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Memoirist admits Smoking Gun caught him lying

Jon Skillings Editorial director
Jon Skillings is an editorial director at CNET, where he's worked since 2000. A born browser of dictionaries, he honed his language skills as a US Army linguist (Polish and German) before diving into editing for tech publications -- including at PC Week and the IDG News Service -- back when the web was just getting under way, and even a little before. For CNET, he's written on topics from GPS, AI and 5G to James Bond, aircraft, astronauts, brass instruments and music streaming services.
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  • 30 years experience at tech and consumer publications, print and online. Five years in the US Army as a translator (German and Polish).
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Jon Skillings

The investigative Web site The Smoking Gun earlier this month reported extensively on falsehoods in the best-selling memoir "A Million Little Pieces." On Thursday, "Pieces" author James Frey confirmed that Smoking Gun was right.

"I think most of what they wrote was pretty accurate, absolutely," Frey said of the Smoking Gun report.

The occasion for Frey's admission was his latest appearance on Oprah Winfrey's talk show. Where Winfrey had earlier lionized Frey and his book--and even defended his fabrications--on Thursday she was taking the author and his publisher severely to task.

She was no less tough on herself, saying she was wrong to have called CNN's "Larry King Live" show in support of Frey. "To everyone who has challenged me on this issue of truth, you are absolutely right," she said.

"A Million Little Pieces" portrays a rocky period in Frey's life, involving alcohol and drug abuse, run-ins with police, and stays in rehab. A six-week investigation by The Smoking Gun, however, found the book riddled with inaccuracies and exaggerations, such as Frey's claim that in 1992 he ran down a cop with his car.