I admit, my office was watching Oprah today, and hooting and hollering and offering rude commentary aloud as Oprah vivisected lying author James Frey.
Gawker has a great blog of it here, and they also have a funny photo blog of it here.
I'm no Oprah fan, but I have to say she held nothing back, lashing out at the man who called fiction a memoir, pulled a bunch of real people into his fantasy life, and is now raking in millions thanks to her book club. How, precisely, does one write about having a root canal with no Novocaine and then, when quized by Oprah, admit you aren't even sure if you went to the dentist AT ALL?
Oprah did dress him down while wearing a lovely Marlo Thomas-Mary Tyler Moore flip, however. Awesome choice.
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Oprah gets no credit from me for finally opening her eyes about James Frey. She knowingly defended him on Larry King and made a fool of herself doing so. Jumping on the "Dump on Frey" bandwagon at this late date only demonstrated her willingness to pander. Frey is scum, no doubt about it -- but Oprah thinks her mindless legions of fans will forget how for how long she defended him before turning on him.
That's great, that she held him accountable, but perhaps she should take a good hard look at herself as well. She not only recommended this book in her book club, but gushed over it, then, after the Smoking Gun report, she sill went on Larry King and defended the author and the book.
Everyone seems to have forgotten that she used her influence over society to promote this book. Her fault in this is being glossed over by her strict reprimand of the author, but I, for one, will not forget her part in it.
I'm glad that Oprah now openly regrets her initial defense of Frey, and I hope that she and her audience will learn an important lesson from this incident: don't believe everything you read or see on TV. If more Americans were skeptical about the various lines of BS they're handed by everyone from reality TV producers and televangelists to diet gurus to the government, this country would be a better place.
I thought Oprah was awesome yesterday. I don't usually worship at the altar of Oprah, but damn that was some good interviewing. She sure didn't hold back. And she looked awesome.
James Frey screwed up, that's for sure, but Oprah was ridicuously over the top about the whole thing. Like it was all about her. Yes, Oprah, James changed the method of Lily's suicide just to spite you! I don't think too much of James Frey, but the public humiliation made me think less of Oprah.
Oprah is not God and I think sometimes 68% of America forgets that.
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