Conflict of Interest

conflict of interest: n. a situation in which a person has a duty to more than one person or organization, but cannot do justice to the actual or potentially adverse interests of both parties.

Oprah is keenly aware and admits that she is an opinion-maker with an agenda.

She also must be aware that her endorsement results in action by her followers, to wit, book sales of her book club selections. 

The matter then arises whether she owes her followers a minimal duty to inform them when her opinions/endorsements may be tainted. Especially since her intent is to influence and she has knowledge that she, in fact, does.

Oprah certainly created that expectation when she claimed responsibility after being outed during the “A Million Little Pieces” controversy and the Oprah Winfrey child abuse scandal at her South African School.

So does Oprah owe her followers a minimal duty to inform them that her opinions/endorsements may be tainted by her own financial gain?

Oprah endorses Bob Greene and endorsed Phil McGraw. She and Phil were in a business relationship. She and Bob invest in real estate together.  

Oprah pushes Bob Greene's book The Best Life Diet and the products he sells. Oprah received the "the biggest (advance) signed for a non-fiction work" for this book "co-written with Winfrey's personal fitness trainer, Bob Greene, who frequently appears on her TV programme and has signed a deal with McDonald's to promote its healthy meal campaign." The advance was in excess of $12,000,000. Can you spell royalties on sales?

Now she is pushing her newest nutritional homicide machine, Mehmet Oz, whose popularity she created and from whose shows she already makes money.

Is this a conflict of interest?

Are her relationships with Bob Greene and Dr. Phil conflicts of interest?

You decide.