Given the obscurity in which her new OWN network is languishing, maybe Oprah didn't think anyone would notice her bad judgment. Winfrey, the former daytime talk show queen, has decided to honor Dan Savage for his anti-bullying work. Savage is a sex-advice columnist and gay activist known for nasty scatological attacks on social conservatives or anyone who disagrees with him.
In her O Wow! List, [1] which of 15 "dreamers, doers and thinkers" whose "breakthrough ideas took our breath away this year," Oprah touted Savage as a "crusader against gay bullying" - neglecting to mention Savage's own incendiary rhetoric and bullying comments.
Savage's "breakthrough idea" was It Gets Better Project [2], an anti-bullying project featuring videos telling troubled gay teens that a better (and presumably homosexual) future is around the corner for them. Savage has strongly condemned bullying [3] and hate speech: "Sometimes the damage done by hate and by haters is simply too great."
It's too bad Savage won't take his own advice.
Oprah's biographical blurb about Savage acknowledges that he is a "self-described "potty-mouthed sex-advice columnist." Potty-mouthed is a gross understatement. Savage's attacks seldom rise above the sewer.
On July 15, 2011, Savage declared [4] on HBO's "Real Time" that he wished all Republicans were f***ing dead (which he apologized for), and on the same show declared that wanted to f*** the s*** out of conservative Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum. In a 2010 interview with Newsweek [5], Savage called Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia a c**ksucker [6]and declared "F**k [Arizona Senator] John McCain." (He has not apologized for any of these statements.)
Savage was also the organizer of a "Google bombing" campaign [7] against Rick Santorum, in which he redefined Santorum's last name as "The frothy mix of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex" and launched a website to make that definition the first that shows up on Google when searching "Santorum."
Oprah has shown a penchant for promoting liberal causes [8] in the past. She has promoted liberal celebrities such as Michael Moore and called "pregnant man" Thomas Beatie normal on her talk show.
But her support for Savage the anti-bullying bully and scorched-earth gay agenda partisan conflicts with her advice [9], "Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher." A man who fantasizes aloud about hate f***ing opponents isn't exactly an up-with-people type.
Apparently, it is appropriate to associate with bigots and gutter-dwellers in Oprah's world - as long as they favor the correct side, of course.