I was reading a news story today about Oprah Winfrey’s reaction to the partially-debunked story of a Holocaust survivor who had appeared on her show.

What annoyed me was this defense of Oprah from her close friend Gayle King:

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.’”

Yes, I suppose it is correct that a lot of people were taken in by this guy — but I think that, from a news standpoint, the fact that Oprah was taken in is still newsworthy. The fact that she was taken in is in some ways more newsworthy than the fact that some book editor was taken in. To report this is not making her a “whipping boy.” Oprah is a special case — the ultimate special case. She can turn a book into an automatic best-seller. She can turn Dr. Phil or Rachael Ray (or Gayle King!) into a household name. She has a great deal of power as an opinion leader, and a great deal of responsibility comes with that. I’m not saying that she or her organization should be blamed for falling for this story — it could happen to anyone — but the fact that they fell for it is still a major news story, especially falling on the heels of the James Frey incident.