This past fall, Oprah Winfrey celebrated Thanksgiving with extended family. She had just learned that she had a half-sister, given away at birth.
While the reunion was certainly a cause for celebration, it raised another issue: how to deal with the press.
People in the media are often forced to share their most private moments with the public. Some might say it’s their need for publicity. But is it really?
Yes, Oprah broke the story on her own show. Heavy promotion guaranteed a huge audience and media frenzy.
But did she really have a choice? We live in an information age where secrets are almost non-existent and the truth is bought, sold and twisted. Someone would have discovered the story – or parts thereof – and sold it for top dollar.
Oprah believed the only way to protect the truth and her family was to tell the story herself, in her own words and on her own terms. After all, she has been painfully open and honest about her life in the past.
But why did she have to open her life like that in the first place? You might say that as a person in the media she has to accept the lack of privacy as part of the job. And she obviously has. Instead of fighting it, she beat it to the punch.
However, there are 300 million people on Facebook or posting messages on websites which places them in the media too. Does that make their lives fair game?
We used to rail against the invasion of privacy by Big Brother. Traffic cams, bank cams, even security cams should not be watching our every move.
It offended us that computers could collect personal data on our daily lives. Yet their intrusion has now been overshadowed by the sheer volume of cell phones being whipped out to catch any activity and post it online.
Evidently, our privacy is something we hold dear. Other’s privacy? Not so much.
Of course, few of us make our living with our media activity. So perhaps giving up her privacy isn’t necessarily part of the job, but a price Ms. Winfrey must pay for her success.
We pay with hard work. Apparently, Oprah’s efforts both at the office and around the world aren’t enough.
So she pays. But what about her family? They had to publicly re-live the loss of one sister to drugs and discuss Vernita Lee’s rejection of her child first at childbirth and again years later. For what were they paying?
Yes, Oprah got a ratings boost from the show. And the strategy seems to have worked. In the few weeks since she chose to break the news, the story has been primarily absent from the media.
But what a choice: give away her privacy or wait for someone to steal it.
While the reunion was certainly a cause for celebration, it raised another issue: how to deal with the press.
People in the media are often forced to share their most private moments with the public. Some might say it’s their need for publicity. But is it really?
Yes, Oprah broke the story on her own show. Heavy promotion guaranteed a huge audience and media frenzy.
But did she really have a choice? We live in an information age where secrets are almost non-existent and the truth is bought, sold and twisted. Someone would have discovered the story – or parts thereof – and sold it for top dollar.
Oprah believed the only way to protect the truth and her family was to tell the story herself, in her own words and on her own terms. After all, she has been painfully open and honest about her life in the past.
But why did she have to open her life like that in the first place? You might say that as a person in the media she has to accept the lack of privacy as part of the job. And she obviously has. Instead of fighting it, she beat it to the punch.
However, there are 300 million people on Facebook or posting messages on websites which places them in the media too. Does that make their lives fair game?
We used to rail against the invasion of privacy by Big Brother. Traffic cams, bank cams, even security cams should not be watching our every move.
It offended us that computers could collect personal data on our daily lives. Yet their intrusion has now been overshadowed by the sheer volume of cell phones being whipped out to catch any activity and post it online.
Evidently, our privacy is something we hold dear. Other’s privacy? Not so much.
Of course, few of us make our living with our media activity. So perhaps giving up her privacy isn’t necessarily part of the job, but a price Ms. Winfrey must pay for her success.
We pay with hard work. Apparently, Oprah’s efforts both at the office and around the world aren’t enough.
So she pays. But what about her family? They had to publicly re-live the loss of one sister to drugs and discuss Vernita Lee’s rejection of her child first at childbirth and again years later. For what were they paying?
Yes, Oprah got a ratings boost from the show. And the strategy seems to have worked. In the few weeks since she chose to break the news, the story has been primarily absent from the media.
But what a choice: give away her privacy or wait for someone to steal it.
