What's happening with Oprah Winfrey? She is on the defensive.
E-Online reported that a federal judge in Philadelphia has set March 29 as the trial date in a $250,000 defamation suit filed against the talk-show host by the former headmistress of Winfrey's South Africa-based girls academy.
U.S. District Judge ruled against a motion by Team Oprah to dismiss a complaint brought about that children at the girls academy were being harmed. The judge ruled there was sufficient evidence of "capable defamatory meaning" within the allegations that the case should go before a jury.
E-Online also reported that Mazamane, 40, claims she was defamed by Winfrey at a 2007 press conference after news surfaced about a sex-abuse scandal at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls near Johannesburg.
Winfrey's lawyers argued that her statements—Oprah said that she had "lost confidence" in Mazamane as the head of the school—represented an opinion, which is protected under the First Amendment. They noted that another Winfrey statement, that "any person that has caused harm to the students would not be returning" to the school, implied "[Mazamane] played some role in the 'harm' caused to the students."
After an investigation, a 27-year-old dorm matron, Virginia Mokgobo, was subsequently arrested by South African police and dismissed from her job.
Oprah is the most influential woman on the planet and it seems like she can get people to believe what she believes and sway people her way.
Oprah good or bad? You decide.
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