Oprah Winfrey "Disappointed" By Debunked Holocaust Story

Oprah Winfrey broke her silence Friday about former guest Herman Rosenblat, saying she's "very disappointed" in his now discredited story about meeting his future wife in a Nazi concentration camp.

"That's what happens with lies," Winfrey said on an episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" that aired Friday. "They get bigger and bigger and bigger."

Rosenblat, a 79-year-old resident of North Miami Beach, Fla., and his wife Roma have appeared twice on Winfrey's show. Winfrey said he had planned to appear again to "explain himself," but the man's lawyers scuttled that.

Rosenblat's tale of a little girl throwing apples over a barbed-wire fence to him every day at a sub-camp of Buchenwald in the 1940s was endearing, Winfrey said.

"And he told that story and I was crying, everybody was crying," Winfrey said.

Winfrey noted that the couple did have an unusual story.

"They have been married for 50 years and he was, indeed, in a concentration camp and so was she," Winfrey said.

Berkley Books, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA), had planned to release Rosenblat's memoir "Angel at the Fence" in February. But after scholars, friends and family members challenged him, Rosenblat acknowledged the story was untrue and Berkley pulled the book.

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A planned feature film about Rosenblat's story still is scheduled to begin production this year, with producer Harris Salomon saying the script may note the "fabricated elements of their wartime love story."

Until Friday, Winfrey let her Web site do the talking, adding a small disclaimer that "on December 27, 2008, Herman Rosenblat admitted to fictionalizing portions of his life story, including how he met his wife." As of Friday night, Rosenblat's discredited tale remained listed on the site as the first example of "Love Lessons From Amazing Couples."

Winfrey's site also refers to another discredited guest, James Frey. In 2005, Winfrey chose Frey's "A Million Little Pieces" for her book club, but later brought him back on the show and chewed him out after he had acknowledged fabricating substantial parts of his memoir.

Gayle King, a Winfrey friend, said on her pal's show Friday that Rosenblat's story also disappointed her. But King took issue with some media outlets apparently saying Winfrey again has been deceived.

"I was very disappointed because when the story first broke, the big headline was `Oprah Duped Again,'" King said. "I called Oprah and I said, `I'm so tired of you being the whipping boy for this hoax because he didn't just dupe you _ he duped a lot of people.'"

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AP National Writer Hillel Italie in New York contributed to this report.

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On the Web: http://www.oprah.com

Comments

[connorin]

Dan Rather was disappointed too when he noticed those George W Bush documents detailing his not serving were printed on Seinfeld stationary!

[connorin]

wait'll she finds out how many of Obama's campaign promises get debunked!!!!!

[1Marie23]

Oprah has had so many mistakes in this way. She needs to get out of the business. Maybe she could get into politics now. LOL

[RoloTomassi]

I find such stories interesting; not because it upsets me, but because so many make such sweeping assumptions about authors and the validity of supposed "non-fiction."

I mean really, how many memoirs have been accepted as completely factual over the years without ever being subjected to such scrutiny? I suspect quite a few....

If you read two political tomes on economic policy--a free market fundie bible vs a call for a return to Keynesian policies--will not both be labeled NON-FICTION, POLITICAL? If left up to me I'd label the former FANTASY and the latter SELF-HELP/­NON-FICTIO­N....

When you look at this issue objectively, how far can you go with fact-checking a memoir before you get down to the level of deciding how much artistic license is acceptable? I'm a fan of the minimalist writing style, but will this trend continue to the point that creative embellishment is banned, and we require authors to write down "just the facts"? If so, memoirs will be far more boring in the future....

I'm just waiting for this sort of nitpicking to focus on authors who write under multiple pseudonyms; HOW DARE THEY DECEIVE US ABOUT WHO THEY REALLY ARE!!!

[Bystander]

Duped yet again.

[toocoldout]

Yet again? It's only about the second time in the 36 years she's worked in TV. Most major newspapers would kill for a rate that low.

[Bystander]

Yup. Duped yet again.

[adsandiego]

This is not the first time Oprah has been duped, whether it's lies about a book or her Academy ... Oprah's watchers aren't that bright anyway so she doesn't care too much about verifying facts before shedding those crocodile tears and announcing to the world that her feeling is hurt.
who gives a fu(k.

[ohioan73]

I understand Oprah's journalistic devotion to her audience and all. Nobody wants to repeat someone else's lies and lose journalistic credibility. But give the guy a break, Oprah. He's suffered enough and he's very old. Let it go.

[toocoldout]

I don't see Oprah making a big deal out of it. She simply acknowledged that it happened. It's the New Republic that devoted all their resources to debunking this story in the first place. I wish the media would put that kind of journalistic effort into exposing lies that actually matter.

[laheek]

This si an other example of poor journalism ! Who cares about her disappointing? Who does she believe she is beside a supporter of Obama

[pinkyboo]

I do not know why these authors have to lie and say that their story is a "true life" story.

The story itself can be fiction and still be successful if it is well crafted.

[raptor]

I think there should be a law requiring all photos of Oprah to be datestamped.

[NuAgeDok]

If Oprah is going to continue to trot these fakirs out in front of the audience as grist for the ratings mill it is her responsibility to vet these stories and send the liars packing. If her staff can't do then she needs to get involved otherwise her street cred will continue to be diminished.

[darkday]

Everyone in media makes mistakes. The NY Times published all those fake stories by Jason Blair & that fake letter by the mayor of Paris. The New Republic published fake stories by Stephen Glass. CNN had that fake questioner about gays at the republican debate and fake photos of Sarah Palin. Barabara Streisand quoted a fake Shakespeare at a fundraising event. Oprah's been on TV since she was 19 and this is only about the second time she's pushed a fake story & the last time she gave the author a good public spanking. I give her a pass on this one because she did confirm that the man was an actual holocaust survivor so he deserved to be given the benefit of the doubt.

[pickwickianmom]

Good comment.

[NuAgeDok]

Two words - truth and journalism; you either have both or you might as well sell pulp fiction. Come to think of it - maybe Oprah should stick to selling books with her endorsements rather than trying to pawn off real life drama as truth on her viewers.

It is apologists like you two who made it possible for second rate journalists like Judith Miller of the NYT to publish her bogus stories . . .

Remember Judith Miller’s series of exclusives about weapons of mass destruction?

Were those mistakes? Would it have cost too much to vet Miller's BS journalism.

I think not!

[trisha08]

They cannot do a complete background check on every guest. There isn't the time or money.

It would takes months and millions of dollars to research every guest to that degree. Plus, some things are difficult to verify. I am sure that every Hollywood star that is on ANY talk show lies, yet you can't send out a PI on every guest. Like, Jennifer Aniston who says she stays so thin because of yoga. Does anyone believe that is true?

They are not "vetting" someone for the Oval Office. At some point, they have to just trust that the stories are true.

[tomas0808]

My memoir includes documentation to verify everything I claim to be true. Police reports, medical records, newspaper articles. Memoirs are so subject to spin, or simply the perceptions of the author that some degree of documentation should be required. Unfortunately, there have been so many bogus memoirs that if they are gonna make the claim that what happened in the book is true they need to have something to back it up.

If it's something like the Rosenblatt story, something that happened a long time ago and documentation can't be found, the make it fiction. Subjective truth can be just as powerful as objective truth. If you're not a good enough writer to do that that keep working on it until it is.

[GatoPreto]

What's outrageous here is the lying about the Holocaust, not that Oprah got fooled.

[toocoldout]

I wonder if she really did get fooled. Her and her producers may have doubted the story but it fit in so perfectly with the theme of her show that they may have decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, figuring that the media would never challenge a holocaust survivor. Also Oprah loves to celebrate Holocaust survivors on her show because it's good PR with the elite media.

[rekk]

Absolutely agreed. She'll go for any sad-sap story. She just can't get enough of those victims. Remember the recovered drug addict?
This reminds me of a book I heard about (and people help me out if you know what I'm talking about). After many rejections of his literary novels, this guy finally wised up and realized that the publishing industry has no interest in art, literature or culture, only salacious stories of victimization and the bursting from the ashes bootstrap stories... How heart-warming. Oprah is as much a cause of this and not because she didn't check this dudes backgrounds but because she condones a culture of woe is me, not my fault kind of syrupy sweet heroics that you'll find in all the memoirs she promotes. I'm starting to think that I should write one myself, make some easy money

[JakeHanson]

I wonder how she is taking the news about the peanut butter recall...

[pickwickianmom]

She has done shows on food safety (remember that she was sued by the beef industry) and on the ethical treatment of farm animals.

[robjh1]

Fool me once shame on me (A Million Little Pieces by James Frey). Fool me twice (Angel At the Fence Herman Rosenblat) shame on me.

[toocoldout]

Fooled only twice in 23 years about matters of no significance. That's a pretty good track record. And the last time it happened she fooled the author into coming back on her show for a good public flogging. This time she doesn't need to because she never promoted the book.