My stats show that the number one Google search that leads strangers to this site is the phrase "I hate Oprah" which points them to this entry, where I explain that I don't hate Oprah, I just can't stand her followers.
Anyway, I still don't hate Oprah, but I had myself a little chuckle today. I hardly ever watch her, but I watched her several months ago when she had guest James Frey on who talked about his Oprah Book Club pick, "A Million Little Pieces." I didn't watch the whole show, mainly because when I listened to James Frey, my internal bullshit meter alarm was sounding. Oprah and her staff and audience were crying over this guy's memoir of his drug addicted and crime ridden life. He came off to me as a guy who was trying to be a drama king and was a lying liar that lies. I had no evidence, of course, but I have a very talented and adept bullshit meter. In my humble opinion, I have killer instincts about some things.
So I got curious and managed to find an excerpt of his work online. After reading some of his book, my bullshit meter read off the charts. Something about the way he wrote and what he was writing was just to grandiose and self-promoting to be true. My favorite was where he embellished a story about serving time for a felony when in fact he was picked up for a misdemeanor and served no time because he had chicken pox and they didn't want to have him in with the other prisoners at all so they just let him go. You wouldn't think a guy would lie to make himself sound horrible, but that is the best lie of all. Then people can marvel at your miraculous will and determination to turn your life around.
Well, wouldn't you know it, The Smoking Gun has done a six week investigation into Mr. Frey's memoir and found much of it to be exaggerated or just outright lied about. It's gotten so much press that the guy has had to hire a lawyer and he took his website down. Heh.
I guess I wouldn't be this self-congratulatory and amused if this story didn't involve Oprah. But, uh, don't her producers, like, fact check???
Update 1/11/06: Great Queen O has spoken. She trusts the publishers to categorize a book as nonfiction or fiction (Hey, she's right, I'll give her that. Didn't the publishers fact check??) She stands by the author and doesn't care if some details in the book are made up. Okay. So now I predict that the controversy will be over in the next ten seconds and Frey's book will sell better than ever and his career will hit an all-time high. I still say Ah Ah Aaaah--bullshit--CHOO!!
Gesundheit!
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