Fraters Libertas

Oprah's Book Clubbed

I blame Mary Mapes.

Before "fake but accurate" became an accepted journalistic standard, media scandals took a logical and predictable path. A con artist whips up a fresh batch of BS and a compliant or gullible outlet to run with it. It breeds more headlines and notoriety, bringing fame and wealth to the principles. Then someone with a little bit of knowledge or personal insight debunks it, the author apologizes and throws himself prostrate on the court of public opinion, where by he is mocked and driven from society in disgrace, and maybe does a stint of time jail for fraud. It was quick and neat and reaffirmed the essential values of truth an justice in society and darn it we liked it!

Those simple days appear to be over. The final chapter has not yet been written in saga of James Frey and his book A Million Little Pieces. I saw him on Larry King Tuesday night and it shows no sign of ending soon. Despite irrefutable and still mounting evidenced that he has engaged in multiple deceptions, he was unwavering in standing behind the "essential truth" of the book and insisting that very little of is actually "in dispute" and that because it was somehow doing good for people, the specific facts are not all that important anyway. It was the parsing language, misdirection, and shameless performance of a practiced liar. And an effective one at that.

Every person brought on the show, as a guest or caller (all women, incidentally), rushed to uncritically support Frey. From the CNN transcript, a sampling of codependence in action.

His mother:

The fraud story is very sad for us. So many people stand behind us, our friends, James' friends, disappointed that it happened. I don't believe it. I believe in James...

But the book stands on its own. ... it's making a wonderful difference. So I have to put the other thing aside and believe in all those people who it has made a difference for

A caller:

Hello. I would like to know why The Smoking Gun focused on such a small, insignificant portion of the book and completely ignored the tremendous and wonderful accomplishment that James made by recovering from this terrible addiction?

A second caller:

James, I love your book and I fully support you. Do you think Oprah will support you, too?

This was a theme throughout the show, anxious speculation on how Oprah would react to the fact that she was conned into personally perpetrating a fraud on the American public. Never one to miss out on a chance for drama, right as the show was ending, the grand dame of emotional infotainment called in:

KING: I'm going to hold the show a little longer because I understand we have Oprah on the phone. Let's see what she has to say. Are you there, my friend?

WINFREY: Hello, Larry, how are you?

KING: Hello, dear one, how are you doing?

After King removed his lips from the studio camera lens, he got around to asking Oprah for her opinion on the matter at ahdn. Amid the rationalizations, blaming of others, excuses, and general gushing, she assured her audience:

... we support the book because we recognize that there have been thousands and hundreds of thousands of people whose lives have been changed by this book.

And, you know, one of the things James says in the book, for all the people who are going through any kind of addiction, is to hold on. And I just wanted to -- you know, I have been calling this number and it's been busy, trying to get through to say to all those people out there who have received hope from reading this book, keep holding on.

I second that advice. For the people who are basing their recovery on the example of a guy making things up, that ledge is getting awfully thin -- hold on!

In truth, I don't care what happens to James Frey and his career. I suspect he will recede into the crowd of pop psychologist hustlers and self-help gurus and soon be forgotten. If, by some miracle, he is able to help people by misleading them, then more power to him.

But I do hope this episode finally brings a critical eye to the blinding aura created around Oprah Winfrey. Her superficial chat show has been bleeding into the realm of public policy and politics for years. Her whims decide the NYT Best Seller's list. Presidential candidates routinely seek her blessing. When a natural disaster hits, she charters a private jet with Julie Roberts and Jamie Foxx to make personal appearances in front of victims. And her reports influence the course of the national debate. All this despite the fact the quality of her content is exemplified by this report from hurricane ravaged New Orleans:

During the interview with New Orleans police chief Eddie Compass that followed, he wasted no time in revealing what may have been the ultimate horror last week in the hellhole that was the Superdome. He began to cry as he talked about babies being raped inside and the helplessness he felt not having enough men to stop such unspeakable violence.

Winfrey could only scream in horror: "No! No! No! Nooo!"

The first hour ended with Winfrey asserting, "This country owes these people an apology."

Of course, that story was entirely fictitious as well.

No! No! No! Nooo!

But to all those babies considering going to the Superdome who have received hope from that report, all I have to say is ... hold on!

Now that Oprah has been exposed to be a repeat offending dupe maybe we can agree that her product is of no more value than the Jerry Springer show. And can we also stop pretending that she'd be a good candidate for President? We have enough problems already with competent Presidents being duped by phony CIA reports.

Post Script: Regarding Frey's appearance on Larry King, I neglected to point out the highlight:

KING: You keep saying that, but a memoir is accepted as fact. I mean, if I see memoir, I accept it as a person's memory of incidents or things in their life. I wrote a memoir. I may not have been exactly right, but it was my memory of incidents.

FREY: I don't think -- I think you could probably find people who would dispute every memoir that was ever published. And a lot of them have been disputed. When Jerzy Kosinski's "Painted Bird" came out and became a big success several years afterwards, people said, "You know what? Jerzy Kosinski never went through the Holocaust." It's happened with a number of recent memoirs. It tends to happen with a lot of the more high-profile memoirs.

KING: And Jerzy killed himself. I'm not suggesting -- Mondovi, Wisconsin, hello.

Funnier yet was Frey's reaction, which was a puzzled look like "what are you suggesting?" Which prompted King to suggest he wasn't suggest anything.

No matter King's intent, I think I'm going to adopt his strategy as my verbal get-away next time I stumble the wrong way down a line of conversation: Mondavi, Wisconsin, hello.