Posted on 03/03/2005 11:49:09 PM PST by Loopy Picklefink
Wanted to get fellow FReeper's opinions on what I saw at our local B&N...
We all know Barnes & Noble and Borders tend to lean to the left, and we saw this especially in regards to Unfit For Command last year. I could never have imagined, however, one of these bookstores would be as blatant about their politics as our local Barnes & Noble was.
They have a small shelf of recommended books called "Our Staff Recommends." They usually have some popular and some not-so-popular books up there. They've had liberal and conservative books up there occasionally as well, no harm in that. Recently, however, under each of these books, they add a note that says "Recommended by Staff Member: xxxx" and lets them write the reason why. The non political books get sayings such as "Great book, I've read it 5 times!", that sort of thing.
Right now, they recommend the book "Sorry Everybody!" (I didn't even know they made a book out of that stupid website!).
Read the note found under this book: 
Then we come to Christine Todd Whitman's book, It's My Party Too. 
You won't believe the note under it: 
(in case you can't read it clearly, it says "It's nice to know not all Republicans have sold their souls to the devil.")
They recommend one conservative book "Do Gooders", you can see next to Whitman's book in the picture above. The note under this book said "A good read...even for liberals." Compare that to the comment above made about Republicans!
What do you guys think of this? I guess it's not that shocking since we already suspected such out of B&N. I know it's their recommendation section so they can recommend whatever they want, but you would think the above comment would not be allowed on store shelves. Should anything be done about it, phone calls/email, etc., or is it not that big of a deal? Your opinions are welcome.
I don't know to be honest.
I would send the pictures and a letter to "the editor" of one (or more) of our conservative newspapers. Maybe they will publish it. :)
I like the sign "Sorry World, we tried ---- half of America"
The truth is "Sorry World, we lied and lied ---- less than half of America.
One employee constitutes a left-leaning bias?
It's a store... their bias is towards sales.
no, but the store itself is allowing the comments to stay up. I'm sure it turns some people off, which doesn't exactly help sales (but in the long run, will probably not be enough to matter)
Would that be free trade, free market, or capitalism?
hmmmm.... (small cap, there).
But they also have Mona Charen's unmistakably Liberal-bashing book in the same display - clearly the left-leaning bias is not complete.
Well, both recommendations are from the same guy. I wonder if the managers even look at them beforehand--probably not.
I'm not going to stop shopping at B&N because one employee at another location is an idiot.
;-)
It is a pleasant surprise that Mona Charen made the cut. Charen's excellent bestseller Useful Idiots was way better than Ann Coulter's red meat Treason, but Ann sucks all the attention every time she speaks.
I guess "Xander" is entitled to his/her own opinion, but if I was a bigwig at B&N, I wouldn't want to alienate Republicans so bluntly.
The DNC and Mr. Dean still don't understand why they were so completely defeated do they?? Kerry doesn't either, though deep down I think Mrs. Heinz (where is she) understands!!
don't forget how sorry the Afghani citizens aren't.
Big deal. It's one employee, expressing his opinion.
You're absolutley right. Thank you for reminding me.
I get caught up in my own periphery sometimes. :-)
I still shop there, I usually try to find good books as gifts for the kids in the family. Funny thing is to watch the Redneck alarm spread around the store, and it makes no difference how I dress on any day, My appearance seems to threaten them. I can usually spot them, as well, something about the "vibes".
That's O.K., We are raising Our Kids, and They are killing Theirs! Two distinct subspecies? Sometimes I think so.
i stopped buying books from barnes and noble years ago.
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