Oprah Winfrey, the million, billion dollar woman with power in the palms of her hands, has shared the spotlight this week with U.S. President Bill Clinton in her own controversy with Texas cattle ranchers.

No longer in the windy city, Oprah faced angry Texas cattle ranchers in court in Amarillo, Texas who say her show on mad cow disease caused their market prices to drop.

On Oprah’s April 16, 1996 show, she is quoted as saying, “It has just stopped me from eating another burger!,” in reference to cattle being fed ground-up animal parts, a practice now banned in the United States.

What was a topic on her show has now become the topic of her life.

Although the claim by Texas cattleman Paul Engler, among others, seems completely ridiculous at first glance, there may be some truth to the thought that Oprah has control over American consumers.

Whether it’s performing random acts of kindness or her recent plight to collect spare change to give underprivileged children a chance to go to college, Oprah gets people into action. People listen to what she has to say — even if it’s about her boring, infinite engagement.

One example of the power she has over consumer buying was illustrated when Oprah’s book club put Toni Morrison’s 1970s book, “Song of Solomon,” number one on the bestsellers list. The book was sold out in many bookstores across the country, apparently only because Oprah liked it.

Oprah has now been a talk show host for more than 10 years, and she is well aware of the influence she and her show possess.

Unfortunately, this means that as a talk show host she must scrutinize everything she says, or like with her mad cow disease show, it may come back to haunt her.

However, regardless of her influence, Oprah’s right to freedom of speech should not be regulated. She has every right to give her opinion of issues discussed on her show.

If Weight Watchers didn’t work for her, then it didn’t work for her, and she should be able to say so.

Although Oprah is intelligent and well-liked, she should not be setting the standard of what Americans buy (or don’t buy) simply because she mentioned a product or service on her show.

But it’s not her fault that most people in America believe everything she says.