Friday Download

Slate writes about author James Frey's "I'm Sorry" on the Oprah show yesterday. Oprah had featured his memoir of redemption from drug addiction and other bad stuff, "A Million Little Pieces,"..."which, as you may have heard, is full of crap." Slate says the apology had more to do with Oprah than Frey.

More Oprah...WashPost media writer Howard Kurtz talks about pundits - Maureen Dowd - contrasting Oprah's cleansing moment with the president and WMDs. "From a small-time hustler's fictitious book to fictitious WMD--well, I guess it was inevitable," writes Kurtz.

Buddy Scott emails me an alarming news story about potential evilness (gotta pronounce it "eee-vill") of Elmo. Apparently a potty training book featuring the red furry muppet has him saying at one point, "Who wants to die?"...yikes. Perhaps Evil Bert got to him. Further checking Scott's blog, he also has a report on jellyfish the size of sumo wrestlers.

Local outrage, as Drudge might headline it, as the AP reports on the death of a 3-month-old girl up the road from us. Chris Johnson, 26, faces a manslaughter charge after he was found "intoxicated and asleep in a recliner atop the girl's body." Where were the parents before they found him? Why was a 3-month-old left in a recliner? Sad, sad, sad and frustrating.