2-Second Journalism Lesson

With great fanfare the other day, Oprah Winfrey asked James Frey a question that mainstream journalists refuse to ask George W. Bush: “Why would you lie?”

…Frey lied about his personal life in a book, and that infuriated Oprah Winfrey. “It is difficult for me to talk to you, because I really feel duped,” she said, confronting him in the midst of the Jan. 26 telecast. “I feel duped. But more importantly, I feel that you betrayed millions of readers.”

Norman Solomon, “Domestic Lying: The Question That Journalists Don’t Ask Bush,” Commondreams.org, 1/29/06.

… “I embellished many details about my past experiences, and altered others in order to serve what I felt was the greater purpose of the book. …I altered events and details all the way through the book. …I made other alterations in my portrayal of myself, most of which portrayed me in ways that made me tougher and more daring and more aggressive than in reality I was, or Iam.”

James Frey’s note to the reader of A Million Little Pieces, Random House website, 2/01/06.