Oprah_ A Biography - Kitty Kelley [113]
The only public statement Oprah made about the suicide came through her publicist, Colleen Raleigh: “Only Mike LaCalamita or perhaps a psychiatrist would know why he took his own life. Our deepest sympathies are extended to his family and friends.”
Despite growing criticism over her tabloid programming, Oprah said her shows “just give people a voyeuristic look at other people’s lives. It’s not to shock.” Still, she continued to demand what she called “bang, bang, shoot-’em-up shows,” especially during sweeps, but when she did a highly controversial show on devil worship, she almost shot herself in the foot.
Broadcast on May 1, 1989, the show was titled “Mexican Satanic Cult Murders,” and during one segment Oprah presented a woman under the pseudonym of “Rachel” who was undergoing long-term psychiatric treatment for multiple personality disorder.
“As a child my next guest was also used in worshipping the devil, participated in human sacrifice rituals and cannibalism,” Oprah told her audience. “She is currently in extensive therapy, suffers from multiple personality disorder, meaning she’s blocked out many of the terrifying and painful memories of her childhood. Meet ‘Rachel,’ who is also in disguise to protect her identity.”
“Rachel” said she had witnessed the ritual sacrifice of children and had been a victim of ritualistic abuse. “I was born into a family that believes in this.”
“And this is a—does everyone else think it’s a nice Jewish family?” asked Oprah, introducing “Rachel’s” religion. “From the outside you appear to be a nice Jewish girl.… And you are all worshipping the devil inside the home?”
“Right,” said the disturbed “Rachel.” “There’s other Jewish families across the country. It’s not just my own family.”
“Really? And so who knows about it? Lots of people now.”
“I talked to a police detective in the Chicago area.…”
“So when you were brought up in this kind of evilness did you just think it was normal?”
“Rachel” said she had blocked out a lot of the memories, but she remembered enough to say “there would be rituals in which babies would be sacrificed.” She later added, “Not all Jewish people sacrifice babies.… It’s not a typical thing.”
“I think we all know that,” said Oprah.
“I just want to point that out.”
“This is the first time I heard of any Jewish people sacrificing babies, but anyway—so you witnessed the sacrifice?” said Oprah.
“Right. When I was very young I was forced to participate in that, and … I had to sacrifice an infant.”
The phones at Harpo started jangling with hundreds of irate callers objecting to Oprah’s blithe acceptance of “Rachel’s” claims about Jews practicing devil worship. Television stations across the country—New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Cleveland, Washington, D.C.—were inundated with furious calls. Within hours, Jewish groups rose up in condemnation, and Oprah’s show became a national news story. “We have grave concern about both the lack of judgment and the insensitive manipulation of this woman, who is clearly mentally ill, in a manner which can only inflame the basest prejudices of ignorant people,” Rabbi David Saperstein of the Religious Action Center of Reformed Judaism told The New York Times.
Arthur J. Kropp, president of People for the American Way, a leading civil liberties organization, met with his board of directors in Washington, D.C. “There’s been a lot of concern about so-called trash television,” he said after reviewing the transcript of Oprah’s show. “She was the one who introduced the religion. I don’t think she introduced it to convey any correlation between the woman’s Jewishness and what she saw, but nevertheless Oprah did do it and that was careless.”
This wasn’t the first bad publicity Oprah had ever received, but it was brutal because she was being criticized for offending