Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Fakery in four easy lessons, or: Could I get that with a side of Freys?

1) The heartwarming tale of a Margaret B. Jones, a young woman who escaped the mean streets of L.A.

2) Um, not so fast.

3) Signs that Margaret Jones' Seltzer's story should have been vetted a bit more closely. Seriously, that sounds like a transcript of a satirical skit.

4) Meanwhile...

I suppose I ought to tell you at this point that I'm not really the king of Liechtenstein.


UPDATE: If you're interested in the topic, this New York Times op-ed piece, "Stolen Suffering," is worth a read.

7 comments:

Posol'stvo the Medved said...

But this deed to the Brooklyn Bridge you sold me is still good, right?

Jim Donahue said...

No worries there. Are you in the market for more bridges? There's a nice one in San Francisco I'm trying to unload.

Jim Donahue said...

Oh, c'mon, people, you've gotta give it up for the "side of Freys." I was so proud of that!

Posol'stvo the Medved said...

Jim -- the Freys thing was good, but a little obscure. That was like two years ago, and you live in Amreeka, where we're lucky to remember anything that happened last week. Unless it was something to do with Suri Cruise or Brittney Spears...

By the way, in re-reading the referenced articles, I caught this little gem:

"Ms. Seltzer’s older sister, Cyndi Hoffman, saw the article and called Riverhead to tell editors that Ms. Seltzer’s story was untrue."

I would pay big money to be at Seltzr/Hoffman family Thanksgiving table this year...

Anonymous said...

I liked the "side of Freys" thing--and I got it right away!

I don't understand why they wouldn't run a basic fact-check on these folks w/ their memoirs.

Yeah, I bet that would be a fun family dinner, wouldn't it?

Jim Donahue said...

Pos--Oh, I'd buy tickets for that turkey dinner.

Toots--I asked a friend who's a literary agent about fact-checking, and she says book publishers just don't do it. Yes, even post-Frey. I find that amazing. Even a moderately intensive Google search could have undone this one.

TootsNYC said...

I can understand not fact-checking the whole book.

But it seems that fact-checking just who is the author, and some of his bio info, would be enough.

Frey might have slipped past that sort of a check, since he WAS an addict, and DID spend time at that clinic.

But you would think, post-Frey, that they'd run a 45-minute check!