Risky Business

"For me, at least, what is true is that once in a while as a journalist you get the chance to witness history, a moment when tectonic plates shift, when more is at stake than you ever imagined you would touch or see. It's the adrenaline surge of being in a place where people's lives are in the balance, where every decision counts and where what you're writing might, might just matter. And you feel more alive than you've ever felt -- but you're also often closer to being killed. You notice I wrote 'often.' I needed a qualifier."

On a lighter note: If there's been a more scintillating hour of television lately than Oprah's evisceration of herself and her lyin', cheatin' author, it doesn't immediately spring to mind.

I was in New York much of last week, profiling ABC's new anchor team (I'm deducting points if you missed it), but got back just in time to watch Ms. O own up to one of her biggest blunders.

My sources say the assembled journalists didn't know that Winfrey was planning to body-slam the literary giant she had all but created, or to issue a heartfelt apology for having defended the fiction artist, and that they were as amazed as anyone by what unfolded in that Chicago studio.

I guess Oprah didn't transform herself from a trashy talk show host to a megacorporation and magazine publisher with the power to create instant best-sellers without having an exquisite sense of showmanship. Plus, her own story followed the arc of hubris, crisis, disappointment and redemption that has been such a daytime talk staple.

Rob Spillman exclaims on the Huffington Post:

"A public figure admitting they made a mistake? Stunning. On her show, Oprah flat out said that she was wrong about James Frey and that the truth does matter. For an hour she dragged Frey over the coals for lying to her and a million plus others who not only believed 'the essential truth' of his memoir, but the literal truth about his fight against addiction. Frey gets credit for going on the show to take his medicine like a man, though still doesn't seem to quite get it, what with his meek mumbling about learning from his mistakes."

The politically charged headline: "Oprah Apologizes; Why Can't W?"

Boston Phoenix media man Mark Jurkowitz is less than overwhelmed:

"I had to choke back the gag reflex watching clips of her carefully choreographed performance. To me, it felt like the secular version of some kind of overwrought televangelism morality play. I think Oprah's amassed too much power and influence for everyone's sake."

Jeff Jarvis remembers Oprah's roots:

"Well, I'm glad that Oprah has been brought down a few notches . . . by Oprah. I don't know who anointed Oprah the arbiter of culture, ethics, and behavior in America. Well, actually, I do know who did that: Oprah. So now she had to confess her mistake anointing James Frey. But in typical Oprah fashion, she didn't really take the fall herself. She pilloried Frey in the process. We already knew he was a liar of Glassian/Blairian proportion. But what this was about was really whether we can trust Oprah. That's what her empire is built upon.