Every election season brings promises that accountability will be restored to Washington or Augusta or your local town office. The promises make two assumptions – that humans, faulty creatures that they are, will make mistakes and that owning up to those mistakes produces a better nation, state or town. Voters like it too. Oprah Winfrey this week showed why.

Ms. Winfrey is famous for a lot of reasons but most recently for defending James Frey, author of the book, “A Million Little Pieces,” which she had endorsed by having him on her show and including his work in her book club. “A Million Little Pieces” tells the hard-luck story of Mr. Frey’s life, the drug and alcohol abuse, rehab and prison, death of a girlfriend and general mayhem. Only, as everyone now knows, it doesn’t really.

The scrupulous work of the Web site The Smoking Gun found that much of what Mr. Frey claimed as true was exaggerated or fabricated – jail time of a few hours, for instance, turned into months in the book. On its own, some guy lying about his past to impress others isn’t exactly news, even if he does it between book covers. But Mr. Frey’s book and a subsequent one were best-sellers, so money was at stake, and so was Ms. Winfrey’s reputation.

She initially defended Mr. Frey in a phone call as he explained himself on “Larry King Live.” But Thursday, Ms. Winfrey brought her guest back on her show (imagine the behind-the-scenes conversations beforehand), told him she felt duped and demanded answers from him and his publisher.

She also admitted she was wrong to make that phone call and she apologized. Then she forced those who misled the public to admit their errors. Yes, it was a bit dramatic at times, a bit uncomfortable. And no doubt that wasn’t the whole story of the book or Ms. Winfrey’s endorsement of it. But by the end, there was a sense that the issue had been explicated and the mistakes acknowledged.

The audience, of course, applauded. Error, denial, acceptance, repentance, forgiveness. The only one you can skip is denial. The Oprah standard could save politicians from falling polls and drooping support.