Why Oprah Winfrey is sending Jon Stewart fans to his rally
Oprah Winfrey is paying for a Jon Stewart audience to attend his rally in Washington on Oct. 30. Is this more than a classic Oprah moment?
By linking herself to John Stewart and Stephen Colbert's Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, Oprah may be laying the groundwork for the next step in her career.
Charles Sykes/AP/File
Apparently, there aren鈥檛 enough TV talk show hosts in on the Washington rally idea. Oprah Winfrey certainly thinks so.
On Thursday night, the talk show diva, via satellite, blew into the studio of Jon Stewart鈥檚 鈥�Daily Show鈥� over on Comedy Central. She joked about sneaking into the studio earlier that day. As the cheers ramped up, Ms. Winfrey said, 鈥� 鈥楧aily Show鈥� audience, look under your seats!鈥�
Lo, Halloween treats were there: a trip for all to the big Washington rallies planned for Oct. 30 by both Mr. Stewart and his Comedy Central colleague, Stephen Colbert, who was also on the set. Winfrey beamed down from the screen behind the two hosts as the audience went nutty with shrieks of joy.
But while the whoop-de-do continued, it was clear that something more substantial was taking shape in that classic Oprah moment, says political scientist Steffen Schmidt, a professor at Iowa State University in Ames. The era of the TV talk show host as cultural mover and shaker had just bumped up a notch 鈥� maybe far more, he says.
鈥淚f Oprah were running for president, she would probably win,鈥� he says. 鈥淪he is one of the most powerful figures in the US.鈥�
Her alliance with Stewart and Mr. Colbert 鈥渞olls out some very heavy artillery in favor of progressive and liberal causes,鈥� he adds. 鈥淲e are in a major struggle right now for the hearts and minds of Americans.鈥�
Issues such as reading, moderation, and civic discourse are values that Winfrey has touted on her show 鈥� and she sees them embodied in the 鈥渞estore sanity鈥� motto for Stewart鈥檚 event, Professor Schmidt says.
It鈥檚 even possible that Winfrey could begin to position herself 鈥� and her 24-hour cable channel, the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), set to debut next year 鈥� as the first substantial counterweight to the growing power of the conservative Fox News.
That may all be true, says Robert Thompson, founder of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University in New York, but let us not forget something else: Winfrey鈥檚 own syndicated talk show is coming to a close with this season, he says.
Between last month sending her entire audience to Australia, and now sending Comedy Central fans to the nation鈥檚 capital, 鈥渟he clearly wants to go out with a bang,鈥� Mr. Thompson says.
But what is even more interesting, he says, is the role she may be carving out for herself in the future. With her move Thursday, in some ways 鈥渟he was also hitching her own wagon to the very powerful cultural force that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert represent,鈥� Thompson says.
By and large, he says, the much younger fans who engage with the comedians are not part of Winfrey鈥檚 base. 鈥淏ut,鈥� he adds, 鈥渟he realizes they need to be part of her future.鈥�