Pretty shrewed move on both parts.
You can't buy this kind of free publicity.
Double-barrelled Mega-PING! to both lists! If you want on, FReepmail me!
Posted on 09/13/2004 10:47:00 AM PDT by Feiny
Chat show queen Oprah Winfrey celebrated the opening of her 19th season on US TV today by surprising each of her 276 audience members with a new car.
We’re calling this our wildest dream season, because this year on the Oprah show, no dream is too wild, no surprise too impossible to pull off,” Winfrey said.
Making sure the audience was kept in suspense, Winfrey opened the show by calling 11 audience members onto the stage. She gave each of them a car – a Pontiac G6.
She then had gift boxes distributed to the rest of the audience and said one of the boxes contained keys to a twelfth car. But when the audience members opened the boxes, each had a set of keys.
“Everybody gets a car! Everybody gets a car! Everybody gets a car!” Winfrey yelled as she jumped up and down on the stage.
The audience members screamed, cried and hugged each other – then followed Winfrey out to the car parking of her Harpo Studios in Chicago to see their Pontiacs, all decorated with giant red bows.
The cars, which retail for £15,500, were donated by Pontiac.
“A little idea grew into a big idea,” said Mary Henige of Pontiac
Winfrey said the audience members were chosen because their friends or family had written to the show about their need for a new car. One woman’s young son said she drove a car that “looks like she got into a gunfight” another couple had almost 400,000 miles on their two vehicles.
In other segments on the show, Winfrey surprised a 20-year-old girl who had spent years in foster care and homeless shelters with a four-year college scholarship, a makeover and £6,000 in clothes. And a family with eight foster children who were going to be kicked out of their house were given £72,000 to buy and repair the home.
The Oprah Winfrey Show is syndicated to 212 domestic markets and 109 countries.
It is really interesting reading how some people are beating up Oprah for doing what she did. Even going as far as saying it will be bad for the gift recipients because they will now 'have to pay taxes' for the cars! Come on people. I'd say that is just personal dislike for Oprah coming to the forefront. I am certain if Laura Bush did the same exact thing we would all be saying how kind she was to help people who needed cars get them.
Oh, and Oprah does a lot of giving. Using her own money. Millions of her own money.
And you said that it would ' be nice to see Oprah 'endow' a perpetual scholarship to help kids in foster care. That would go a long way toward helping a lot of people. Well, I am sure you will be pleased to know that she does exactly that. With her own money, as well as through a funded network. Infact the work she does with her own money pays for dozens of kids who would otherwise not have had the funding to attend college.
But maybe she is doing that so she can receive a 'taxbreak,' huh? (sarcasm off)
Oprah is a nice person. I am not certain what her politics are (from some of the responses one would assume she was a raging democrap, but honestly she seems quite republican to me.) But even if she was John Kerry's twin sis she would still be a nice person.
Give her her due and don't add schadenfreude into the mix.
And i am pretty certain that most of those who are criticising her have not lifted a finger to help those less fortunate than themselves. It is one thing to criticize the actions of another, it is another to actually do something to make the world a better place. What oprah did may not pass the smell test of many here, after all ....she did not wipe out the national debt or fund an invention that did away with world hunger nor gave the 'poor folk in the appalachians without shoes' footwear. However, if you ask those people who were in the audience that received a car, or the 20yr old that got a college scholarship, they would tell you it was one of the happiest days of their lives.
And even if they do get that '8,000 dollar IRS bill' some fellow freeper was talking about, they will still be overjoyed.
don't be too sure of that, pal. but none of my largess carries any obligations on the recipient.
it is nice of her to coordinate this, and she does do some nice things - and I have said so. myt concern is that thee gifts come with their own trojan horses that can do more harm than good
ever study lottery winners? a large number of them actually end up far WORSE than they were before.
I think Bluefield was one place...
Well, even though this isn't coming out of Oprah's own pocket, it is still a nice gesture. Even with the resulting tax bill, I'd still take a new car.
That said, it still doesn't get Oprah off the hook for some of her really off the wall shows that she has from time to time. I believe there was a show recently about kids getting sex-change operations. Uh, not showing in MY house!
>>And even if they do get that '8,000 dollar IRS bill' some fellow freeper was talking about, they will still be overjoyed.<<
If someone would be so kind as to give me a brand new car, I would gleefully pay the government that $8,000.00. I'm driving a 10 year old minivan that is leaking everywhere. I think it will cost me more than $8000.00 to fix it!
Pretty shrewed move on both parts.
You can't buy this kind of free publicity.
Double-barrelled Mega-PING! to both lists! If you want on, FReepmail me!
I can arrange for G.E. to give all my family and friends free ranges and T.V.'s..And then tell everyone that I gave them to them...???
This sounds so, so, so......Feral Gobment like.
BWDIK??
Hey, I declare right now..I'm giving all Freepers free gifts from me.
Just as soon as I can arrange for some smuck company to give me the "gifts" for free.
Geesh.........
Typical leftist generosity! Pontiac donated the cars.
"Say what you want about Oprah, she is a generous woman!"
She ought to be, she's made enough money off the gullible b*stards.
Sheesh, Dan, relax!
1) dts32041 was just kiddin' around.
2) I'll give you a car myself right after Pontiac sends it to me for you.
3) If I was to give you a dollar on a percentage basis I would be more generous than Oprah even if she had bought the cars herself. Stop by my house and I'll give you a dollar.
Yes by about $5-6 thousand.
I think new cars are a status thing.
My Camaro was paid for long ago. I pay zero property tax because it is listed as a 20 year old Chevy Coup. My insurance runs (full coverage) about $300 a year.
Please read all of this.
She has given much more than the "Pontiac" donated cars.
My objection to the article and some of the gushing praise was that Oprah did nothing but provide the means to give out the cars. Basically she read a script from the teleprompter. Whoopee. Even the coordination with and approaching Pontiac was done by “her people”. It was a nice PR thing, but to hold Oprah up as some kind of Icon of Generosity is a bit much.
Yes, I realize that many people are impressed by personal wealth and fame. I’m not. People impressed by wealth and fame are the same people who will vote for a presidential nominee because some actor or rock star endorses him.
It takes more than a lucky Hollywood break to impress me.
I said to my Mom I can't stand Oprah Winfrey. She refers to Bill Clinton as President Clinton, but refers to President Bush as "Mister Bush".
My Mom said, she didn't care, she'd kiss Oprah's *** for a new car.
I have no use for Oprah or her larger than life media image. I'm from Texas, and still remember her anti-beef escapade here. Dis my President and Texas beef? Bite me, Oprah.
It has been established that the recipients are NOT going to be zapped with taxes, but if that gives anyone added manure to sling at Oprah, many here are more than happy to sling it without bothering to read the full story.
For those who are questioning her generosity, do your research. She has given more OF HER OWN MONEY away, as well as arranging for big corporations to get involved, than most of us will ever make in our lifetimes COMBINED. And as far as promoting it, the intent of the Angel Network is to make people aware of the big picture and to get them involved in a world outside their own little orb.
It's sad to see the large number here who delight in making disparaging comments about a good deed. I wonder how many would turn down a new car themselves -- with no taxes on it.
funny!
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