Dear Sherry-
Now that I look at what I wrote, it seems a bit short and curt. I didn’t mean it that way, though. I just feel that the hypocrisy surrounding this famous book is so thick, you could cut it with a knife.
Even the most cursory investigation by Winfrey’s producers would have revealed there was very strong evidence that parts of the memoir had been fabricated. She chose to promote his book anyway. Then, later on, she called Larry King’s programme and defended the book and the author, thus adding more scores of thousands to his sales…and generating more hype and p.r. for herself.
Now Maureen Dowd (I am so disappointed in her), lionizes Winfrey and praises her willingness to set the record straight.
It was a huge relief, after our long national slide into untruth and no consequences, into Swift boating and swift bucks, into W.’s delusion and denial, to see the Empress of Empathy icily hold someone accountable for lying and conning — and embarrassing her.
In a society obsessed with sin and redemption, this was the superfecta: Oprah admitting her flawed judgment and rescuing her reputation, while carving up James Frey for sinning in his book about sin and redemption.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/01/28/opinion/28dowd.html
My educated guess is that Winfrey would have met with her people and pursued the strategy that would place her and her show in the best light. It wasn’t until after she defended the author in the period following her interview with him, (she certainly knew full well about the fabrications by then), that she decided that she could no longer defend him and so she moved onto the side of the angels.
It was a whole tissue of cynical behaviour by her…and Dowd is more than disingenous when she attempts (even though she does it half-heartedly), to defend Winfrey.
The entire thing is disgusting…I agree.
But it’s not as if this is the first time fact and fiction have been played with fast and loose. A famous biographer Joseph McGinniss has boasted about his book “The Rise and Fall of Ted Kennedy”, which is full of quotes from Kennedy. McGinniss promoted his book by saying that all the “quotes” were made up, based on his “intuition” about what Kennedy might have said if he had been interviewed. The book sold hundreds of thousands of copies.
It’s all about making money….greed and fame…and all the players are tainted.
As my father used to say, don’t believe anything you hear or read and only half of what you see.
That’s my rant on this subject. I hope you don’t hate me for it.
Jim.
