Friday 13 January 2006

Breaking News!
Embattled Author Frey Gets DOD Contract

Will Work With Lincoln Group, Splitting Time Between Iraq Propaganda and Bushapalooza

The White House confirmed this morning that embattled author James Frey has been contracted by the Department of Defense and will join with the Lincoln Group, working on writing pro-U.S. articles for insertion in Iraqi media.

It was also disclosed that Frey will join apply his talents to the Bushapalooza: Strategy For A Scandal planned by the White House.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld met with Frey, who has had a whirl-winded week, defending himself against charges that he fabricated portions of his 2005 bestselling memoir, "A Million Little Pieces".

"A Million Little Pieces", Frey's story of addiction and recovery, was the second highest selling book last year, sitting only behind Harry Potter, and was endorsed by the infamous and very influential Oprah Winfrey Book Club.

Frey has been at the center of controversy, after The Smoking Gun, an investigative Web site, conducted a six-week look into Frey's book, and his accounts of arrests, and other events stated by Frey in the memoir. The Smoking Gun disputed Frey's accounts and could not confirm the information that Frey writes what happened.

In an appearance Wednesday evening, on CNN's 'Larry King Live", Frey defended his work.

"I've acknowledged that I changed things," Frey told King. He continued, saying that the events he changed totaled less than 5 percent of the book's content, and were "within the realm of what's appropriate for a memoir."

Sources close to the White House say it was the "Larry King" appearance that brought Frey to the attention of staffers.

"They have teams of people," said the administrative aid, "that do nothing but watch he cable news show, looking for liberal bias, people criticizing the President, Vice President, the policies. Reports go to Rove, Card and the GOP for follow-up, attacks, smear campaigns, and all that. This guy stuck out, apparently."

Frey was flown into the Capital on Thursday, to meet with Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, and others in the DOD. White House Chief of Staff Andy Card was also present in the meeting.

Rumsfeld was, reportedly, "impressed with his ease of skewing facts, and embellishing accounts" and offered Frey the contract to help write the propaganda for the Iraqi Media program.

Card was equally awed with Frey and worked it out with Rumsfeld to pull Frey into the Bushapalooza tour.

Unconfirmed is that Card had Frey sit with Special Counsel Karl Rove. To test Frey, Rove tossed out new smears, on Congressman Jack Murtha, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, Senator Edward Kennedy and others and Frey went "step-for-step" with Rove.

"He even hit a few out of the park." according to sources. "We're not sure Rove liked that."

Both the Department of Defense and the White House had to secure rights from Frey's publisher, Doubleday, and that secondary publishing rights to Frey's writing for the DOD and Bushapalooza, go to Doubleday, once they are declassified.

What sealed the deal, according to the source, was a surprise telephone call to President Bush, from media mogul and talk show host Oprah Winfrey, and who advised the President that Frey can be "inspirational".

"He can be as inspirational as he wants on this job," said the source. "It's the type of work, the more he can embellish, the more he can make up, the better. He'll be working with people that, well, that's all they do."

The White House would not comment if Frey will be writing any of the President's upcoming State of the Union Address.














After seeing him on "Larry King Live", Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld snapped up embattled author James Frey, for the DOD's Iraq Propaganda program.