Speaker 1: Hey, there are folks. It's July thirtieth, and people are
Speaker 1: pissed at Oprah Winfrey for something she and police say
Speaker 1: she didn't do. With that, welcome to this episode of
Speaker 1: Amy and TJ. I threw police in there. I should
Speaker 1: make sure I make clear she's not being accused of crime.
Speaker 2: No, no crime, but maybe a crime against humanity.
Speaker 1: Yes, this has gotten out of control. Robes and some
Speaker 1: people listening to us might be already aware. But before
Speaker 1: we even tell you what they're what they're accusing her
Speaker 1: of doing, can you give an example of the kinds
Speaker 1: of things being said right now about Oprah Winfrey.
Speaker 2: Oprah is a greedy and heartless human. Oprah is this
Speaker 2: is terrible. I don't even want to say this. Oprah
Speaker 2: the fat Satan is bitch.
Speaker 3: It's funny.
Speaker 2: I didn't want to say fat, but I felt worse
Speaker 2: about saying bitch.
Speaker 3: But how about this.
Speaker 2: Don't think for one second that Oprah is a good human.
Speaker 2: Oprah Winfrey is a vile, disgusting excuse of a human being.
Speaker 1: Good Lord, have mercy. What did Oprah do? I actually
Speaker 1: saw a lot of the comments before I had a
Speaker 1: good understanding of what the story was, and then I
Speaker 1: was blown away to understand what was happening.
Speaker 3: Oprah was the trending topic? Correct? Was it just her name?
Speaker 3: Oprah was trending?
Speaker 2: That was it? And so that's, you know, curious, what
Speaker 2: could Oprah have done? What could people be saying about Oprah?
Speaker 2: And to think that it's all connected to the biggest
Speaker 2: one of yes, the biggest earthquakes ever recorded in the
Speaker 2: history of planet Earth.
Speaker 1: That is such a good way to put it. An
Speaker 1: earthquake off the coast of Russia got us to everybody
Speaker 1: hating known Oprah today.
Speaker 3: How is that actually possible?
Speaker 1: Will you please connected?
Speaker 3: That's okay.
Speaker 2: So she is being accused of keeping a road, a
Speaker 2: private road that she owned. She has thousands of acres
Speaker 2: in Maui. She is being accused of keeping her private
Speaker 2: road closed and it is a access point to get
Speaker 2: folks who might need to evacuate from coastal areas to
Speaker 2: higher ground. And so somehow someway someone said that Oprah
Speaker 2: shut down her road and wasn't letting people get on
Speaker 2: it to get quickly to higher ground.
Speaker 1: And of course folks were trying to get to higher ground.
Speaker 1: It was a big story overnight, big earthquake off the
Speaker 1: coast of Russia, triggers tsunami alerts from Japan to the
Speaker 1: west coast of the US and of course in Hawaii,
Speaker 1: and yes, they had traffic out there, folks were all
Speaker 1: the long lines of video we saw, but they were
Speaker 1: trying to get to higher ground. Thankfully, there were no
Speaker 1: waves of consequence, as they put it, but still waves
Speaker 1: from that earthquake, and that tsunami did show up.
Speaker 3: I believe one of the largest recorded.
Speaker 2: They actually called them a tsunami wave because they were
Speaker 2: wavescreen by a tsunami from an earthquake. I think we're
Speaker 2: six feet tall. A lot of them are four.
Speaker 3: And a half feet.
Speaker 2: I don't have a gauge of how significant that is.
Speaker 2: But there was no damage and there were no injuries.
Speaker 2: But obviously people remember, yes, the disaster in Puquet in Thailand,
Speaker 2: where no one knew what was happening, and all of
Speaker 2: a sudden an earthquake triggers as tsunami and the devastation
Speaker 2: we all know was just horrific and beyond imagination. So
Speaker 2: you have to say that could happen. We don't know
Speaker 2: what is going to happen. It's impossible to predict exactly
Speaker 2: how big tsunami waves are going to be so yes,
Speaker 2: people were panicked and scrambling, scrambling and trying to get
Speaker 2: out as quickly as possible to get away from the coast.
Speaker 1: So that's the backdrop of the story. This was a
Speaker 1: legit emergency. So in the midst of this emergency in Maui,
Speaker 1: you can get away from the coastal area. It would
Speaker 1: take you longer to go one route, or you could
Speaker 1: cut through, essentially, and that cut through is a private
Speaker 1: road that is on private property owned by me. It's
Speaker 1: Oprah Winfrey. So somehow, some way robes it got going
Speaker 1: on social media. I think there was a video out
Speaker 1: there that seemed like the gate was closed and then
Speaker 1: it was opened, and it was closed again, and some
Speaker 1: were let through and some weren't, and then others just
Speaker 1: showed video of the of it being closed, closed gate
Speaker 1: and cars being around, and it took off on social media,
Speaker 1: and so many folks came after her with stuff that
Speaker 1: sounds like it was built up for years. They've been
Speaker 1: waiting to say.
Speaker 2: You know, it really is remarkable that it feels like
Speaker 2: so many people don't wait for clarification, they don't seek
Speaker 2: another source, They don't wait to hear if maybe they
Speaker 2: have the full story or don't have the full story.
Speaker 2: As soon as they hear something that could possibly say
Speaker 2: something negative about someone, people pounce. And they don't just
Speaker 2: pounce and say how could you?
Speaker 3: How dare you? They pounce with evil rhetoric.
Speaker 2: I mean, it really is disgusting and dispa and obviously
Speaker 2: someone of Oprah's stature is used to this, but I
Speaker 2: still think it stings. I mean, I can only speak
Speaker 2: from personal experience. No matter how many times people can
Speaker 2: say the same thing over and over again in different,
Speaker 2: mean horrible ways, especially when they're saying it with misinformation,
Speaker 2: and you and I both know what that feels like.
Speaker 2: It hurts and it affects people. And I mean, she
Speaker 2: may be able to laugh us off, but it's so
Speaker 2: unfair and unwarranted because the real story is very different
Speaker 2: than this rumor that took off like wildfire on the internet.
Speaker 1: It took off, and I'm still seeing her name and
Speaker 1: still reading posts that are still they're still current, they're
Speaker 1: still popping up. People are still spreading this thing about her,
Speaker 1: and it's just horrific.
Speaker 2: It's as if they want to believe that she closed
Speaker 2: the road. It's like they want to have an enemy.
Speaker 2: They want to band together and feel like they belong
Speaker 2: as a part of this collective that is going up
Speaker 2: and fighting for the little guy.
Speaker 3: And if you've got.
Speaker 2: Someone who's rich and someone who's powerful, or someone maybe
Speaker 2: you just don't like for whatever reason, it's as if
Speaker 2: they don't deserve to be treated like human beings, or
Speaker 2: at least deserve enough of a pause where you say, wait,
Speaker 2: let me see what the real story is before I
Speaker 2: decide to lend my voice and put something out there
Speaker 2: in the world that's filled with hate.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this isn't in defensible prah Winfrey. They have statements
Speaker 1: that defend her. This is, I guess, just in defense
Speaker 1: of I guess taking a beat in defense of I mean,
Speaker 1: why can we not? Is this people though robes projecting
Speaker 1: because of something else. Yes, the rich or a target,
Speaker 1: the famous or a target, and the super rich certainly
Speaker 1: have been a target here lately. But is this Does
Speaker 1: this really have nothing to do with a road? Does
Speaker 1: this really just we got now found an easy target.
Speaker 2: Yes, and for people who already didn't like her, perhaps
Speaker 2: because for politics she endorsed Kamala Harris, so you can
Speaker 2: get into the politics of things seriously. So it does
Speaker 2: seem like that could be part of it as well.
Speaker 2: When you have someone whose ideology is different than yours,
Speaker 2: when you think they might have slipped up or done
Speaker 2: something wrong, you can't wait. You can't wait to point
Speaker 2: the finger at them and say, see look what they did.
Speaker 3: They're actually horrible.
Speaker 1: That's on me. That didn't even politics didn't cross my
Speaker 1: mind and all this. But that was an easy, easy
Speaker 1: target here. So again not in defense of Oprah Winfrey.
Speaker 1: We don't have to because the Maui Police defended Oprah Winfrey.
Speaker 1: Maui Police, yes, put out a statement and they said
Speaker 1: very early on Oprah's road is open to get to
Speaker 1: upcountry is how they put it.
Speaker 2: And from what I understand, they put out that alert
Speaker 2: when the tsunami warning came in immediately, almost like they said, yes,
Speaker 2: there is a tsunami warning. This is around eleven pm
Speaker 2: last night, correct, So this was hours ago. This was
Speaker 2: ages ago in terms of communication. And yet still despite
Speaker 2: that official statement from the Maui Police that Oprah's Road
Speaker 2: is open to get to upcountry, hours later, because the
Speaker 2: gates were closing and opening, people jumped to the conclusion
Speaker 2: that Oprah had closed her road and nobody could get out,
Speaker 2: and she was going to let people potentially be swallowed
Speaker 2: up by a tsunami wave rather than let people down
Speaker 2: her road.
Speaker 1: And you just mentioned another I think another video that
Speaker 1: got around was I guess when the gate actually closed.
Speaker 1: It looked like literally they were shutting people out in
Speaker 1: real time, and somebody got video of it. But they
Speaker 1: came out and they explained later it was the police
Speaker 1: who were letting only a certain through and get through
Speaker 1: the property at a time. So the police were the
Speaker 1: ones opening and closing the gate to the road.
Speaker 2: They had a very strict amount of cars, just traffic control,
Speaker 2: and you know people in these moments, and I can
Speaker 2: only imagine when you think you are fleeing a giant
Speaker 2: title wave, you want to get out as quickly as possible.
Speaker 2: So to keep order, police set a limit of fifty
Speaker 2: cars at a time, so fifty cars would go through,
Speaker 2: they would shut the gate, let them get through, and
Speaker 2: then reopen the gate. But just by a video, people
Speaker 2: jumped to the conclusion or chose to believe something and
Speaker 2: then went with it and ran with it.
Speaker 1: Chose to it didn't take long to figure out.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: You know what, even if you want to believe that
Speaker 1: she kept it closed, even if you went and read
Speaker 1: and saw that, Okay, the police are saying something else.
Speaker 1: But I choose to believe otherwise you would still temper
Speaker 1: your statements a little bit because you knew there was
Speaker 1: other information out there. Some folks are just what Oprah
Speaker 1: didn't open her road and these people are fleeing for
Speaker 1: their lives. Let me jump on here and say something,
Speaker 1: and that was it.
Speaker 2: But they're not just saying something. They're saying cruel, vile,
Speaker 2: horrific things. And I think, what's scary to me? Look,
Speaker 2: we are.
Speaker 3: I don't want to say that.
Speaker 2: These past two weeks have been any more significant than
Speaker 2: any other, but there have been just these horrific shootings
Speaker 2: that have gone on here in midtown Manhattan. We had
Speaker 2: it in Reno. It's just folks who are so angry
Speaker 2: taking out their rage on innocent folks. And I just,
Speaker 2: you know, you want to think that these are outliers,
Speaker 2: and they're few and far between, and they're singular, and
Speaker 2: there are people who have mental health issues. But when
Speaker 2: you start to read some of these comments, the anger,
Speaker 2: the vitriol is so intense. It actually is frightening to
Speaker 2: me that there's that much anger in so many people
Speaker 2: that they would choose to send out that much hate
Speaker 2: about a story that probably doesn't affect them in any way.
Speaker 2: They probably are thousands of miles away from Hawaii and
Speaker 2: they don't know or care to know the whole story.
Speaker 2: They prefer to jump to conclusions and just say horrible things.
Speaker 2: That's scary to me that there are that many people
Speaker 2: out there like that.
Speaker 1: And when you say scary things, folks, we shared a
Speaker 1: little off the top, but you won't believe the things
Speaker 1: that people are saying. All right, folks, we continue now
Speaker 1: with this story that's kind of run amook, would you say, robes.
Speaker 1: People are attacking and viciously attacking Oprah Winpley online because
Speaker 1: a rumor got around that she wouldn't open her private
Speaker 1: road to people trying to reach higher ground in Hawaii
Speaker 1: during this tsunami warnings. And it has just gone all
Speaker 1: kinds of sideways to the point that Oprah and a
Speaker 1: spokesperson did officially put out a statement.
Speaker 2: Yes, and that statement read, as soon as we heard
Speaker 2: the tsunami warnings, we contacted local law enforcement and FEMA
Speaker 2: to ensure the road was opened. Any reports otherwise are false.
Speaker 1: So we're just going to say she's there lying. Is
Speaker 1: that what we're doing? Because okay, why we're just going
Speaker 1: to say, We're never going to take anybody at their word. Again,
Speaker 1: everybody online that's spitting this bitrial at Oprah. Is that
Speaker 1: a good enough answer to make you stop?
Speaker 2: Well, if that's not good enough, what about the police
Speaker 2: statement that verifies and acknowledges that they absolutely opened Oprah's road.
Speaker 2: In fact, their statement specifically says this, local law enforcement
Speaker 2: are currently on site helping residents through fifty cars at
Speaker 2: a time to ensure everyone's safe road, meaning Oprah's road
Speaker 2: will remain open as long as necessary. How are those
Speaker 2: two statements not enough to stop people from saying and
Speaker 2: writing and putting out in the world what they have
Speaker 2: and you in real time and this is now, I mean,
Speaker 2: we're about twelve hours since Oprah opened her road and
Speaker 2: said she was going to open a road and police
Speaker 2: said the road was open, and in real time, people
Speaker 2: are still saying horrific things about Oprah to the point
Speaker 2: where she is like trending worldwide.
Speaker 1: I'm still in the past few seconds. These things are
Speaker 1: still coming in and folks are still saying the same thing.
Speaker 1: I mean, the client that Roe isn't it And it's
Speaker 1: the same thing as if you haven't had time to
Speaker 1: just google anything. They're choosing to not believe. So where
Speaker 1: are we in the society if the police tell you
Speaker 1: and she has come out herself and told you what happened,
Speaker 1: and you're still just saying, nope, you close the road.
Speaker 1: Now people are starting to say, I'm noticing also robes well,
Speaker 1: she was pressured to open it later. It's the saying
Speaker 1: it's open now, but you know that thing I said
Speaker 1: about earlier. She only opened it after we pushed her
Speaker 1: and she got backlash. Is now the new theme? What
Speaker 1: do you believe? Who do you believe? It's not politics
Speaker 1: all the time, I mean, do we really think she's evil?
Speaker 2: There is a massive distrust for anyone who has money.
Speaker 2: There is a massive distrust for anyone in the police force,
Speaker 2: or perhaps even in the government. I think there are
Speaker 2: so many people who just don't believe people who live
Speaker 2: or are existing in certain circles.
Speaker 1: That's fair, But when do we ever give anybody the
Speaker 1: benefit of the doubt, When do we ever consider the
Speaker 1: person across the table from you, across the street from you,
Speaker 1: the next city from you, across the tracks from you.
Speaker 1: When do you ever consider that person a decent person?
Speaker 1: If we can't just start with that baseline, I'm going
Speaker 1: to give you the benefit of the doubt that you're
Speaker 1: decent despite what you look like, who you voted for,
Speaker 1: what uniform you wear. Let me start there. We're not
Speaker 1: starting there anymore.
Speaker 3: Absolutely not.
Speaker 1: I'm already going to dislike you, distrust you because of
Speaker 1: where you're from and what you're wearing and how much
Speaker 1: money you make. Where do we start with just decent?
Speaker 1: I don't know what are we supposed to.
Speaker 2: We assume the worst. I think that is where we
Speaker 2: are in society. We assume the worst, and you have
Speaker 2: to prove to me that you're not an asshole. I
Speaker 2: think that's where we start now, and I think that
Speaker 2: is where we are as a country. And certainly this
Speaker 2: story is a massive highlighter of that very problem. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's just a sad commentary on where we are as
Speaker 2: a society and a community.
Speaker 1: I loathe her. Someone wrote we should truly eat the rich.
Speaker 1: Another wrote, Oprah is a selfish and evil woman. Open
Speaker 1: the road, bitch.
Speaker 2: Seems like the only thing the tsunami has destroyed is
Speaker 2: the last of Oprah's reputation. Woof, in a crisis, blocking
Speaker 2: an escape route is inhumane? Humanitarian? Nah, just another greedy
Speaker 2: landlord with a TV smile. And then how about this one?
Speaker 2: Oprah is a miserable human being. You look up elitist
Speaker 2: and there is a picture of Oprah there. She would
Speaker 2: not open her private road to help people to higher
Speaker 2: ground with the tsunami coming.
Speaker 3: Only after she was pressured by police did she do so.
Speaker 2: Okay, I will let the little people through while sitting
Speaker 2: on her throne eating fried chicken. So a little racist
Speaker 2: element to what to add to the spice of all
Speaker 2: the hate.
Speaker 1: Okay, And I guess we're supposed to say, you have
Speaker 1: to can't be these folks aren't representative of This is
Speaker 1: just a small extreme outlier who would go on and
Speaker 1: say these types of things. Maybe I just this was one.
Speaker 1: I actually I feel a little down about it. When
Speaker 1: I first I said, come, let's hop on and explain
Speaker 1: what's going on. I thought this would be more upbeaten fun,
Speaker 1: but I found myself being a little more down and
Speaker 1: actually turned off and depressed and discoursed.
Speaker 2: I know you actually said, wow, this is trending, this
Speaker 2: is a crazy story. We should talk about it, and
Speaker 2: you know, we can, you know, have some fun with
Speaker 2: and then you're like, no, this isn't fun, this isn't funny.
Speaker 2: This is a sad commentary about our society. And we
Speaker 2: have pleaded, pleaded, pleaded, And I know everyone who's listening
Speaker 2: here gets it, but just for one second, I know
Speaker 2: it feels probably impossible to turn the table to Can
Speaker 2: you imagine? Can you imagine when someone is spreading a
Speaker 2: complete lie about you, a complete misrepresented non fact about you,
Speaker 2: and then that lie and that misrepresentation balloons to the
Speaker 2: point where you have thousands of people just saying the
Speaker 2: most horrible things you can ever imagine someone saying about you,
Speaker 2: and it's now for everyone to read and for everyone's entertainment,
Speaker 2: it's a trending topic and everyone's eating popcorn, enjoying the show.
Speaker 2: People say things like here for the comments, ha ha ha.
Speaker 2: Those comments have an impact, they do, but what they
Speaker 2: say about the person who wrote them is so much
Speaker 2: more than the person they're saying it about. And I
Speaker 2: just want everyone to think about that when you write
Speaker 2: something you're saying so much more about who you are
Speaker 2: versus who you're saying something about so.
Speaker 1: And if anything, ever, mind you hear folks, don't believe
Speaker 1: everything you read, and even if you do read it
Speaker 1: and do believe it, it's okay to quickly verify it
Speaker 1: before you hop on and jump on board a bandwagon
Speaker 1: like this. Don't know Oprah at all at all. You
Speaker 1: don't have to be a fan of hers. You don't
Speaker 1: have to like anything she's done on TV, never bought
Speaker 1: a single product, you can hate the way she dresses,
Speaker 1: all kinds of things, but whatever does it still have
Speaker 1: to get to this level?
Speaker 2: The answer is no, and maybe we can do better, all.
Speaker 1: Right, folks, Well man dah, I'm sorry, all right, right right, Well,
Speaker 1: well you know how about this, Yes, we know no
Speaker 1: one who's listening to this podcast right now was a
Speaker 1: part of any of this, And so we all can
Speaker 1: just not that we need to learn this lesson, but
Speaker 1: just to take it in and recognize how we can
Speaker 1: choose to be kind and if.
Speaker 2: We have nothing nice to say, we can say nothing
Speaker 2: at all. And that's perhaps just a win for this Wednesday.
Speaker 2: So we want to thank you all for listening to
Speaker 2: us do our little rant, but we do hope you're
Speaker 2: having a wonderful day to day.
Speaker 3: I may Bee robot alongside TJ Holmes.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening, everybody,