Conservatives Cry Foul in Publishing Scrum

[Khephra]

These should be heady days for conservative authors. "Unfit for Command," an unflattering appraisal of Senator John Kerry's service in Vietnam, is the fastest-selling book in the country. Ronald Kessler's sympathetic behind-the-scenes account of the Bush White House, "A Matter of Character," also graces the national best-seller lists.

Sean Hannity, Michael Savage and Dick Morris, conservatives all, have produced some of this year's most popular books. Big publishing houses are practically falling over themselves to bring new conservative titles to market. President Bush is moving up in the polls, and the Republicans have at least an even chance of holding on to control of the House and the Senate come November.

So why are conservative authors feeling so beleaguered?

At a forum in Manhattan this week sponsored by American Compass, a direct-mail book club specializing in conservative viewpoints, authors and commentators deplored the lack of attention being paid to their point of view. Alleging a sort of liberal conspiracy to keep conservative authors from getting their books to the reading public, conservative authors said they had been forced to turn to scrappy, little-known alternative publishers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/02/books/02book.html

[colonel odis]

1. righties are the bunch of whiny tails EVER!!

they're that kid in your second grade class who bitched and moaned and cried to the teacher if he didn't get his way. everything was somebody else's fault. whaaaa whaaaa whaaaa.....

[Tempest]

2. Stupid Repugs get caught lying again

From the article:

Since the beginning of the Bush administration, 18 of the 30 best-selling political hardcover books - among them "The O'Reilly Factor" by Bill O'Reilly, "Treason" by Ann Coulter and "Let Freedom Ring" by Mr. Hannity - have promoted conservative themes.

Ten of those 18 books were brought to market by divisions of big publishing houses, including Broadway Books and Crown, imprints of Random House; Warner Books, part of Time Warner; and ReganBooks, a division of HarperCollins, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and which has published, among other conservative authors, Mr. Thomas.

[Cobalt Violet]

3. They won't be happy so long as any liberal word...

EVER get out! It doesn't matter if it is 100 cons to 1 liberal; they will still be whinning that they aren't being heard.

[underpants]

4. WOW! Brent Bozell has detected some bias

"There has been a bias," said L. Brent Bozell III, a commentator and syndicated columnist, whose new book, "Weapons of Mass Distortion: The Coming Meltdown of the Liberal Media," was published in July by Crown Forum, a new imprint of Random House geared toward conservative readers.

[brook]

5. Someone needs to tell 'em...

that consumers have to want what you're selling. Personally, I buy my manure at my local farm store.

[silverweb]

6. Pathetic.

It's call "free market," guys. Your dream. Deal with it.

:eyes:

[Khephra]

8. That's exactly what they used to say when we didn't have

any books or media in our corner. Now that we do, of course the rules have changed. Now the Right is trying to play the underdog again. Not gonna work this time. They still hold most of the cards.

[Fovea]

9. An important thought, lost to the Repugs

You can top from the bottom and it is believable.

But you cannot bottom from the top. No matter how good a Paul Robeson impression Karl Rove does...

[truthisfreedom]

7. if they'd stop trying to publish furnace fodder, maybe they could find

decent publishers.

[msmcghee]

10. This quote from the story reveals a lot . .

The idea, said John Podhoretz, the author of "Bush Country: How Dubya Became a Great President While Driving Liberals Insane," published in February by St. Martin's Press, "is to introduce ideas into the general discussion for people who are hungry for them, readers who need argumentation because they go out to their water cooler and they have a discussion and they want to have material to buttress their own positions.


People believe what feels good to them . . then they use their brains to justify it.

The more emotionally attached someone is to a particular world-view the more this applies. Views that feel really good, that satisfy inner needs - like conservative ideology does for the right - is the least likely to be have any logical foundation.

That's why you'll never see someone like Zell Miller giving a keynote address at a Democratic convention. I know he did just that several years ago - but that was before his mind became so thoroughly infected with the kind of ideological fervor that comes from the right.

[struggle4progress]

11. They stop believing in the market when nobody buys their sh*t. eom