Do you agree that Ellen Degeneres is the most influential person today?

[SBVN]

If you don't, who do you think is?

[O_o Anonymous]

Yes

[broadcannon883]

i think shes funny

[Kahu ♥ NZ]

Yup ! She's awesome

[Mr.Butt Burn]

ehhh

[Elle]

Ehh, no!

[Sam]

Nope, it's God. That guy has more of an effect on people than if I were to run into a building screaming "zombie apocalypse"!

[Martin]

Yes

[Bradley P]

Honestly, no I don't. I think it's more the case that Ms. Degeneres is the "last one standing". Oprah rather quit--walked away from her show to start a network and be off-camera mostly. Your Dr. Phils and Dr. Drews have their moments, sure, and then they flake out and screw it up. Then there's your Rosie O'Donnells who are golden until their _first_ unfunny day, and then they get their plugs pulled with prejudice.

So some of this is that a lot of popular people have walked away. And then some more of it is that some other people have been _kicked out_ and cancelled and banished to TBS (as per Conan O'Brien). You can blame a lot of that on Reality TV forcing everything to be as cheap and mean-spirited and shallow as can be.

But if I had to pick a most influential person? I'd say it's a tie--that there's two princes of the rotten landfill television has become.

Simon Cowell didn't invent Reality TV, but he sure as hell took off and ran with it. While he ended up being cast in the same mold as Donald Trump, truth is, Trump only had that _one_ show. Cowell turned his thing--snotty English executive is snotty--into an empire that can't be stabbed in the face hard enough to kill it.

Then there's Rupert Murdoch and his allies over at Fox News. Simply put, he's the devil, and we've condemned ourselves here in the States by letting this parasite ever do _anything_ with _our_ Media and _our_ airwaves, like ever. Of course, it's too late to get rid of him now, but you know he's got influence when he can a) get away with hacking cell phones of murder and terror victims just to get blurbs and invade privacy, and also b) have so much far reach that even video bloggers on YouTube who say they're left-centrist one week end up sucking up to Fox News Heads the next (seriously Mr. DeFranco?). Truly, having sway over YouTubers? When he's only _just now_ beginning to use Twitter, just this year? God help us.

TLR version? There's more influential people out there than Ellen--they just happen to be filthy rich and EVIL. The ruin of all that was ever good about TV even.

[teandbikkies]

If it's not Santa Claus it's gotta be George Clooney; that man is subtle.