When Skepdoc Harriet Hall announced that not only had she landed a writing gig in a national magazine, but in O Magazine itself, I was both thrilled and surprised. Many critical thinkers, skeptics, and scientists in general have long standing issues with Oprah, mainly due to her willingness to present Jenny McCarthy, Suzanne Somers, and Deepak Chopra as people with valid opinions on health, not to mention unleashing Drs. Phil and Oz on an unsuspecting public. However, O Magazine has a huge audience and there was no better way to provide outreach than directly talking with Oprah’s army itself.
The skeptical community was delighted to learn that the SkepDoc had infiltrated Oprahdom. One young man tweeted, “Dude, Hell just froze over!” I’m afraid the celebration was premature.
Sadly though, it turned out to be a short-lived dream, as Dr. Hall informed us on her September 7th post on Science-Based Medicine:
I got seriously annoyed at the pickiness, because I got the feeling that if I said “Good morning” I would be challenged to define and quantify “good” and give a reference to prove what hours constituted “morning,” and explain why I would want to say “Good morning” in the first place and why such social conventions existed.
After having columns picked apart, killed, and no answer about the situation, Dr. Hall was finally informed that ” it is unlikely that her editor wants to move forward with the column.” But rather than take this as a blow to fighting the good fight (really, it would take far more than that to ground the former Air Force flight surgeon) she instead feels relieved.
It has become clear to me that I don’t have what it takes to be a media whore. I’d much rather write independently without pay for a select few readers than be controlled and abused for $2 a word with an audience of millions.
While those of us who are critical thinkers are certainly not the audience of millions that O Magazine can deliver, we can remember that every time we pass on a link, an email, or blog post from someone as wise as Dr. Hall, we CAN help her message get out there.
Ok, I need to add this lady to the people I’d love to meet list. Her comment about “Good morning” just about overcame what has otherwise been a quite crappy day. In other words, it was hilarious!
Good for you Dr. Hall for your decision and thank you She Thought for sharing this.