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CHICAGO: A few weeks after cheering presidential
candidate Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention, Oprah Winfrey will
take up a different kind of political activism.
Monday's episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" will be dedicated to a Senate bill
targeting child predators, according to a release issued Friday by Chicago-based
Harpo Productions.
During the show, which will detail the "extent and pervasiveness of child
pornography trafficking in America," Winfrey will ask viewers to contact their
senators about U.S. Senate Bill 1738, the Protect Our Children Act, Harpo said.
"What you are going to see is going to shock you to the core, but I'm asking you
to please not turn away because this is happening in our country, to our
children, in the United States every day," Winfrey said in the release.
Harpo said the show will be rated TV-14.
In 1991, Winfrey testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in support
of a national database of convicted child abusers. The "Oprah Bill" was signed
into law in 1993.
In 2005, Winfrey, who has said she was also a victim of child abuse, launched
the "Oprah's Child Predator Watch List" and pledged a $100,000 reward per case
for information that leads to the arrest of fugitives featured on her show and
Web site. Nine of the featured fugitives have been captured, Harpo said.
Winfrey has been a longtime supporter of Obama's and said she was moved to tears
by his acceptance speech at the convention. |