Dept. of How things work

In an article on a website called Broadcasting and Cable -- evidently an industry newsletter -- a columnist reveals how Oprah Winfrey expects bribes from publishers (and presumably other vendors) if they want her to recommend their products, and along the way compares herself to Nelson Mandela (emphasis mine):

B&C: So when you shower your audience with your "Favorite Things," those are really truly your favorite things? But the people who make those things ...

Oprah: So help me God.

B&C: But the people who make those things, they do pay to be on your show, don't they?

Oprah: No!

B&C: No?

Oprah: No. They give you the products, that's how they pay. This is how it works: … All year long, if I see something or run across something or somebody else tells me about something, I keep a little running list of things that I like. ... People think that advertisers or these companies are approaching me and that they pay to have these things on. That is absolutely not the truth. It works in reverse.

B&C: And who would say no?

Oprah: I approach them, and let me tell you, there are a number of people, which I could tell you, which maybe I won't tell you, who turn me down. Like, for example, this year—I could not believe this—but my deal is only this: If I'm going to say it's my favorite thing because it is my favorite thing, all you have to do is give me 300 of them, okay? So this year, there was this book that somebody had given to me, a book called The Way We Live. It was a great coffee-table book, and it had pictures from all over the world of different homes and how people live in all these different homes. Do you know that we called the publisher and they said no? And they said no!

B&C: And did they say why?

Oprah: They said they didn't have that many books to give away for free, because I think the book itself is [expensive] if you buy it in the stores. Can you believe that? They did, and so you know what I said? "Well, it's not going to be my favorite thing no more!" But how dumb is that? That's pretty dumb. It's a book! How many books could you have sold? It's a beautiful book.

B&C: But you could afford it. You could afford all of your favorite things in the whole world. Which leads to the next point. You have this constant message of self-empowerment, but I've heard people say, "Well, it's easy for Oprah to say, hey, if you want to be something, go be something or do something or lose weight or whatever, because Oprah is very rich." The regular people watching this show really can't change their lives as easily as you say you can. You must hear this.

Oprah: I know what you're trying to say. I don't buy it. I don't buy that for one moment, nor has that been my personal experience. My personal experience has been—for example, when I go around the country and I do these "Live Your Best Life" seminars—that people understand on a real core level that I get it and they get me. It's either you feel it or you don't. So what I know is that all celebritydom, all fame, all attention, all adoration only says this is possible. So the fact that I admire Nelson Mandela's strength and courage and wisdom and his humility simply means it is possible to be strong and to be courageous and to be wise and to also be humble.

I do get it. She's saying that ostentatious display of wealth and acts of oblesse oblige is empowering for the people who witness it, that it somehow inspires them to become more like Oprah. But if the vendor won't go along, "it's not going to be my favorite thing no more!"

Strength, courage, wisdom, humility, Nelson Mandela? -- no, she sounds more like a sixth grader.