Oprah Comes Correct

Since I blogged on this previously, I must now mention that dear Oprah reversed herself and took James Frey out to the woodshed for sins against the genre of memoir. You can go here to see portions of the Oprah show on it. (Her personal statement -- a formal apology -- is extraordinary.) The New York Times also put the story on page 1 the day after Oprah's show, read that story here.
And, for a delightful piece of rhetoric from one of the columnists who urged Oprah to defend the principle of truth, read this piece by Richard Cohen of The Washington Post.
It begins:

Because she has led countless billions and billions of people to the promised land of books, because she preaches self-help and self-sufficiency and not least because she has shown that even a middle-aged person can keep weight off, I must tiptoe up to the amazing Oprah and merely whisper to her that in the case of James Frey, the liar whose memoir turns out to have a good deal of fiction alongside fact, she is not only wrong but deluded. What she needs is a session with Dr. Phil.

Read the entire column here.