Mary Winkler’s Appearance on Oprah
As many of you know, Mary Winkler recently appeared on Oprah. To watch the show in its entirety, click here.
Oprah was annoyingly sympathetic to Winkler, and seemed to buy her abused wife shtick. My opinion of her claims is as follows:
1) Winkler provided no substantive evidence for her claims–no medical reports, no police reports, no 911 calls, nothing.
2) The defense did put a few people on the stand who testified as to various indirect indications that Winkler might have been abused. A couple of these were of some value. For example, a doctor said Winkler visited her one time with what he described as a “minor injury” to her face, which Winkler said at the time came when a kids’ softball hit her. She now claims this was an example of Matthew’s abuse of her. The doctor said the injury was consistent with either one.
Also, Winkler’s father testified as to seeing injuries on Mary previously, which Mary denied were related to abuse. Of course, even if these were true examples of abuse–and it’s far from clear that they are–it doesn’t mean that Matthew was the aggressor. Research shows that a large percentage of domestic violence is mutual abuse–Mary’s alleged injuries could’ve been the end result of her attacks on Matthew. We’ll never know whether Matthew was abusive or not, but we do know that one member of that household was violent–Mary Winkler. Anybody capable of shooting a sleeping man in the back and allowing him to bleed to death is certainly capable of initiating domestic violence in the home.
3) Some of the other witnesses were meaningless, including one neighbor who said that Matthew threatened to shoot his dog because it kept coming to Matthew’s house and barking at night and waking him up. I guess my wife and I are abusers, too–at our previous house our neighbors’ dog would bark outside our window at 3 AM, and after several complaints we banged on my neighbor’s door and screamed at him, and, if we didn’t threaten to shoot the damn thing, we should’ve.
4) One of the few times on Oprah where Oprah did voice skepticism was when Mary described the morning of the crime. Winkler told Oprah she was angry at her husband and “just wanted to talk to him,” and then she “heard a boom.” A more complete description of the incident would have been that she wanted to talk to him, waited until he fell asleep, retrieved the shotgun, pumped it, aimed it at his back, pulled the trigger, and then “heard a boom.”
5) Ironically, the truth-teller on the show was feminist Court TV commentator Lisa Bloom, Gloria Allred’s daughter. Bloom said, “At Court TV a collective gasp went up at this verdict. We all thought it was a first degree murder case….Didn’t she make the decision to allow him to fall asleep? Didn’t she make the decision to go into that closet and get that gun? Didn’t she make the decision to aim it at Matthew and pull the trigger?”
Bloom also asserted that “there wasn’t much corroboration [of the abuse] at the trial.”
6) Perhaps the most absurd aspect of both the trial and Oprah was the way Mary highlighted the white platform shoes which she claimed Matthew “made her” wear, and which she said were deeply humiliating to her. During the trial, Mary held up the shoe and bowed her head down in mock pain and shame. Oprah bought it, telling her audience that on her show “everybody gasped when they saw the shoe.” Bloom explained to Oprah that in any “big city” people would have “laughed at” Mary’s claims that the shoes were part of the “abuse” she suffered.
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Stumble It!
September 24th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
Oprah is Chief Marketing Officer of Feminist, Inc.
Oprah helps to re-establish to feminist state’s citizens that men are bad and women are good, even if a woman is a murderer.
Thanks for contributing to the culture of hate toward men Oprah.
Since Oprah has not been married it’s not clear how she brings credibility to a situation in a marriage.
September 24th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
Administration Urges Social Security Fix.
The Bush administration said Monday the only way to permanently fix Social Security is through some combination of benefit cuts and tax increases.
That was one of the key findings in a new paper on Social Security released by the Treasury Department in an effort to achieve common ground on the politically explosive issue.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8RRUI6O3&show_article=1
That Social Security provides up to $4.1 billion to States that establish support orders, collect on amounts due, and create arrearages (See 6B, 6C, & 6D)
http://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/ssact/title04/0458.htm
September 24th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
The inane drivel that is the Oprah Show indicates the shallow level of privilege women demand for themselves.
There are feminist demanding the closure of women’s prisons as they do nothing wrong…..they are only victims don’t-cha-know.
September 24th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
That $4.1 billion dollar will provide about a half a million seniors with one (1) year’s worth of paychecks from which to live.
I suspect that dishonoring men is a higher priority than feeding seniors.
I doubt American’s children are starving.
http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/topics/obesity/calltoaction/fact_adolescents.htm
September 24th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
I don’t see the Duke Lacrosse team scheduled on the Oprah show. Nor did Oprah bring in Mike Nifong to ask why he falsely accused many young men based mostly on the testimony of a prostitute.
September 24th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
Oprah will only discuss issues that promote female or black privilege. If I’m not mistaken, isn’t Oprah a black female, hmmm? I guess that means she is one extremely self serving bitch. What is the most disconcerting thing about Oprah is her popularity. No wonder things are so screwed up in this country. She is just another self serving feminist bitch pushing her self serving propaganda, and society suffers.
September 25th, 2007 at 5:05 am
So now we can look forward to a heck of a lot of white shoe defences.
If I were a white shoe manufacturer, I would be even madder as hell then I am already. bang goes all my friggin’stock.
Ahhhh, I’ll re-market them as ‘Winklers’. I wonder how much a spot on Oprah will set me back.
September 25th, 2007 at 7:33 am
Solution to the Middle East problem. Train several thousand feminists, arm them with shotguns, send them to Iraq, and tell them al-qaida and his buddies are abusers. Wait for them to go to sleep and problem solved. Bloody Mary should lead the operation. Sure, we’re likely to lose a few, but to paraphrase George Clooney, “They’re feminists for God’s sake!”
September 25th, 2007 at 7:37 am
Maybe I watched a different Oprah show than you guys. I thought Oprah had a look to absolute skepticism on her face in response to many of Mary’s answers. When Mary smirked at Oprah’s question about sexual activity with Matthew, I swear I saw Oprah’s disbelieving eyebrow rise.
Oprah had to be circumspect with her responses to Mary because at the time, she was interviewing her in the office of Mary’s attorney, Steve Farese. If she expressed overt disbelief, the interview would have terminated.
But I did not get the impression that Oprah found Mary credible. Who knows how much tougher she might have gotten with her questions to Mary if she could have had her on her territory in Chicago.
I think Mary’s story of the events of her life with Matthew contain some truth, some exaggeration and some dishonesty–either in the facts themselves or in the spin put on them.
I am finishing up with my book manuscript about this case for St. Martin’s Press. I am a woman and a feminist, but I am certainly not giving Mary a free pass and I am constantly aware that the real victim here is Matthew Winkler.
Diane Fanning
http://www.dianefanning.com
September 25th, 2007 at 11:51 am
A feminist doing research on a men’s rights site. Brave.
Hoever, I hope your book’s main points are not established by “disbelieving eyebrow rises” and your “impressions.”
September 26th, 2007 at 4:40 am
No. My book will not be based on that–just my assessment of Oprah’s attitude. Unless, of course, Oprah agrees to an interview.
There are serious holes in much of the story Mary presented in court. I am digging into all of those. In my opinion, the defense did not score a win in court, the prosecution gave the case away.