The Washington Post's Lisa de Moraes
reports today on
Oprah Winfrey's latest "giveaway" to one of her studio
audiences. In the past she has lavished automobiles and diamond
watches, but she called this her "favorite giveaway ever." This one
placed a $1,000 debit card in the hands of each audience member,
but there was a catch:
The $1,000, she told them, will be
doled out in the form of debit cards, and recipients must spend all
of their money on a charity of choice. What she was actually giving
them, Oprah said with all the patronization of a woman whose
financial worth has been put at $1.5 billion, is "the best feeling
in the world."
De Moraes took notice of the obvious audience letdown.
"I can honestly say that every gift
I've ever given has brought at least as much happiness to me as it
has to the person I've given it to," Oprah added, with all the
complacency of a woman who owns three homes, including a $50
million estate in California.
"That's the feeling I want to pass on
to you. I want you to have that feeling this season," she said.
But wait, there's more.
"To document your good deeds,
because I want to make sure you document your good deeds," Oprah
said, working hard to keep up their spirits, "we are lending
everybody in this audience our favorite Sony DVD
Handycam.
Lending a Handycam? Couldn't that at
least be the consolation prize for being the vessels for someone
else's charitable deeds? Others got to walk away with Pontiacs or
iPods; these ladies get to return a camcorder along with the
feeling that they were just a delivery stooge for generosity that
originated elsewhere (and not even with Oprah, by the way).