An author lies, every station talks about it--for HOURS

[linazelle]

The pRresident lies, obfuscates, steals and he answers for himself--handpicking those who question him...and the story about the lie becomes a 30 second sound byte from the liar himself--no followup questions asked.

An author lies and it's given 20 minutes of prime time airing on every television show in America while no time is given to Halliburton's serving rotten food and tainted water to troops using no-bid contracts; seconds are allotted to the mention of troop casualties; zero time for discussions about troops who are returning to America with disproportionate brain injuries due to faulty helmets and body armor. Not one minute has been given to show the coffin of a fallen soldier.

But an author lies, and bedlam ensues. <rant off>

[tanyev]

1. Yeah, I just sent Oprah an email.

Her story was at the very top of today's Dallas Morning News--right above the Palestinian elections. I emailed her that I didn't care about the lies of James Frey and that our President is conning us and betraying millions of Americans. I told I would love to hear her talk about that.

Fat lot of good it will do, but I felt better for having said it.

[linazelle]

32. I don't blame Oprah--the rest of the media colluded and pushed

this story back to her.

As for her show on the topic, it actually did some good in that some of the guest got in a few jabs about "truthiness" vs. truthfulness and how the Bush administration is lying. So that was worth enduring Oprah's show for me. But the shows about the Oprah show? Come on.

[realFedUp]

2. and a full page in the news section of the LA Times....

have we lost our minds in this country....

How about covering why three towers went down
on 9/11 due to controlled demolition?

How about doing a full story on the election
rigging in Ohio and vote padding in other
states including California and Texas?

etc.

[myrna minx]

3. I absolutely agree.

Bu$h can lie with impunity yet some sap who lies in his own autobiography gets the media dog pile. :eyes:

[FreedomAngel82]

14. It's like with Martha Stewart and Bill Frist

Same thing just different places in society.

[patrice]

4. I haven't heard anything about it until just now on Springer.

But then, I've been on the phone to D.C. for a week and I don't watch much TV besides Turner Classic Movies. (That reminds me, I need to get my cable package cut way back).

[bush_is_wacko]

5. Yeah, I caught that too. But it was OPRAH by God and she is the

one and only authority on EVERYTHING in the world, you know.

I don't hate the woman but I am sick to death of her lack of comment with regard to the blatant and despicable way minorities of all creeds have been kicked around by the cabal in D.C.!

If Queen Oprah would step up to the plate and speak out half of America would be up in arms!

[RazzleDazzle]

20. I adore Oprah, but you have to remember that she's basically

a political illiterate. Really. She had Tom Friedman on the other day, for God's sake, on one of her shows about what we really do have to fear. It's maddening, I know, and I'm real fed up with her over this Frey thing too (as if it's her place to call on him to account for himself to her, and the publisher too!! A little too much ego-involvement, Oprah. Way over the line.) But she is what she is and I think it's pointless to be annoyed that she's not what YOU and I think she should be.

[gratuitous]

6. But, but, but, Frey's lie cost Oprah some kwahn

Whereas Bush's lies just killed a bunch of poor no-accounts, squandered the Treasury, and threw away our national ideals, prestige and credibility.

What more to you need to see that for all the lip service paid to "the American people," the only folks who truly count for the media are the overrich?

[opihimoimoi]

7. Frey is a distraction which is just fine with those wanting these sort of

things.

[FreedomAngel82]

15. Oh nahh

That's not important at all! :sarcasm: Don't forget all the money we owe China.

[lpbk2713]

8. Oprah ought to have Limbo or Coulter on as guests.

If she is so concerned about the truth in print. Hell, she would have enough material to stay on the same topics for years.

[WahooJunkie]

9. Front page of WaPo today too n/t

[linazelle]

33. Yes. This is what I am talking about--not Oprah. It's the rest of the

media that is devoting all this time about it that is the problem. Somehow I think that point is being missed.

[Carni]

10. Thank you for posting this

I think that CNN spent at least an hour and a half on this bullshit non-issue this morning.

Bush lies and they all applaud him and do their best to cheer him on... but God forbid some stupid author deceived Oprah and her stupid book club people and it's a huge scandal.

WTF is WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY?

[RazzleDazzle]

21. The whole 10:00 hour of Anderson Cooper devoted to this last nite

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. Bush is immune from this kind of criticism because he doesn't have

the smarts to write a book.

Hmmmm.. maybe we should try to convince him to write his memoirs? Never mind, if there is a lie, he'll probably blame it on the ghostwriter.

[FreedomAngel82]

12. Isn't it so annoying?

:mad: Ugh!

[ClayZ]

13. Keith O likened it to presidential lying last night.

I am wondering if the gagged media is doing an end run with this story?

ie. if OPRAH gets out there saying Million Pieces Lies are not acceptable... perhaps the PARABLE of it all will sink into the sheeple's wee little brains?


I am a dreamer!

[RazzleDazzle]

23. That's not a dream

it's a delusion.

Sorry, someone had to say it. :D

[spooked]

16. The poor author becomes Enemy of the People...it was sickening to watch

it on Oprah yesterday.

Where's the OUTRAGE for what's really going on?!

[spooked]

17. The poor authos becomes Public Enemy #1 It was SICKENING to watch

it on Oprah yesterday.

Where's the OUTRAGE for what's really going on?!

[spooked]

18. The poor author becomes Public Enemy #1 It was sickening to watch

it on Oprah yesterday.

Where's the OUTRAGE for what's really going on?!

[izzybeans]

19. The real cost of this is all the recovering addicts who

found inspiration in this book are now questioning themselves.

Thanks for the CYA time yesterday Oprah.

[pitohui]

22. i suspect recovering addicts are v. familir w. this type of lie

we all know the dude in recovery whose story has to be bigger and better the next guy's

it's all part of the package

people who use their addiction and recovery to whore for attention may be fun and entertaining, but we don't expect them to swear on the bible as to the exact factual truth of the events they describe for our entertainment

[RazzleDazzle]

25. Not only that, he put out more lies on her show

or so the claim from Smoking Gun.

I think the guy really is a pathological liar. Apparently he's one helluva writer, but his flights of fancy are just too fanciful to be called non-fiction. I watched the show and did not like the way he handled himself at all -- was very uncomfortable with it and just how "true" some of his new statements were.

He's NOT in recovery, or if he is it's a piss-poor version. That lying shit has got to stop (and no, I'm not taking his inventory -- this is a character flaw apparent to everyone; I'm just making note of it).

At the same time, I'm disgusted with Oprah as well. As I noted in another post: she may be a bestseller-maker, but that doesn't give her the right (IMO) to call Frey or his publisher on the carpet to account to HER. If she felt so strongly about backing off her support from the Larry King pronouncement, all she had to do was pronounce THAT. For her to take a whole show, humiliate all concerned (Nan Talese didn't deserve that treatment, IMO), and try to make the publishing world cater to her definitions and guidelines for what a memoir should be (or MUST be) was all a bit much for me.

Maybe she's right that basically there should be no distinction between autobiography and memoir in the fact department. I dunno. But I was greatly persuaded by Nan Talese's little anecdote that when she was working wit Rosalind Carter, Jimmy pointed out, "Now, Rosalind, this incident didn't happen quite that way," to which Rosalind responded, "Now, Jimmy, you had your memoir, this one's mine."

I'm not defending Frey -- I think he's a pathological liar and I don't have any sympathy for that. I am just not happy with ANY of this right now.

[linazelle]

34. Once you get into discussing the right or wrong of it, they've got you

My point is, right or wrong, it doesn't deserve this much attention by the entire media.

[izzybeans]

26. people in recovery tend to trust "the recovered"

more than an unsympathetic medical professional. I only mention it because my uncle is currently on his third stint and was reading this book and thought it was a model for himself.

Whoring, lying or not. This CYA b.s. for exaggerating a memoir is not serving the actual intended audience of that book very well. Oprah and the publisher. Publishers put up with all sorts of misrepresentations in biographies, memoirs, etc. in books written by folks who presumably aren't addicts.

I find this uproar disingenuous and counterproductive. Whether fiction or not, that book was connecting with people that needed some form of connection other than between the needle and the mainline. My uncle understood some of the scenes were a bit too cartoonish, but then again when he was actually inpatient the whole experience was a little bit too much like "trainspotting" to lodge it accurately in his memory.

[pitohui]

28. thought it was the publisher's idea actually

i read that frey submitted the story as fiction and the publisher proposed packaging it as nonfiction

authors have surprisingly little control over how their books are packaged unless they're already stephen king -- and even king lost a lawsuit to doubleday if i have it right

i think frey is a liar no doubt abt it but i also think the area of autobiography and recovery is an area where much if not most published is full of lies anyway

[underpants]

24. That is a rant that everyone should have

Amazing but then really not that surprising anymore.

[SheepyMcSheepster]

27. Rush was calling Oprah a flip-flopper today

However it seemed his real animosity comes from his perception of Oprah's Katrina coverage.

[Skittles]

29. it's amazing, isn't it linazelle?

I was thinking the same thing this morning- that author is being HELD ACCOUTABLE.....do these media whores not see the g.d. HYPOCRISY???

[pitohui]

35. but he ISN'T being held accountable

far from being held accountable, frey is getting more publicity than ever, and his obviously fake second book is at the top of the best-seller list also

being held accountable would be something like being fined for fraud or being forced to return people's money who bought the books thinking them nonfiction, and this can't happen under american law

this second showing on oprah is not punishment, it is publicity, it is a reward

this dude is crying crocodile tears all the way to the bank

[Skittles]

39. it's not surprising

look at how many people watch garbage like "reality TV" - anyone with half a brain would know that shit is not real

[Solomon]

30. It's because Bush tells BIG lies. The other guys' lies are little.

[Pachamama]

31. A caller into Larry King last night asked that very same question: She

said to Larry King and the panel of "experts" why was it that they were so focused on this Author and talking about Oprah, yet here we have an administration and government that is nothing but filled with lying and there is no discussion of it. Larry King totally tried to dodge and turn the question around but one woman on his panel agreed with the caller and chuckled and said very good question....

But, Larry King, re-directed....good Larry King, friend of the Bush Clan....

[Disturbed]

36. Ancient History

Remeber when J. Kerry, in one of the debates, mentioned GWB had said that he was not concerned about Osama bin Laden? Smirk denied having said anything like that and a video of Smirk saying exactly that surfaced. How much did the Corp Media devote to that?

[gulliver]

37. Frey lied on behalf of himself. Bush lies on behalf of his supporters...

... That makes them all party to the lie, whether they wanted their man to lie or not. Call Bush a liar, and all of the people who voted for him either voted for a liar (minimum) or voted for and continue to support a liar.

No mystery. The press is going to pick on Frey, collect their paycheck, and go home to enjoy their weekend. Pick on Bush, and you have a pack of liars or dupes who voted for him up in arms. Everyone likes the easy money. It isn't just journalists.

[wiley]

38. This is surprising?

Anybody who knows anything about out of control drug use knows that the person rarely remembers the truth. Also, what Frey described does happen to other people, just usually not white ones.

Oprah should get * and Laura to come back on her show and make them apologize for their lies. Think that would get any coverage? No? Right. It would never happen.