"ABC2 News:Good Morning Maryland" was the site of a lively exchange between former WJZ host Richard Sher and Kitty Kelley, author of "Oprah," a new biography on Oprah Winfrey.
Sher, who was co-host with Winfrey of a Baltimore talk show early in her career, said he was there to set the record the straight on some of what Kelley wrote about Winfrey's Baltimore years in her new book.
Sher did challenge the controversial biographer on a couple of points at the start of their session, but by the end, it was mostly TV-kissy-kissy, let's-be-friends chatter. Still, there were a couple of moments when things got interesting.
Sher's major challenge was to an anecdote in the book involving a Winfrey interview of the late Frank Perdue, of Perdue chicken fame.
According to the book, Oprah asked Perdue if people ever told him that he "looked like a chicken."
And here's how Sher described what Perdue is quoted as saying in the book versus what he actually said:
Kelley said she had four sources for the version in the book, but there is no videotape. Sher said four sources doesn't mean a thing, because it has become a kind of TV myth, and that probably half of the people in Baltimore think they saw it live. But it did not happen that way, because he was sitting next to her at the time and is here to bear true witness.
Sher also made a point about Oprah losing her hair when she was in Baltimore. He said it was because an executive at the station sent her to New York for a makeover, and the chemicals they used caused her hair to fall out.
I don't think Sher did much damage to Kelley, but he did stick up for historical accuracy. And good for the WMAR morning show folks who brought Sher in the make a segment that could have been just another author hustling a book into a lively and informative discussion of standards of truth in biographical writing.
Here's a link to WMAR's coverage.