I have to thank Melinda Casino on BlogHer for an interesting link about Oprah-gate. The blog she cites is called James Frey and the pornography of confession. and it appears over on "chandrasutra." The blog isn't so much about pornography as it is about public confessions.

It seems an author, James Frey, made up an "autobiography" and people believed it was his true-to-life personal story, or so my sources say who are following this story closer than I. Oprah then endorsed the book for her Book Club, only to find out later that it was a "manufactured" biography. At first I believed this furor to be a bit pedestrian; that is, until I read some of the pithy insights that raised a mirror to middle America. Why this scandal? Why the outrage? What exactly happened? Well ...

... there is something that sets Frey apart. That made it bad: He lied to Oprah. You lie to Oprah, you lie to America. Dig?

The Oprah empire taps into a distinctly white, bourgeois, female demographic. This is a demographic you've got to be careful with. Nothing too risque, political/satirical or intellectual really flies. It's got to be mainstream. Things can be sexual, violent or difficult as long as it's not political, intellectual or radical ...

I may not have read Frey (although I'm now curious) but I do know something about Oprah's demographic and how they think. I've had friendships with them, taken courses with them in university, worked with them and have family members in this demographic. They all enjoy the same thrills, especially the glossy pornography of confession in the commercially imagined "women's" culture ...

What Frey offended was not their sense of ethics, but their bourgeois relationship with human suffering and confession. For this audience, reading of the tragedy of Frey's (or anyone else's) life experience is a means to survey and "learn about" another human's darker moments from the safety of a Starbucks ...

- emphasis mine

An editor friend of mine observed that all Oprah has to do is endorse a book and she delivers an audience that makes almost any book a commercial success. What power! Personally, I can't think of anyone who else who can do that.

Oprah's credibility is what is at stake. At one time Walter Cronkite was the most trusted man in America, and now that mantle has passed to a woman. Both she and Cronkite have been windows on the world, and part of the power of any source is that the news/report has been vetted - and in this case something slipped through.

However, there is more to it than that. Mel, the blog-post author, goes on to make two points,

Truth isn't always stranger than fiction. The "truth" of the human condition is old news. We know what we're capable of - it's there on the news every hour. So why are we such "confession" junkies?

putting this in perspective with an observation,

they are connoisseurs of confession. They indulge it high and low. From the chair-tossing excess of Jerry Springer to the tearful Princess Diana admitting to an eating disorder, it's all POP ( Pain on Parade ). I suspect that Frey, knowing what he knows about the market, catered a little to well to this audience - knowing full well that they would not accept a truthful account of his addiction because it would be too boring.

And it is interesting to me that Mel begins the blog by citing Gore Vidal. Some years back I recall Vidal gave one of his annual interviews with Dick Cavett, and Vidal said something like:

The title "guest" on television talk shows is a misnomer. The so-called guest is not really the guest at all. He's merely the stooge. The actual guest is the audience and it is they who are interviewed and their opinions are solicited on the topic.

And I suppose, if I think about Phil Donahue, I see that dynamic more clearly. Oprah is more subtle in how she does it - more classy (no offense to Donahue intended), but basically she is the interlocutor for a distinctly white, bourgeois, female demographic.

Alas, in this case, she ended up looking like she could be hoodwinked ... middle America won't stand for it. They may put up with the lies from crooked politicians ... they have come to expect it, and even have some sort accommodation with political lies ... but do not believe Oprah would ever lie - not to them.

There are limits and there is a point where a line is drawn.

Oprah happens to be middle America's litmus test for that.

And Oprah-gate spins on.

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