FTBITTTU: More Questions Oprah Didn't Ask

Richard Bradley is exactly right in suggesting that James Frey is not alone in the blame department. Why wasn't his agent on Oprah? This is the one person who could back up - or shoot down - Frey's claim that his manuscript was originally marketed as a novel, then re-marketed as a memoir when the manuscript was evidently rejected because it wasn't real enough. "Dear whatever editor," the submission letter must have said. "It is with great pleasure that I'm submitting the enclosed novel, strike that, memoir/prose poem/extended limerick or you tell me for your consideration."
Bradley is also right when he says that Oprah should have asked Nan Talese whether she did or did not tell Frey she would publish his novel as a memoir. Oprah should also have asked the following: "Why couldn't you have bought this as a novel? What do publishers mean when they say fiction doesn't sell? Why must a novelist sell as many copies of his/her book as a writer of memoirs or nonfiction? And why does the publishing industry cater to the perception that for a book to work, a writer must actually be the character(s) he or she writes about?"
In the current sanctimonious climate, Melville would be asked to publish "Moby Dick" as a memoir because he once went whaling. Then he'd have to change "Ismael" to "Herman," at which point he'd be denounced as a fraud because he never really knew anyone named Queequeg. The only thing Hunter Thompson would fear and loathe is another rejection slip. Even Norman Mailer would have trouble publishing some of his work - he coined the term "faction" to describe writing that walked the line between fact and fiction. And fuhgeddabout Truman Capote. After all, he's the guy who invented scenes in "In Cold Blood"! (No doubt, some of the same people who are ashamed of themselves for promoting Frey have no problem when it comes to Capote - and would have been pissed off if they hadn't been invited to early screenings of the eponymous movie).
Does this mean Frey should get a pass? No. He's still an addict and his mother is his chief enabler. Instead of saying, "We love you, Oprah," on "Larry King," she should have said, "Young man, march right over to that camera and apologize on national television." And what of everyone else? Instead of casting Frey as some sort of Abu Ghraib-like loose cannon, his publisher and agent should explain their role in this mischagas. But until that happens, well, to paraphrase the tattoo on Frey's arm - "Fuck the bullshit, it's time to throw up."