Letters to the Editor
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Oprah/Frey - Who needs to apologize now?
If Oprah really felt the need to reverse her initial defense of James Frey so people would understand that she believes truth DOES matter, then she should have told the truth herself -- she got slammed by the bloggers and the press for defending Frey, and she grew concerned about her reputation and her empire.
Now, the journalists who helped Oprah with her daytime "internvention" of James Frey should apologize to their readers for allowing themselves to be used by Oprah in her grand scheme to extracate herself from a thorny problem of her own making.
There are much more important things going on in the White House that need our noted journalists' attention, and these things, too, relate to "truth" or the lack of it.
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Oprah's revenge
I agree with the second letter from Ya
If Oprah is so uppity about truth and truth's importance, why doesn't she take on this adminstrations '"truthiness" and the deaths of thousands of innocent people in Iraq, our troops included?
Taking on a story teller because she was embarassed is good for her ratings in this particular case. The writer was all ready down. I don't think Oprah is telling the truth about her motives. JB
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I only have one thing to say...
WHO CARES?!?!?!?!?!
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The Frey fray.
Where else but in Murka would the public throw a hissy fit because someone turned out NOT to be a drug-addicted thug?
You people amuse me so....
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Quick question
Do we know for sure that Frey is an addict? I know he went to rehab, and I think that he used alcohol and other drugs, but isn't it possible that almost all of the addiction was overstated?
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edumacation
Oprah, sweetie... there's a difference between education and power. You've got plenty of one, not much of the other. Just cuz' you expect 'truth' when you see the word 'memoir' , well... aww! You're confused, aren't you? Life's a little more finely grained than you might like to think... or is it the thinking you don't like? I think that's the truth.
Awww... you'll be alright.
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No One Has Clean Hands
I didn't scroll through all of the letters posted to this story so I apologize if this has already been said.
1. James Frey's fraud was bad because it allowed a mediocre writer to get a book published that otherwise would never have seen the light of day. Millions of people, probably more than a few who post on Salon (and not excluding yours truly) wish we could write a novel.
2. "Re-packaging" the novel as a memoir was Nan Talese's fault and the publisher should be slammed for allowing it to happen. No, not allowing it--causing it. I don't believe that Talese read the book thinking it was even 20 percent true. The whole book reads like a make-believe story.
3. Oprah deserves blame only for taking Frey and turning him into a phenomenon that goes beyond millions of readers, and into the rehab-sphere. Clubs formed to venerate Frey and champion his rehab "tactics", you know, the tatoos and all that. IF the book helped people, fine. But Oprah doesn't have to turn people into media phenomenons that go beyond their books. With Frey she chose to feature him on her website and push his clubs and give him weeks of attention on her shows. So no, she shouldn't fact-check books, but she should be more cautious about turning unknown losers into the next Dr. Phil (also a big fraud).
I like and respect Oprah but if you saw the way she humiliated and shamed Jonathan Plummer, the ex-husband of Oprah's friend Terry McMillan, perhaps you would've been prepared for this day. She trashed Plummer for 60 minutes. When will someone call Oprah on her questionable ethics---taking up for people with whom she has a business relationship (aka McMillan).
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FREY GETS THAT WIDE-AWAKE ROOT CANAL
Why did he submit to this, is what I want to know. Because he's a pussy, is why, and that's what's at the bottom of all this. He's a middle-class nancyboy trying to portray himself as the bad-ass he only is in his dreams. Listen to that lisp and all it implies; this guy has been fighting the truth about himself for years.
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The Oprahror has no clothes
I guess if there are adult readers who rely upon the host of a TV show to tell them what to read maybe it IS neccesary for that host to then make a public, hour-long(?), televised spectacle of pointing that a book she recommended wasn't what she thought it was,
but it wasn't her fault.
Flocks of people are told by others, thought to be infallable and wise, to read and believe story upon story, the validity of which cannot be confirmed. People read them and believe them to a variety of degrees. Whether or not those stories a "real," some people can get something useful out of them.
How about a new Oprah's Book Club sticker that specifies: "Fictionalized Memoir" and sticking on some other shelf, and let people get what they can from it?
Dock Frey's royalties.
And move on.
BK
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Nan vs. Big Jim
Far be it from me to defend Nan Talese, but here is what she said about the issue of whether the book was presented to her initially as fiction:
“When the manuscript of A Million Little Pieces was received by us at Doubleday, it was received as nonfiction, as a memoir,” said Ms. Talese by phone. “Throughout the whole process of publication, it had always been a memoir, and for the first year and a half it was on sale, it was always a memoir with no disputation. It was never once discussed as fiction by me or anyone in my office.”
So one of them is lying and I tend to believe Nan before I believe Jimmy boy.
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Fake drug memoirs are encouraged by the White House
I will respect Oprah when she gets up in John Walters' face like she got up in Frey's.
"What are you thinking, Mr. Walters, to tell every parent in this country to make up a fake drug abuse memoir and sell it to their kids as the truth?"
The White House policy of boomers bearing false witness against their own pasts remains unchallenged in the Oprah arena.