Moldy Peaches

Jon Stewart had a wonderful piece on the biggest lie in the United States. The fact that millions of Americans were mislead. The notion that the country will not stand to be lied to. Americans deserve the truth when it comes to books they had no business getting into.

Nope, it didn't have anything to do with the Bush Administration lying to take the country to war. It had everything to do with Oprah's choice for her book club and the fact that James Frey stretched the truth in some parts of A Million Little Pieces.

Such as CBS anchor Bob Schieffer's recent "exclusive" televised interview with President Bush. You know, the one where he asks him what it is like to be President - barf!
Or VP Dick Cheney on Fox News (expect some hard-hitting queries from Fox News, Mr. VP). Or finally, Rumsfield being asked by O'Reilly to comment on a story that he is evil. They both kind of giggle and snicker and the story moves on.

The Daily Show's main point is accurate. Why does an author of a - now - largely fictionalized book get harsher treatment and more pointed questioning from a cultural cult figure than our America's most senior politicians do from real-life professional news people on real-life TV news programs?

Finally, back to Oprah. And one question: What took her so long to withdraw her support for Frey?

Documents uncovered by the Web site The Smoking Gun showed Frey's book to be predicatated on fictionalized thinking. And yet, initially, Oprah ran to the phone when Frey appeared on Larry King's program in order to declare her support.

Then, the poll numbers must have trickled into Oprah Central. O Magazine readers were enraged. They were sold a false bill of goods. The O Groups were buzzing. How could someone lie to us? The O Message Boards were alive with the sound of white middle-class women really, really angry. Finally, newspapers, radio shows and TV hosts tripped over one another to get to the Frey/Oprah story.

I don't get Oprah. I don't get the way her adoring fans hang on her every word, her relentless earnestness, and book recommendations. A woman at a Halifax Chapters went to bat for her this weekend by stating that Oprah has got a lot of people reading and that is a good thing. True. The woman was also partially correct to assume that many of these people weren't reading before. I would however think that Oprah viewers and loyal readers would be incensed about some other lies being told in the United States not just those in the club.