Link to her site on today's show.

www.oprah.com/show/scoop.html

-- Disgusted (not@just.now), November 29, 1999

Answers

Are we being patronized or what!!!

-- tired of worrying (halyman@bellsouth.net), November 29, 1999.

What do you expect? She arranged talking heads, moooooooo, keep your money in the bank, mmmmmmmooooooooooooooooooooo, everything is just fine, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

-- asleep at the wheel (content@dreamland.cud), November 29, 1999.

That's right folks...it's all some great conspiracy. Just keep telling yourself 'I'm right. I'm right' and all the happy people will go away. After all, it's all spin, right?

-- Bad Company (johnny@shootingstar.com), November 29, 1999.

johnny -

Most definitely "spin". That's why folks like John Koskinen and Janet Abrams were hired - their backgrounds are in PR, not IT.

From COMPUTERWORLD, 11/29/1999: Y2K' s close; we're still not ready

...Most important, when future large-scale challenges arise, consider your industry's posture. The unrealistic Y2K performance expectations set by industry associations are unachievable. Finally, see if any of those high-priced public relations directors want to work your customer hot line in January. They may learn something about manipulating perceptions about matters they barely understand.

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), November 29, 1999.

That's Right! All those company exec's and CEO's...what do THEY know? It is the jobless, conspiracy theorists on THIS forum who have a handle on the truth. Only THEY can really understand the inner workings of the multi-billion dollar corprate world...the people who actually run the businesses don't understand ANYTHING....after all....companies like AT&T just 'sort of happened'....they didn't achieve success because anyone knew what they were doing...

Sheesh.

-- What is (wrong@with.somepeople?), November 29, 1999.

Damn! I thought Oprah and Donald Trump were going to save the world!

-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), November 29, 1999.

Unbelievable! The gall of that woman! Oprah says it's just as likely ATM's will spew too mauch money as that they will not work. Her guest representing the banking industry says sure, no problem if everyone draws $200 out of their accounts. Get that...everyone! And this in the first five minutes! Forget it! Pure, unadulterated, disinformation.

-- Even Worse (than@I.thought), November 29, 1999.

"Is my Money Safe? YES!"

My reply:

"But will I be able to access it?????"

-- Duke 1983 (Duke1983@AOL.com), November 29, 1999.

I liked when Blitzer tried to pin down Garvey, and she said the airlines were, o yes, they are "Y2K!..." Not Y2K ready, or anything like that but yes, they were "Y2K .." and a quick segue... Yup. For sure.

Where do we get our anti-nausea pills for watching this show????

-- (normally@ease.notnow), November 29, 1999.

Moooooo

-- munching (prozac@hay.oprah), November 29, 1999.

Oprah quote: "...99.5% of people will have power..."

Hmmm, all at the same time, continueously (sp?), whenever they want power day or night? No rationing or brown-outs?

Let's see, that leaves 1/2% that won't have power. Guessing at about 225,000,000 U.S. citizens, so that leaves us with ~ 1,125,000 people that WON'T have power? Hmmm.

"...Martha, where'd we put the generator?"

-- Deb M. (vmcclell@columbus.rr.com), November 29, 1999.

WHY are you people having trouble getting money out of the bank??? Just got back from the bank with $4000.00 dollars. What is the problem??? Every week or so it's the same old story!!! Get a life!!!! Off to the mall with cash in hand!!!!

-- no problem (money@thebank.aok), November 29, 1999.

Oprah, The Ego Queen, has proved that She Know NOTHING.

-- add to the Idiot list (oprah@today.inducted), November 29, 1999.

Shhhhhhhhhhhh...Oprah has put all the sheeple back to a nice peaceful sleep.

I am NOT talking to anyone but GI's about y2k from now on. If Oprah believes it is ALL going to be fine, it was on her show, it MUST be true.

My heart breaks for the masses.

I also feel sick to my stomach. Ko skin em has just had his prayers answered. God help us.

As it was in the days of Noah.....

-- Tess (preparingfortheworst@prayingforthebest.com), November 29, 1999.

Bbaaaaaa bbbaaaaaa

-- lamb (to@the.slaughter), November 29, 1999.

I have trouble getting money out of the bank. Those guards and those cameras really bother me.

-- Bank (thief@sanquentin.org), November 29, 1999.

heeheehehehehe yeeeehhhaaahahahahaw lots more time to feather the bunker nest
don't think about all the hungry starving people

-- ostrich (sand@castle.dungeon), November 29, 1999.

One of three things has happened here

1. I have been conned by this forum and my own research skills

2. Oprah has been conned.

3. The gov't got to Oprah and convinced her that the truth would do more harm and she sold out.

Couple of comments:

1. From the Postal guy " we haven't lost our skills to do this manually". In the next sentence he tells us they sort 630 pieces of mail per day. Now how many "manuals" is it going to take to do that work?

2. Richardson, Sec. of Energy. Looked like he would rather be any where else and singing a different song. He was the lone voice for saying there will be "glitches", that people need to be prepared. His biggest fear is panic..that people will see problems on TV of other countrys and panic. It would have been better if Oprah had not done the show at all. It it will be hell on Oprah when TSHTF. Oprah will end up being a scapegoat for the people. Her statement at the end of the show, "there will be no y2k problem" will haunt her, I am afraid. Taz

-- Taz (Tassie123@aol.com), November 29, 1999.

Welcome to Dis Con Net !

-- TB2K right (oprah@.PTB.wrong), November 29, 1999.

thats 630 MILLION pieces of mail per day.

-- Taz (Tassie123@aol.com), November 29, 1999.

first of all... Oprah is a worthless [snip--clean it up--Sysop]...always has been, always will be.

second..630 pieces ..where does this guy work? must be some town with about a population of 200.

ghey.

-- C. Hill (pinionsmachine@hotmail.com), November 29, 1999.

From: Y2K, ` la Carte by Dancr (pic), near Monterey, California

It's been just five banks out of whack since February. What's with these five banks, anyway? This is now December, almost! Apparently, we can't just cut them loose. Which five banks are these: The Fed, Citibank, Bank of Tokyo, Bank of America and Deutsche Bank, or what? It's a federal crime for me to ask this, isn't it?

-- Dancr (addy.available@my.webpage), November 29, 1999.

The show was, to be expected, a "polly" show - complete with all the sound bytes from business & government. The main fallacy in the show seemed to be a classic polly argument - confusing effort with accomplishment. Oprah herself was astounded at the sums of money spent by everyone as she kept reeling off ... 240 million, 8 million, 700 million ... you could see that she was trying to push the message of MONEY SPENT = NO Y2K PROBLEM.

What surprised me was the contingency plans of these agencies - credit card companies, hospitals, police, Hyatt hotels - with huge generators, huge amounts of stored supplies, cell phones, all kinds of "corporate" preps. But nobody, not even Oprah or Wolf Blitzer, made the connection of "these guys must be kinda scared with all these supplies, etc. (>30 days) - I wonder if I (the common man) should get anything? (uhh.. more than 3 days).

She was definitely polly, had no opposing viewpoints, and one time said (I think it was just before the Police segment): ..."But there ain't gonna be a problem."

-- Jim (x@x.x), November 29, 1999.

Also (gotta get my last dig in), the show was very shallow. This is like 2 year old analysis. Looks only at the first line of technology that greets the citizen (at least no personal PC or toaster/microwave/VCR stuff - see it could have been worse ;)

Stuff like FAA - only considering passenger traffic (who needs cargo anyway).

Banks - domestic, international not mentioned, flow of payments, financial markets, etc, etc. Money is safe in the banks, but are the banks' investments safe. Maybe people want money because they WANT MONEY (like maybe to buy stuff), not because they don't think it's safe in the bank.

Electricity, but little discussion of energy, fuels, oil, etc.

Not much said or connected on food or transportation.

Etc.

-- Jim (x@x.x), November 29, 1999.

The show was WORSE THAN POLLY because it was very powerfully done with a lot of heavy gloss!!! This makes me angry. Of course she must have been appealed to as a patriot. Still makes me angry.

-- Mara (MaraWayne@aol.com), November 29, 1999.

BE HEARD!!! VOTE IN THE POLL!

http://www.oprah.com/poll.html

-- BE (Heard@Oprah.com), November 29, 1999.

A POX ON ALL THOSE SPIN BASTARDS!

I say, that come 2000, if there is any semblance of a civilization left anywhere, that we have, for the masses' entertainment, a daily show, to be broadcast as power availability permits, similar to "THE RUNNING MAN" movie with ARNOLD, with the difference being that the "contestants" will be the liars and spinmesters and Darwin dregs that did not allow for the mass population to prep.

We'll even bring back all the originals like "Buzzsaw" , and see the contestants being chased through a maze with only one exit.

Contestants will be given a more-than-fair 15 seconds to memorize said maze on paper before entertaining the masses.

Sure to top the Neilsen ratings in 2000.

-- profit of doom (doom@helltopay.ca), November 29, 1999.

That was one of the slickest and conversley most depressing shows Ive seen on Y2K.

Feeling very, very sad... for this whole wide world.

Koskinens karma (et. al.) will catch up with him (them)... eventually. If there is any Divine justice left in the world. May he be reassigned to work in a soup kitchen, until the time his heart is opened.

Diane

From Oprahs web-site...

http://www.oprah.com/ show/scoop.html

[Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only]

November 29, 1999

Monday's Show: Will You Be Safe at the Millennium?

The clock is counting down to the new millennium, and the big question is: "What's really going to happen when the clock strikes midnight on December 31, 1999 - will we be safe?" Everyone around the world is anxiously preparing  New Zealand will be the first to celebrate the New Year.

How well is our country prepared? Oprah hears from CNN's Wolf Blitzer, anchor of World Today, and representatives from the top of several major agencies and corporations about the billions of dollars spent to prepare our country for Y2K.

The Problem
When programmers started writing computer code, they used six digits for dates - two digits each for the month, day and year  to save costly memory space. For example, October 15, 1998 would be represented as "101598." Problems sometimes occur when dates in the year 2000 are entered  computer programs will read the year as "00," which could be interpreted as 1900. This could result in miscalculations, malfunctions or network shutdowns. (Source: CNN http://cnn.com/TECH/specials/ y2k/ )

The Preparation
Our country WILL be prepared so it's important not to panic. Prepare as you normally would for any long holiday (such as taking out some extra cash) or bad weather conditions (for instance, making sure your gas tank is more than half full and having extra bottles of water).

MONEY

Is my money safe? Yes.
Donna Tanoue, Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the agency that insures your money in the bank, guarantees that your money will be safe. She says that every bank in the country has been inspected and reinspected, and that more than 99.9% of the nation's institutions are ready for Y2K. By the year 2000, the remaining 1% (five institutions) will be ready.

For more information visit the FDIC Web site. http://www.fdic.gov/

Will the banks run out of money? No.
According to the Federal Reserve, you should not be concerned about banks running out of money. They printed out an extra $50 billion in anticipation of additional demands. If it would make you feel more comfortable taking out a little extra money, start withdrawing small amounts now.

For more information visit the Federal Reserve Web site. http://www.bog.frb.fed.us/y2k/

Will I have any problems using an ATM machine? No.
Dennis Lynch, President of the Nyce Corporation, one of the largest ATM networks in the country, says his company has updated software and tested and re-tested it. If for some reason a machine doesn't take your card, try another one. Glitches occur even now, so don't immediately blame the problem on the Y2K bug.

CREDIT CARDS

Will I have problems using my credit card after December 31? No.
Charles Fote, President of First Data Corporation, which handles more than 40 billion credit card transactions, says they've spent millions of dollars over the past three years to prepare for Y2K. From mid- December to mid-January, nine special stations have been set up across the world, 33,000 employees will be on call and there are several backup plans just in case the power goes out.

POWER

What if the power goes out?
Bill Richardson, Secretary of Energy, says the United States will be Y2K ready in his sectors: electricity, oil and gas, home heating oil and gasoline. His organization has put in place an intensive two-year plan to ensure the utilities keep the light and power on. At least 99.95% of the American people will be covered.

For more information visit the U.S. Department of Energy Web site. http://cio.doe.gov/y2k/

PHONES

Will the phones work? Yes.
Mike Armstrong, CEO and President of AT&T, says over $700 million has been spent over the past three years to prepare their systems. Internal systems have been tested, suppliers' equipment has been tested and overseas connections have been tested. Cordless or wireless phones operation will not be interrupted.

On the night of New Year's Eve special teams will be on call around the country, and emergency backup power will be ready.

WATER

Will our water be safe to drink? Yes.
Carol Browner, Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency, says her agency has been working closely with the drinking water industry to ensure that systems are Y2K compliant. In the event of a power outage, the drinking water industry is prepared to operate manually.

For more information visit the Environmental Protection Agency Web site http://www.epa.gov/ or call the Safe Drink Water Hotline at 800-426-4791.

MAIL

Will I get my mail? Will I get my social security check? Yes.
Norm Lorentz, Senior Vice President of the United States Postal Service, says preparations for Y2K started four years ago. Since then over $400 million has been spent. Every piece of mail equipment has been tested. Anything coming from the federal government, including social security checks, should arrive as usual.

HOSPITALS

Gary Mecklenburg, President of Northwestern Memorial and incoming chairman of the American Hospital Association, says he's confident the nation's hospitals will be ready. Over $8 billion have been spent to prepare for Y2K. Responding to emergencies, disasters and the unforeseen is what hospitals are used to, so preparing for Y2K is no different than any other preparation.

For more information visit the AHA Y2K Resource Center. http://www.aha.org/y2k/

FLYING

Will it be safe to fly? Yes.
Jane Garvey, administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the government agency responsible for the nation's airspace, says she's confident it'll be safe to fly and is flying herself on New Year's Eve. $340 million dollars has been spent identifying, fixing and testing airport and airplane computer systems.

Wolf Blitzer says traveling in the United States will be safe, but that Americans traveling abroad to under-developed countries should take precautions. There are some international countries that the FAA will closely watch  all updates will be posted on the FAA Website.

For more information visit the FAA Web site http://www.faa.gov/ or the Department of Transportation (U.S. http://faay2k.com/ or International http:// 152.119.239.141/fly2k/).

HOTELS

Will hotels be prepared? Yes.
Two of the world's largest hotel chains are ready! The Hyatt and Marriott have backup power ready, food, water and emergency kits just in case.

RESOURCES

Y2K Simplify  New Year Preparations.
http://www.o2simplify.com/celebration/newyear/index.html

American Red Cross  Supplies Kit. (202-737-8300)
http:/ /www.redcross.org/disaster/safety/supplies.html

President's Council on Y2K  Consumer Information. (888-USA-4Y2K)
http://www.consumer.gov/y2k

CNN  Looking at the Y2K Bug.
http://cnn.com/TECH/ specials/y2k/

State Y2K Sites  Alphabetical Listing
http://www.mitre.org/research/y2k/docs/STATES_Y2K.html

REMEMBERING YOUR SPIRIT
A salute to everyone working New Year's Eve!
http://www.oprah.com/remember_your_spirit/ remembering_main.html

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-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), November 29, 1999.

I only caught the last 1/2 of show. DGI Mom called - just riveted to the TV...Y2k on Oprah ...((sigh)). My last day of Vacation...did not want to spend a moment on crap like Oprah, but I needed to watch....maybe hoping it would not be so Polly....Not!!! My stomachs been tied up in knots since. Don't worry be happy folks, .... they spent billions....Ready or Not Here I Come!!!

Item Votes

Not at all 43.24%

Somewhat 32.27%

Very 24.49%

Hope the Somewhat, and the Very's are preparing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-- sicktomystomach (karlacalif@aol.com), November 29, 1999.

"first of all... Oprah is a worthless [snip--clean it up-- Sysop]...always has been, always will be. "

LOL gimme a freaking break here. "Dildo" is a bad word now? LOL

nice censorship...

-- C. Hill (pinionsmachine@hotmail.com), November 30, 1999.

You should have said vibrator. The concept isn't as gross!! he he he

-- (Polly@troll.com), November 30, 1999.