Oprah, I'm Worried About You

[katty]

more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/my-letter-to-o-oprah-i_b_13762.html

My Letter to O: Oprah, I'm Worried About You
R J Eskow

Oprah, I'm a huge fan of your literacy work. You're under fire now over this Frey thing, but I've got good news: help is out there for people like you, too - the ones who get things done, who love too much, who are overachievers, who organize the lives of alcoholics, addicts, and con men.

You know, enablers.

Everyone knows the Frey story now - how he spun a drunk driving arrest (which apparently consisted of five hours sitting at a folding table in the police station) and a rehab stint into a myth of hardened criminality and crack addiction. How you made him rich and famous by endorsing his book - a gritty true-life tale of violence, sin, and redemption through his owniron will. How that book turned out to be a fraud in all of its basics. (I'm late to post on this, but I've been travelling - and by the way, Frey's book was sold out at the airport bookstores.)

I'm not worried about Jimmy Frey. He's obviously a survivor - whether or not he's an addict. But I'm worried about the ones out there who are still sick and suffering from addiction and alcoholism, and their families. And Oprah, I'm worried about you.

Hey, don't feel bad. Enabling addicts is itself a kind of addiction and it's hard to let go of it.

[Vinnie From Indy]

1. PS - Please send me a million dollars.

n/t

[montanacowboy]

2. I am about Oprahed out myself

truly getting sick and tired of her

[ohio_liberal]

3. Oprah's pimping Dr. Phil was enough for me

:eyes:
In the grand scheme of my life Oprah means exactly nothing.

[Ilsa]

4. I pretty much stopped watching her about that time.

I couldn't stand him, and I grew weary of her. Now, I just don't care.

[LostinVA]

5. Oprah does NOT like Dr. Phil anymore

Ever since he took off the nice mask and turned into Mr. Megalomaniac Misogynist. There is no love lost between them, trust me.

[mandyky]

15. I used to like Dr Phil until he dissed Medea Benjamin

over Code Pink and protests against the IW. I have watched him since then.

I figured it was karmic when he got sued over his crooked dealings over the diet program.

[zanne]

6. Maybe I'm oblivious but...

Who the hell is Frey? I've been hearing about this guy and his book all day long, but nobody's telling me who he is!

[LisaL]

16. He is an author who wrote the supposedly non-fiction

book called "Million little pieces". There appears to be a lot of fiction in it.

[zanne]

23. I know he wrote that book. But who IS he?

If Joe Shmoe writes a book and then some of the "facts" in it turn out to be false, it's not such a big deal. But when CNN obssesses about it for a day, that means that the author was known for something before he wrote the book. Know what I mean?

[LisaL]

24. I think if Joe Shmoe writes a book, Oprah promotes it,

and the book sells millions of copies, it doesn't matter if the author was known for something or not. It's the fact that the book is on the bestsellers list, and Oprah and others cried over hard life Mr. Frey had, which turned out not to be so hard after all.

[zanne]

28. It turns out he IS just Joe Shmoe.

Just read a short bio on him. He wrote for movies before he wrote his book. He's only 32, so he really hasn't had much time for a history.

[LisaL]

30. I know he was not anyone famous before he wrote the book.

Well, he is now.

[boobooday]

7. Frey is obviously pathological

I am very disappointed that Oprah is defending this fraud. If his book is good, why not just market it as the work of fiction that it was?

[LisaL]

21. No one would even publish it as fiction.

I guess he tried numerous publishing agencies and no one would bite. Until the declared it non-fiction.

[boobooday]

34. Wow

That's incredible. I haven't read it, but it sounds like maybe he isn't such a great writer, since nobody would buy it on craftsmanship alone.

[LisaL]

38. I think if it was a complete crap, nobody would read it either,

regardless of if it was presented as fiction or not.
But it's also highly unlikely it would have had the success it did if it was presented as a fictional book.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

8. Oprah is a good person

who just got too much money, power, influence. She tries to do a good job but reaches too far and people expect too much.

I have a colleague who seriously wants her to run for President.

[katty]

12. Oprah IS good, but persona is overdone-she obviously loves

to talk and hear herself talk-alot. Not every word that issues from her tongue is worth hearing.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

13. Agreed

and she is over-exposed, as well.

[LisaL]

22. She is definitely over exposed.

Her name is basically synonymous with Goddess, which she is not. She is just a person. LOL.

[dbonds]

9. All this Frey stuff is much ado about nothing.

There are thousands of books with exaggerations and changed facts. Ask yourself why is this one such a big deal at this point in time. The book has been out for a while. Most of the money that was to be made has already been made. Why bring up this distraction now?

[LisaL]

19. This one was supposed to be non-fiction, turns out it wasn't.

Basically, it wasn't publishable as fiction, but had great success as non-fiction. Whether it should be as big deal as it is-I don't think so. But that's neither here nor there.

[Raster]

33. It isn't distraction, at least no to us. To you maybe. This was HEAVILY

promoted by Oprah as gritty, important work of nonfiction, which just so happens turns out to be happy horseshit. TSG's expose just came out within the last week or so. That would make it current in my book.

[dbonds]

40. How does the fact that there are embellishments affect the power ...

of the story. To anyone that was not involved it was a story anyway. Does it have less power if was embellished? Does it move you in a different way? This is a story of finding strength to overcome oneself, doesn't every bit of that still apply? It was NEVER anything more than a story.

[LisaL]

42. Because the story would not be near as powerful as fiction.

Do you think Oprah would have had this book as her book of the month if it was about some fictional character? It was the fact that Mr. Frey himself had persevered and overcame that made this book the success it was, and it would have not happened if people knew otherwise, IMO.

[chaplainM]

10. You poor reality-based lefties

You will never understand "emotional truth." But St. Oprah continues to love you and pray for you.

[B Calm]

11. I'll never forget Oprah's shows on Hurricane Katrina and the look

of horror on her face when she went into the dome..

[chaplainM]

14. "My God," she thought,

"My makeup will look TERRIBLE in this light!"

[B Calm]

17. Your kidding, right?

[ScreamingMeemie]

41. Honestly, I was more impressed with Anderson Cooper.

I am not one who is wowed by Oprah. I know a lot of people like and admire her, but she can be just as fraudulent at times as the James Frey (who has written two wonderful books, IMO)

[qanda]

18. Why is everyone bashing Oprah?

I guess I'm a bit confused.

[LisaL]

20. Because of Mr. Frey and his book.

Oprah has been promoting Mr. Frey's book as non-fiction. It turned out to be very much fictional, but Oprah still supports Mr. Frey.

[qanda]

26. I heard about that

But I still can't figure out why all the Oprah bashing. How is anyone's life impacted by what took place? From the reaction around here, I thought she had come out in favor of Alito or something.

[LisaL]

31. In order to bash someone-their actions doesn't have to impact

your life personally, I think. It's just that she support something that appears to be fraud.

[qanda]

39. Yes, people are free to bash whoever they want

I just cannot understand why Oprah seems to be such a target around here.

[Ron Green]

25. Mostly because they'd prefer to have a better spokesperson in her

position as Queen of the Legions Who Don't Think for Themselves, but at least she's not a rabid rightwinger.

[chaplainM]

27. Showbiz phony

And she was a willing shill for that talk-to-your-dead-relatives fraud, James van Praagh.

[Raster]

29. Here, here. I o.d.'ed on oprah about the dr. phil-me-up time.

Can't stand him and getting really over her. And this latest with I-wanna-be-a-bad-ass guy, frey, well, missy should have jettisoned his ass when there was ever a hint that he was a fraud. And while I'm on the subject, you mean to tell me no one--NO ONE--at Harpo or his publisher vetted his OUTRAGEOUS claims? Puh-leeeze, something is rotten in Chicago. With something this potentially explosive, they should have known what he had for lunch six years ago Tuesday. He and his book are a hoax and a fraud and Oprah and her production company Harpo are smack in the middle of it.

[LisaL]

32. It seems he peddled his book as fictional first.

No publishing agency accepted it as such, until he changed it to non-fiction. I wonder if the publishing agency didn't think it would ever get this big, so, they didn't really care if it was accurate or not.

[Raster]

35. And you know Oprah, if you wanted to do something REALLY relevant,

how about examining the Iraq war? How about examining the 2004 election? Instead of a book about druggie-boy puking on his shoes, how about pimping a book detailing the demise of democracy in this country?

You have the power to get just about everyone in this country fired up. You could get everyone reading some powerful books about what is happening to our country. Instead you pimp some faux-crackhead's fairytale. You could make a diffence...

[earth mom]

46. You hit the nail on the head-I feel exactly the same.

The bottom line is Oprah plays it WAY TOO SAFE. That, among so many other things, is why I've decided she's probably DLC; since she's no different than any of the DLC politicians. At this point I'm not watching her show like I used to except once in a blue moon when I'm bored.

Because, frankly, I'm sick and tired of the control the elites have over the rest of us peons and I'm not gonna be one of their willing slaves any more. :grr:

I AM DONE.

[realFedUp]

36. What was her opinion of Tookie William's redemption?

Is she getting a cut of her book club authors?

[sophie996]

43. of course she is.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

37. I was struck by what a dull fellow Frey was on Larry King.

Most liars are more entertaining than Frey.
Maybe he was on something that flatlined him.
There is one thing that SmokingGun makes clear
that nobody seems to be noting that I've seen.
The few facts that can be checked out from his
book reveal a liar, but so much of the book (the
whole stay in rehab) can not be checked out at all.
Hazelden I imagine cant even legally say if he was
there or not, and with changed names the characters
there cant be checked out. The point being that if he
has lied about what CAN be checked out, why should he be
believed about things that CANNOT be checked out. Still
and all in all, what an uninteresting man this liar turned
out to be. And to drag his poor deluded mom on there to
bail him out. Tsk tsk, James.

[Raster]

45. Isn't it ironic he had to drag his mom on LK not to vouch for what a

great guy he is, but what a scum bag he was. "Yeah, I was a real fucking loser, just ask my mom."

[linazelle]

44. Here we go with the Oprah bashing--the RW'urrrs hate her. 'Nuff said. nt