1 week ago
2
Sigh, a bunch of misinformation is circulating about Oprah Winfrey's endorsement of Kamala Harris.
Oprah was vocal about her support for Harris throughout her campaign, including hosting a virtual celebrity-filled event that was watched by over 300,000 people on YouTube.
However, a few days ago, the Washington Examiner wrote in a piece titled "How Kamala Harris plowed through $1 billion," "There was $1 million for Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions on Oct. 15 in West Hollywood, California."
Through the telephone game of the internet, this turned into, "Oprah Winfrey got personally paid $1 million to show up at a rally."
Oprah showed up to a campaign rally, said "it is entirely possible that we will not have the opportunity to ever cast a ballot again" if Trump wins, and then charged the Harris team $1 million lol https://t.co/QN8vVNpX15
— Madeline Fry Schultz (@madelineefry) November 12, 2024Twitter: @madelineefry
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Oprah herself has denied this. When TMZ asked whether she had been paid for her endorsement, she replied, "Not true – I was paid nothing, ever." Harpo further said, "Oprah Winfrey was at no point during the campaign paid a personal fee, nor did she receive a fee from Harpo."
So yes, going through the Harris campaign's FEC filings shows they paid Harpo — which Oprah founded — $500,000 twice for event production. It's not a terribly unusual event production fee for the campaign, which spent many hundreds of thousands on various events. If you look through Donald Trump's FEC filings, it concurred similar expenses. You can argue that's too much! That's fine! Just know what you're talking about!
There is no evidence to suggest that Oprah was personally paid a fee. As writer and internet personality Hank Green put it:
Harpo was paid to run a livestream event the same way you’d pay a production company to run a rally and now everyone thinks celebs sell endorsements. Oprah was not paid. The internet is a machine that devours trust. https://t.co/z8lA6kdbgE
— Hank Green (@hankgreen) November 12, 2024Twitter: @hankgreen
If you want to talk about celebrities being paid for their endorsements, it's worth noting how influencer Tana Mongeau said in September that she "was just offered a lot of money to endorse a political party. Like, millions" — and she wasn't talking the Democrats!
Great, this has me super excited to cover another four+ years of misinformation!
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