Full Article Text

Newer PostOlder PostF R I D AY, J A N U A RY 2 7 , 2 0 0 6Oprah: We Know She Can Sell Books. Can SheStop Them, Too?Oprah's stamp of approval can sell literally millions of copies of a book.But can her disapproval cut the legs out from under an establishedblockbuster? We'll have to wait till a week from Sunday to find outwhat effect she's had on the sale of James Frey's A Million Little Pieces.We certainly feel vindicated by her Thursday show. While thetraditional media distorted Oprah's comments on Larry King,Popsurfing was the only one to accurately describe what she REALLYsaid: that Oprah was disappointed with Frey, angry at the publisherand not a happy camper. She did NOT call to give unwavering supportto Frey.As for her special, Oprah did a great job with Frey by not letting him offthe hook and insisting he lied. His publisher Nan A. Talese came acrossas an idiot, frankly, talking about the "authenticity" of his voice whenFrey had just admitted it was a pack of lies. They also missed the basictruth of modern publishing: publishers not only don't factchecknonfiction books, they barely COPYEDIT them. Finally, the guy fromthe Poynter Institute was foolish, too, discussing how memoirs shouldbe labeled to say how honest they are. Talese jumped at that idea, as ifa disclaimer at the beginning would make Frey's lies okay. The onlylabel that "A Million Little Pieces" deserves is the label Frey tried andfailed to sell the book under: fiction.POSTED BY MICHAEL IN NEW YORK AT
8:03 PM

0 C O M M E N T S :Post a CommentL I N K S T O T H I S P O S TCreate a LinkHomeSubscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)Next Blog»sal1mineo@hotmail.comSEARCH BLOG FLAG BLOGFOLLOW BLOGP O P S U R F I N G . C O MS U R F I N G T H E WAV E S O F P O P U L A R C U LT U R EB Y M I C H A E L G I LT Z & F R I E N D SPOPSURFING.COM: Oprah: We Know She Can Sell Books. C...http://popsurfing.blogspot.com/2006/01/oprah-we-know-she-ca...
1 of 37/29/09 3:56 AM
FAV O R I T E L I N K SAmericablogFive O'Clock Lightning baseball blogDeep Pop -- Lori Lakin's BlogThe Back Page -- Jason Page on ESPNRadioCine-Blog -- George Robinson's BlogDocuments On Art & Cinema - DarylChin's BlogBrucie G's Wondrous Blog OfAdventure and Mystery -- BruceGreenspan's BlogB L O G A R C H I V E▼ 2009 (17)▼ July (3)1939 -- The Greatest Year ForMoviesSwimming Bans Those Hi-TechSuits!Best Movies Of The Year -- TheMaster List► June (3)► May (1)► March (2)► February (1)► January (7)► 2008 (86)► 2007 (781)► 2006 (2412)► 2005 (5)C O N T R I B U TO R SBiboyAaronMichael in New York POPSURFING.COM: Oprah: We Know She Can Sell Books. C...http://popsurfing.blogspot.com/2006/01/oprah-we-know-she-ca...
2 of 37/29/09 3:56 AM
POPSURFING.COM: Oprah: We Know She Can Sell Books. C...http://popsurfing.blogspot.com/2006/01/oprah-we-know-she-ca...
3 of 37/29/09 3:56 AM