:12 pm CESTMaybe it has something to do with that terrible helping people reality TV show she had.
15 Obama and Oprah
May 29, 2008 @ 12:41 am CEST[…] PoliGazette
16 Jan
August 8, 2008 @ 5:14 pm CESTOprah is a strong, smart, articulate and compassionate person. She is entitled to support the candidate that she feels would make the best president. It may have not been the best decision to publicly campaign in his favor but that was her decision to make. Her show has helped me in many ways….from health matters, to awareness about world poverty, safety issues, making the world a better place for our children, showing inner beauty, and so much more. I think she is doing a fabulous job with her show. I admire her courage, character, strength, open-mindedness, and honesty. I will end with saying that I was a Hillary supporter and now will have to choose another candidate to vote for. Plus, I am a white female.
17 dee
August 9, 2008 @ 1:33 am CESTBut he’s not african american, he’s muslim!!
white women plus muslim man does not
equal african american
18 Lucy
August 23, 2008 @ 3:25 pm CESTOprah is a smart woman, I am certain that she was aware of the risk before she made her decision to support and endorse Obama. Obviously she felt that the risk were worth it. America’s economy and reputation around the world is in the toliet, and some backwards thinkers are still focused on race, while the rest of the WORLD has moved on. Obama is by far the most superior candidate to get this country back on top and I am baffled how some Americians would still prefer mediocrity over diversity. Wake up and catch up with the rest of progressive society!! GO Obama!
19 Maurice
August 25, 2008 @ 10:19 pm CESTMark, absolutely incredible that you can pack so many untruth into such a little comment. Every single line contains one, if not several lies. Say it with me, Dee, Mark, others. "Obama is not a muslim. " "Obama’s Mother is white. His children’s great grand parents are white and they spend time with her. Obama’s mother passed away in the 90s, but Obama lived his entire life with her. " "Obama met his father when he was 10 yrs old. He was not raised by him…" "Obama did not grow up hating white people, he grew up in the WHITE COMMUNITY with a WHITE MOTHER, GRANDFATHER, GRANDMOTHER, and other extended family around the country!" "Obama went to secular and catholic schools all of his life, never a mandrassa." "Obama is a God-Fearing christian who is committed to his faith and his family." This is in contrast to McCain. McCain was born outside of the U.S. Unlike McCain who deserted his wife and family in 1979 to be with a super rich younger blonde heiresss who was 20 years younger than he was! This same wife was the one who waited and supported him and his family while he was in Vietnam all those years. He came back, and within a few years, he had a huge open affair, and cut her loose! It was literally with this young heiress’s money that he started his political career. Its all on the record and in his book. " Want an interesting thought…watch the movie "Manchurian candidate", then consider who is the true one to worry about. The Manchurian Candidate was not black, he was a white man who fought in the far east, was captured, indoctrinated, then sent back to do whatever it takes to win a presidency…abandoning his old life to be in the position of power for the enemies sake.