For those outside the Washington bubble, Ben Domenech is a young conservative whom the Washington Post recently hired to write a blog for its online edition. He resigned yesterday after several publications, including Salon.com, noted that some of his past writings appeared to contain plagiarism. Domenech has offered some interesting explanations of his college writing career at William & Mary’s The Flat Hat: Read more…

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Hey P.J. O’Rourke, Maureen Dowd just said on Keith Olbermann that the entire NY Times’s newsroom was capitivated watching Oprah’s tongue lashing of James Frey today. I guess we’re not in such shoddy company after all?!

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The fact checkers at Harpo studios might be kicking themselves today. The Smoking Gun has details:

In an October 26 show entitled “The Man Who Kept Oprah Awake At Night,” Winfrey hailed [James] Frey’s graphic and coarse book as “like nothing you’ve ever read before. Everybody at Harpo is reading it. When we were staying up late at night reading it, we’d come in the next morning saying, ‘What page are you on?’” In emotional filmed testimonials, employees of Winfrey’s Harpo Productions lauded the book as revelatory, with some choking back tears. When the camera then returned to a damp-eyed Winfrey, she said, “I’m crying ’cause these are all my Harpo family so, and we all loved the book so much.” 

But a six-week investigation by The Smoking Gun reveals that there may be a lot less to love about Frey’s runaway hit, which has sold more than 3.5 million copies and, thanks to Winfrey, has sat atop The New York Times nonfiction paperback best seller list for the past 15 weeks. Next to the latest Harry Potter title, Nielsen BookScan reported Friday, Frey’s book sold more copies in the U.S. in 2005–1.77 million–than any other title, with the majority of that total coming after Winfrey’s selection.

Police reports, court records, interviews with law enforcement personnel, and other sources have put the lie to many key sections of Frey’s book. The 36-year-old author, these documents and interviews show, wholly fabricated or wildly embellished details of his purported criminal career, jail terms, and status as an outlaw “wanted in three states.”

I saw the show where Oprah announced that the book would be her next pick–yes, P.J. O’Rourke, people do admit to watching that drivel. The choice was Oprah’s triumphant return to picking contemporary books for her powerful book club. Frey’s mom–in the audience that day–was so happy. Oprah, give her a call. Cuz I bet she ain’t so happy today.

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When I say I’ve never read “War and Peace,” believe me, I mean it. But when really smart book reviewers say they haven’t read blogs, I’m a little astonished.

Re: the new book by the blogger formerly known as Wonkette, P.J. O’Rourke in his Washington Post review says:

Ana Marie Cox made her name writing a political blog, Wonkette.com. I’ve never seen it. As far as I can tell, no one has. Admitting reading political blogs is like admitting watching daytime TV. Yet somehow, as with “Oprah,” everyone knows all about Wonkette. It’s nasty, smart, quick and fun. 

P.J., I’ve seen you talk more than once at Brookings — you must see beyond the grey heads that surround you up front and notice all those fresh faces near the back of the room. We’ve all read Wonkette. And, when we were in junior high and high school, we all watched Oprah when we got home from school. That, or Ricki Lake or Press Your Luck. We had no choice. That’s what the babyboomers offered our generation for entertainment. And, P.J., remember when you wrote for Rolling Stone? The demographic that its publisher now strives for, I’m betting, reads Wonkette (at least those of us based in D.C.).

O’Rourke’s analysis goes on to illustrate more of his apparent bias toward youth: Read more…

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