The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : She Didn't Think This One Through

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The Spectacle Blog

She Didn't Think This One Through

By Paul Chesser on 10.31.06 @ 3:06PM

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).