It’s not something that happens everyday. In fact, as one of the most influential women on the planet (and one of the richest), TV talk show host Oprah Winfrey rarely feels the need to defend her actions to others. However, a recent report that claims the media mogul and “a couple of her top people are adamantly” against booking Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin on her show, has Winfrey speaking out.
In a rare personal statement released to media organizations the queen of talk came out swinging regarding a posting published on the Drudge Report that claimed she refused to give Palin the same airtime she gave “her boy” Barack Obama.
“The item in today’s Drudge Report is categorically untrue,” Winfrey said in the written statement. “There has been absolutely no discussion about having Sarah Palin on my show. At the beginning of this presidential campaign when I decided that I was going to take my first public stance in support of a candidate, I made the decision not to use my show as a platform for any of the candidates. I agree that Sarah Palin would be a fantastic interview, and I would love to have her on after the campaign is over.”
Winfrey, who has crisscrossed the nation lending her support to Democratic presidential nominee Obama, set the record straight by pointing out that while the “first African-American man to ever be nominated for the role of president of the United States” has been on her show twice — once in January 2005 and again in October 2006 — both appearances took place before he announced his run for president.
Be that as it may, the Drudge Report also claims that Winfrey’s staff is reportedly “sharply divided” on booking Palin.
“Half of her staff really wants Sarah Palin on,” a source told Drudge. “Oprah’s Web site is getting tons of requests to put her on, but Oprah and a couple of her top people are adamantly against it because of Obama.”
Winfrey has made no secret that she is committed to getting Obama to the White House. The talk show host and sometimes actress has endorsed and campaigned with the Democratic nominee and most recently made her presence felt at the Democratic National Convention held in Denver last week.
As for Palin, Winfrey says she isn’t dissing the newly minted Republican vice presidential pick; rather she says the timing for an interview is “not right.”