Did Oprah Winfrey know James Frey was a fraud before she put him on television? The NYTimes has the scoop:

[M]ore than three months before questions were raised about Mr. Frey’s memoir by the Smoking Gun Web site (www.thesmokinggun.com) — before, in fact, Ms. Winfrey first had Mr. Frey as a guest on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” — producers at the program were told by a former counselor at the foundation that runs the Minnesota treatment center reportedly used by Mr. Frey that his portrayal of his experience there grossly distorted reality.

Why is Frey’s book still considered non-fiction?

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A million little plaintiffs
Oprah’s con man