Letters to the Editor
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Oprah gets new coat of Teflon
I'm amazed that Oprah continues to come out smelling like a rose.
She tried to defend James Frey last week, because there's an industry building around the "brutal honesty" of James Frey, one that Oprah probably gets a good piece of. Up until recently there were 73 separate pages on Oprah.com related to James Frey - with hysterical titles like "James Frey's Bookshelf" or "James Frey's desert island book choices" and such. There is (or probably was now) a movie in the works.
But reaction has built to a point where she can't dictate to her following how to feel about this issue. That must be infuriating for her.
So she serves up James Frey on a platter. I feel no pity for the frat boy, mind you. Nor the publisher, who Oprah pins the rest of the blame on. So her personal apology is self serving and empty. Never once does she explain the true motive behind defending Frey: protecting a burgeoning money maker, which she has invested in, and would have continued to milk barring this controversy.
This show was about wiping Oprah clean and putting her back up on her pedestal. One reporter actually called her the "queen of goodwill" on this episode. Now that's truthiness, baby.
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Oprah's Revenge
How dare this black woman call out this white boy? It's not supposed to work like that, right? How dare she?!!!
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Like her or not, Oprah was right
I can't join the pity party for Frey either. When the Smoking Gun busted him, he tried to weasel around it. He's had several opportunities to correct the record and, in fact, when this first broke, Oprah supported him and he still weaseled the truth. Sure the interview was uncomfortable to watch at times, but, he has nobody to blame but himself. He's been humliated all the way to the bank.
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She is officially frightening...
So you write a novel--which is a feat in itself--and you try to get it published. Then you find that they won't publish it, unless you change its label to 'memoir.' Most people would go ahead & tack on that label at this point, especially when your publisher (Talese) is telling you it's all going to be all right.
Then you hit the motherload & end up in Oprah's book club.
Everyone but Jonathan Franzen knows that this is the best thing that can happen to a writer in our times, for no other reason than it will enable you to write another book, and to have an audience waiting for it. Which is, by the way, very rare.
The issue of James Frey's 'lying,' in my mind, is absolutely dwarfed by Oprah's need to put a stamp on everything, even something as subjective and life-affirming as literature. Who cares if he lied? If you love his book, you love his book. Since when has anything in print been the absolute truth, unaltered 'gospel'?
When and why has she become the authority on not only what we should read, but the way that we should think about writers? I can form my own opinion of James Frey without watching him be publicly sacrificed on the altar of her ego. She is not my moral compass, nor my intellectual compass, and I am surprised and disappointed that she is anyone else's.
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Oprah Winfrey's lack of grace.
I have been following this story, re: James Frey, et al., in a cursory fashion up until yesterday, when I tuned into Larry King’s show. He devoted the show to this entire story and I read the article today on Salon.com.
I am certainly not excusing Jim Frey’s action for embellishing in his book or any possible misrepresentations he may have made therein. Ms. Winfrey’s thumbs-up certainly bolstered sales of the book and it is understandable that an apology was warranted by Mr. Frey to Ms. Winfrey, as well as to readers. Ms Winfrey’s apology to her audience, although not really necessary was appropriate.
There is the matter of the lack of grace though on Ms. Winfrey’s part.
I will stipulate that Mr. Frey erred in so many ways and he lied and he embellished. Yes, I will stipulate to all of these misdeeds. But, there is a gracious manner of handling such a matter whereby one’s dignity does not need to be entirely annihilated.
Ms. Winfrey was in a perfect position to call attention to the misdeeds at hand in a gracious manner whereby Mr. Frey could have been asked why he did what he did, but Ms. Winfrey chose to sensationalize the matter in the hopes of exonerating herself having approved of Mr. Frey’s work. In sensationalizing this affair, she belittled Frey and in the process, through all of her berating, appeared very petty, lacked grace and seemed quite shrewish. Ms. Winfrey destroyed Mr. Frey to keep her reputation intact.
I am not an advocate of dishonesty but I actually felt badly for Mr. Frey’s treatment by Ms. Winfrey. Her treatment of him was way over the top and it was simply put, overkill. I, along with many people, lost a great deal of respect for Ms. Winfrey. When one has the upper hand in any situation, there are appropriate and dignified ways of handling the matter at hand and then there is the Winfrey method.
I am saddened that Mr. Frey duped readers, but I am also ashamed of Ms. Winfrey for her conduct in confronting Mr. Frey as she did.
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Oprah's behavior
Oprah's apology was heartfelt and she said what she needed to say. But when James Frey was falling apart before her on national TV and it was clear that he admitted his book was not the truth, she tore him to pieces, just like a lion ripping into its prey. He wrote a powerful narrative; when I read it, I assumed it was "fictionalized" but it was still a powerful narrative. He should have put a disclaimer with the book. That is partially the publisher's responsibility. And Oprah and her producers could have asked all these credibility questions she says are so "obvious" now before they ever promoted the book. It doesn't seem right that Opray should be drooling for vengeance -- there were a lot of players in this sad story. But she's the most powerful woman in the world and now she has showed the world how she got that way -- trample anyone who gets in the way of her image.