When 60 Minutes announced that Oprah Winfrey was becoming a special contributor to the show, many fans voiced their disapproval on the 60 Minutes Facebook page. And the naysayers aren’t just upset about Winfrey. Many also took the opportunity to slam Winfrey’s best friend Gayle King, who works for CBS, too — on CBS This Morning. Many viewers say they will no longer watch 60 Minutes due to the presence of both women on the network. “Gayle King is bad enough but to add self-absorbed Oprah? I’ll pass,” wrote Terry Summers.
[Still, Oprah is a political and retail superstar with her own section on Amazon]
Judy Horvath concurs, “No more 60 minutes for me. She and Gayle King should get their own show so they can bicker together.” Notwithstanding that a Gayle King Oprah bickering show would probably be a hit, it would seem from the feedback that the news media’s reputation problems are going to be chronic for a while. If well-loved, above-the-fray Oprah Winfrey can’t get a pass before she even appears on the venerable news show, who can? Then again, 60 Minutes — like every other show — needs to constantly broaden its brand and audience or face obsolescence. It’s a dilemma. Other comments suggest that Winfrey just doesn’t fit the 60 Minutes mission because she’s not a journalist but a personality — and therefore should not be given “the same status as Morley Safer or Mike Wallace.” 60 Minutes airs Sundays at 7pm on CBS. Watch the ratings.
