THE SECRET: A bottle of minty fresh snake-oil?

Check this slightly hysterical rant of a Salon feature: "Oprah's Ugly Secret." Peter Birkenhead's screed is a meaty, 3-page attack of Oprah, damning her support of the best-selling self-help book The Secret. The book is currently No. 1 on best-seller lists and has shot ahead of the final Harry Potter tome in sales. Editors at Scholastic are probably shitting bricks right now. But Lady O is the one with something real to lose here.

When's the last time someone held her to scrutiny for something other than her weight? That would be another books-related scandal, back when she chose James Frey's A Million Little Pieces for her Book Club and then proceeded to crucify him on her show for being a lying recovering alcoholic junkie. Things got ugly. Looks like The Secret backlash has begun...

Remember your spirit, indeed.