Oprah is easily the most influential television personality in America, if not the world. Nothing demonstrates her influence more than her ability to flak obscure and often mediocre books into national best sellers.
What kept Oprah soaring beyond the firmament of other meteoric stars, however, was the fact that her celebrity seemed completely immune to scandal. But that all changed this week after her Midas touch on a book of non-fiction was exposed as an unwitting endorsement of book of lies.
Last September, the author of A Million Little Pieces, James Frey, was introduced to Oprah’s TV universe as “the man who kept Oprah awake at night.” (I guess Stedman was busy doing his guy thing in separate quarters on “The Promised Land” – her 42-acre, $50 million California estate.) But, beyond this nocturnal tease, Oprah whipped her viewers into frantic suspense with the following blurb:
“A Million Little Pieces is James Frey’s shocking true story about his battle with addiction and his gut-wrenching journey to recovery. At age 23, after a decade of drug and alcohol abuse, Frey hasn’t just hit rock bottom, he’s knocking on Death’s door. One more drink or one more drug, the doctors tell him, will kill him. But this will be no ordinary stint in rehab—in a move that’s both courageous and obstinate, Frey rejects the Twelve Step Program and chooses his own path to sobriety. Raw and honest, Frey’s descriptions of his withdrawal and the Fury that rages inside jump off the page and pull you in. A Million Little Pieces is an unforgettable account of how far one man will go to destroy himself and what it takes to turn him around.”
Then, after eliciting a few tantalizing details from her new protégé during an hour-long séance, Oprah christened her latest literary offspring with the following command to her millions of devoted fans:
“Start reading A Million Little Pieces — James Frey’s gut-wrenching memoir about his wild ride through rehab!”
And read they did: inflating sales of Frey’s book to over 3.5 million copies and making him very rich indeed. Great!
Except that it was revealed on Tuesday that many of the most interesting (think gut-wrenching) details in Frey’s memoir are, well, just figments of his heroin-chic imagination. (An exhaustive investigative report smoked-out this high-profile huckster and debunked his tale of pseudo-vices.)
But back to Oprah: Given all of her talk about embracing one’s true self and living a blissful life of open confessions, one might’ve expected Oprah to feel betrayed, perhaps even humiliated, by this abuse of her reputation and trust. Instead, she blessed Frey’s fatuous plea about taking creative license with the truth and ignored the emotional toil his lies will undoubtedly have on her fans whose lives were “impacted” by his book.
Because on Wednesday’s edition of CNN’s Larry King Live, as Frey was drowning under a tidal wave of backlash, Oprah threw him a life raft by calling-in to comfort him and assure her public that all of the evidence about Frey’s lies amounts to:
“…much ado about nothing [and that they should] keep holding on….What is relevant is that he was a drug addict . . . and stepped out of that history to be the man he is today and to take that message to save other people and allow them to save themselves. [Besides, she affirmed,] the book’s message of recovery from drug and alcohol addiction still resonates with me.”
Nonetheless, Frey’s publisher, Random House, and major booksellers like Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com admitted being hoodwinked and have offered refunds to all readers who feel they were sold a bill of goods.
I feel obliged to inform you that I admire Oprah tremendously. And, where her accomplishments as a talk show host are self-evident, I suspect that relatively few people are aware of her generous funding of schools and other charities in South Africa. But it is in this context that I find Oprah most impressive.
Nonetheless, her reaction to Frey’s deceit and obvious intent to exploit her fame and defraud her fans is disappointing, indeed, troubling. After all, when the publisher of the New York Times found out that his star reporter Jayson Blair had committed a similar publishing crime (reporting pure fiction as fact), he not only fired Blair but his editors as well.
Therefore, one is constrained to ask the following questions of Oprah:
Why is she still defending this book? Is it not irresponsible for her to counsel her deceived fans to “keep holding on” to the professed inspiration they got from a pack of lies? And why would she – who admonishes people almost daily to be true to themselves and to live their own lives – now enable Frey to gloss over pathological (and mercenary) lies about his own life?
Although, despite her pretense, Oprah’s own doubts about Frey’s “non-fiction” may be the reason why the only other books she promoted last year were classic fictions by William Faulkner…..Hmmmm?
Of course, it does not matter how she answers these questions now because her credibility has already suffered irreparable and notorious harm.
But good heavens, even President Bush has finally admitted he was duped on WMDs. Has Oprah become so convinced of her own power and infallibility that she cannot admit a single mistake?
Alas, on this book parade, the empress wears no clothes….
Technorati: Oprah, A Million Little Pieces
Trish says
I think Oprah shows class by forgiving Frey for what he did. Doesn’t that count for something?
Cyndi says
I too appreciate Ms. Winfrey’s personal and professional accomplishments, but alas she has this one pegged wrong. Truth is not subjective. She is doing nothing but saving face. Whomever advised her to call Larry King was mistaken. I saw the whole thing. It was a joke.
She is more or less sending the message that the ends justify the means. As you said she has been dissapointing on this issue. Who made her the infallible oracle of truth? Is she believing her own press? I think it would be much more human and transparent/true to self, to admit when your wrong or have been mistaken. It takes a much bigger person to do this than to try doing damage control.
This is also a slap in the face of real hardcore addicts suffering and trying to cope daily. This book cheapens their true life struggles. How do we know that Mr. Frey didn’t steal his rehab “experiences” from those he was in rehab with? How many addicts are truly succesful in one time through rehab? How many addicts go through high school and college without being sent to reform school or really sent to jail/prison? This story of Mr. Frey seems unrealistic to me.
Anonymous says
Amen Cyndi
I am a big Oprah fan and I am one of the fools who read that book based on her recommendation. Her defense of this con artist sickens me. I think ALH is right, no matter what she says now, I have lost all respect for her!
Lisa
Rebecca says
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
You are one courageous black man for writing so truthfully and provocatively about Marion Barry one day and Oprah the next.
I love the way you think and write!
Jennifer says
I agree with Rebecca. This is a very courageous and thoughtful post. I intend to email the link to Oprah.com. She obviously has to many kiss asses around and no one to speak truth to her.
Anonymous says
I think Oprah was showing compassion when she called that show. Like she said, it doesn’t matter that some of the facts may not be true. It’s the spirit of this man that made his book so powerful
Anonymous says
Well, the author of this blog is also selling you a bill of goods. Random House has NOT offered refunds to anybody. Maybe we should be a little more careful to report the TRUTH.
Kathy says
Really Mr Anonymous
The NY Times, Washington Post and CNN all reported that Random House was offering refunds. And here’s a link to this fact if you’re interested in the TRUTH!
http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/books/01/11/arts.frey.reut/
…But I’m sure you have your reliable sources, right?…Jerk!
Anonymous says
Has anyone read the book?
According to what I’ve read The Smoking Gun found out that he lied about an incident in Ohio with the law.
He claimed that he got into a car accident and almost ran over a cop. The cops then beat the crap out of him. He posted bail and skipped town and later return to fulfill a three month sentence. The Smoking Gun saids that their research shows that he was released that same day and never served the three months. This is the only part of the book that The Smoking Gun found a lie in and that’s simply because that’s all the info they got from the Ohio cops. Who BTW were pissed that he got such a light sentence. (according to James Frey)
He also uses fictitous names because he’s talking about people in rehabs and mobsters. The places where all these events take place are also probably fictitous because he has to honor the anonimity of the people he is writing about.
I read the book and as a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, who btw is clean and sober for sixteen years after one stint in rehab, I’ll defend the majority of what he said and the effect it had on not only me but everyone else whom I’ve spoken to that have also read the book.
It has had a profound effect on active alcoholics and drug addicts. For once someone accurately described the feeling of addiction. Someone accurately put that to paper and allowed everyone who can’t or won’t understand what that feeling feels like to experience it. I think that’s what Oprah was defending. Something like this is not going to have any effect on her rep.
I’ve also read “My Friend Leonard”, by James Frey in which he speaks about making a sizeable donation (in the millions) to the Hazelden Rehab he attended. The money was bequeathed to him by Leonard, the mobster. That’s probably not his real name btw.
Too bad the Smoking Gun doesn’t talk about that.
Noel
Kathy says
Noel
I discovered this blog just today and can’t stop reading it because this ALH is such a fascinating writer and, unlike so many other bloggers, he documents what he writes. Therefore, it’s a shame that people like you make comments challenging him that have no basis in fact.
You claim to have read the Smoking Gun report he links to and that they cited only one lie. That’s a blatant lie. In fact, they document many more lies and even highlighted 9 of them in big bold letters in a side bar to make it easy for people like you to read.
I respect and admire your personal story of recovery. But just like Oprah, you only enable Frey’s addiction by defending his lies….
Anonymous says
Actually Kathy I read the Smoking Gun Report when it first came out and the only thing that was mentioned then were the points I addressed about his altercation in Ohio. I did not reference the Report from this blog because I would think that nothing had changed.
I to respect ALH, seeing how I have a personal relationship with him but he never has a problem with opposing opinions and in point of fact welcomes them as challenges.
My sobriety depends a great deal on my being brutally honest. For the past 16 years I’ve practiced that to the best of my ability. The last time I was called a “Blatent Liar” was 16 years ago when my addiction called the shots.
Initially James Frey wanted his story published as a work of fiction but his publisher talked him into editing it as a non fiction story. Be that as it may and I don’t agree with his path to sobriety but it seems to be helping a lot of people that otherwise can not afford $15,000 to attend a Drug Rehab. If you don’t think drug rehab isn’t about money I challenge anyone to start making some phone calls.
Noel
Jennifer says
Hi Noel
I’ve read your comments on other posts and you seem like a good guy with very strong views. However, I agree with Kathy. I have addicts in my family. Most of my friends have addicts in thier families. We know how “gut-wrenching” that experience can be.
No one denies the inspiration you got from the book. I resent this guy for making up stuff about addiction to sell books. Also, I have lost respect for Oprah that she would enable his lies by supporting him like she has. It’s clear that he is still in addiction denial big time!
Anonymous says
I just read the entire piece by “The Smoking Gun” and you can count me in as one of the fools who wanted to believe this mans story. Too bad…….he spun a good tale.
I was dead wrong…………
Noel
Anonymous says
You stated, “even President Bush has finally admitted he was duped on WMDs.” No…instead it should have read, “Even President Bush intentionally lied about WMD’s”, and if it had, it still would not make it all OK…a lie is a lie, and it makes the teller a scoundrel, author or President.
Kristen says
Perhaps I should remind readers that memoirs have thousands of tiny details, as a rule, to fill in the space between what’s remembered and what is not. Memoirs are, in fact, never completely non-fiction. If it had been labeled “fiction”, would everyone be so upset? Or would they admit that it is, in fact, an amazingly well-written, first-person piece of literature, and give James a freakin’ break. Of course things were embellished. Of course there was drama added. That shit is put into your newspapers EVERY DAY, and no one’s calling to ask for a refund because their information isn’t completely accurate. Literature, media, AS A RULE, is biased and changed.
Oprah is a graceful woman, and she handled the situation with maturity and calm. She responded the same way I did. So what. It was a damn good book. I loved it. I stand by it.
To judge someone like Oprah because of something someone ELSE wrote, would be like someone judging you because of something your mama did….
Are we just lookin’ for somewhere to throw blame? Why is it even necessary??
Perfect Fit Goddess says
More like “A million little lies”
It doesn’t matter, I still love Oprah… she does more than Bush and a bunch of political scumbags combined.
We cannot judge Oprah based on what an author did… she was clearly deceived too. Like Kristen said, all publications cannot be entirely non-fiction… there’s always some extra drama and fluff added to everything in order to attract attention.
Besides, even if Frey had embellished his memoir… in real life, he’s still a success story because he overcame drug addiction and straightened out his life.
Then just picture the book as fiction, get over it.