Armstrong on Oprah

The Herald reports:

Will he admit to doping? That’s the big question being ahead of Lance Armstrong’s pre-recorded interview with Oprah Winfrey which is set to air in the United States next week.

The talk show diva’s network claims no question will be off-limits when the disgraced cyclist sits down for his first interview since being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles.

Others are not so sure.

“Armstrong has no editorial control and no question is off-limits,” Nicole Nichols of Winfrey’s OWN cable TV network told AFP in an email, adding Armstrong is getting no payment for the interview.

Nichols also said the 90-minute interview at Armstrong’s home in Austin, Texas – to be aired on January 17 on the OWN network and online worldwide – “is not live”.

Former cyclist David Millar, a member of the athletes commission for the World Anti-Doping Agency, however expects it will be “completely stage-managed”.

Of course. He will break down in tears and talk of how everyone was doing it. How at first he won his titles without drugs, but then realized the only way he could compete was to join the others who forced him into it.

It remains to be seen if Oprah will be a “sympathetic” interviewer or if she turns on him like she did with James Frey. Armstrong has arguably lied for longer and to more people than Frey did.