The New York Times has a transcript of today’s Oprah Winfrey show, on James Frey, which featured James Frey as a guest.
[WINFREY:] I feel about “A Million Little Pieces” that, although some of the facts have been questioned, and people have a right to question, because we live in a country that lets you do that, that the underlying message of redemption in James Frey’s memoir still resonates with me and I know that it resonates with millions of other people. And I rely on the publishers to define the category that a book falls within and also the authenticity of the work.
I regret that phone call. I made a mistake and I left the impression that the truth does not matter. And I am deeply sorry about that, because that is not what I believe. I called in because I love the message of this book and–at the time, and every day I was reading e-mail after e-mail from so many people who have been inspired by it. And I have to say that I allowed that to cloud my judgment. And so to everyone who has challenged me on this issue of truth, you are absolutely right.
This whole upsetting controversy has left me with a lot of questions for James Frey, who is here today. . .
WINFREY: So we are live in Chicago, and we need to get right to it. James Frey is here.
And I have to say it is–it is difficult for me to talk to you, because I really feel duped. I feel duped. But more importantly, I feel that you betrayed millions of readers. And I think, you know, it’s such a gift to have millions of people to read your work, and that bothers me greatly. And so now as I sit here today, I–I don’t know what is truth and I don’t know what isn’t. So first of all, I wanted to start with–with The Smoking Gun report titled “The Man Who Conned Oprah.” And I want to know, were they right?Mr. FREY: I think most of what they wrote was pretty accurate, absolutely. I think they did a good job detailing some of the discrepancies between some of the actual facts of the events…
Her website is set to have clips, but does not as of yet.