Oprah's America -- The Centrality of the Self
Albert Mohler
Posted: Thursday, June 01, 2006

Week by week, Lee Siegel of The New Republic offers some of the most insightful cultural analysis to be found anywhere. In this week's issue, he considers the meaning of Oprah Winfrey, arguing that Oprah represents the apex of television as a culture-shaping medium. In his words, "Oprah Winfrey is to television what Bach is to music, Giotto to painting, Joyce to literature."

The saddest commentary on that assessment is that most of Oprah's viewers would have no idea what Siegel means. But, who needs to read Finnegan's Wake, Dubliners, or Ulysses when you can just tune into Oprah?

Is Oprah basically about the centrality of the self and the cult of personality? The rest