Posted on 09/10/2004 9:40:59 PM PDT by ETERNAL WARMING
Friday, Sept. 10, 2004 3:30 p.m. EDT Kitty Kelley Bush-Bashing Book Publisher Seeks Damages From Newsweek
NEW YORK – The publisher of Kitty Kelley's controversial new biography of the Bush family has accused Newsweek of allegedly violating a pre-publication agreement and said the magazine owed "substantial damages."
"We demand public acknowledgment and additional remedies," Stephen Rubin, president and publisher of the Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group, said Thursday. Rubin declined to say how much money Doubleday was seeking and whether the publisher would sue.
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Newsweek spokeswoman Rosanna Maietta said Thursday that the magazine had no comment. Kelley's "The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty" comes out next Tuesday.
A letter sent this week to Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker cited a signed confidentiality agreement reached in August in which the magazine promised not to disclose details of the book before publication. Newsweek was to receive an early copy.
According to the letter, Newsweek violated the terms when correspondent Howard Fineman appeared on Don Imus' radio show Tuesday and "disparaged" the book, saying the magazine would not publish excerpts because of questions about Kelley's reporting.
The letter also noted a Washington Post report that Newsweek had decided not to run an advance story on "The Family," citing similar concerns. The magazine had allegedly promised such an article.
"In reliance upon such representations, Doubleday turned down an offer from Newsweek's major competitor (Time) to publish a news story," reads the letter from Katherine Trager, general counsel for Random House, Inc., of which Doubleday is a division. "This flagrant disregard of basic principles governing the prepublication review of books is unprecedented" and entitles Doubleday and Kelley to "substantial damages."
Kelley's book already has reached the top 10 on Amazon.com and Barnes&Noble.com amid reports, and denials, of cocaine use by President Bush. The initial printing of 600,000 has been increased twice, to 722,500.
"I would say yes, the controversy has increased interest in her book," Rubin said.
Kelley, 62, is known for writing gossipy best sellers on Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra and Nancy Reagan, whom she alleged had an affair with Sinatra while she was first lady.
Reports emerged earlier this week that Kelley's new book includes an allegation that George W. Bush used cocaine at Camp David while his father was president.
A White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, has said the book is "filled with garbage." Sharon Bush, former wife of the current president's brother Neil Bush, was cited by Kelley as the source for the cocaine story. Sharon Bush denies ever making such an allegation.
"The one time I met with Kitty Kelley in person, she mentioned drug use at Camp David. I responded by saying something along the lines of 'Who would say such a thing?'" Sharon Bush said in a statement released Tuesday by her Houston attorney, David Berg.
"Although there have been tensions between me and various members of the Bush family, I abhor the inaccuracies. I can only repeat that I never said what Miss Kelley has written I said, and I never saw the activities that she describes."
Doubleday released a statement Wednesday saying that the publisher "stands fully behind the accuracy of Ms. Kelley's reporting, and believes that everything she attributes to Sharon Bush in her book is an accurate account of their discussions."
The best defense. . .
Kitty you better shut your aging piehole listen Newsweek is run by Wash POst and other media companies they are answer to shareholder
OHH I hope Freepers dig up some serious dirt on Kitty OH YEAH
COME ON GUYS YOU NAIL Dan Rather
Nail that aging b***h
Kerry tanking, Rathergate, Terayza's big mouth, Edwards's total lack of gravity, dems blaming dems for the coming failure of Kerry, and now this....
We need some pics of massive car/train crashes to illustrate this comeplete and total WRECKING of the left.
MacAuliffe has presided over loss of governorships, loss of state legislatures, the Presidency, and both houses of congress. An amazing legacy.
And now the publishers of a Bush-bashing book are squabbling with the publishers of a Bush-bashing magazine.
We live in interesting times.
"honor among thieves" thing.What do they expect in the world they make.Hey, just pay the lawyers and snakes up front and get it taken care of.
how many ankles does the left have to chew through to rid themselves of these bear traps?
Having knawed through many innocent and respectable they finally get to their own. Saltblock on the way.
Its a good time when your enemies fight each other,
Newsweak vs. the slimy Kitty
Dan Rather vs. the rest of the MSM
now if CBS takes out their rage on the Kerry campaign and the DNC it will be a very, very, very, good week
Boy, such a over the top, top of the heap wanna be reporter's honest to God, top of the line Bush reporting, we all plebiscites should take heave and obey!
Can I barf now?...I can not believe, that now a days, given the alternate media, we should be forced to listen/read to the nonsense es pose by such narrow minded so called reporters, like "Kelly".
Kitty Kelly (I presume you are a female based on the name sound;), what are your credentials making you a thrust worthy journalist(i know you guys like to be called that, except, now a days unfeathered journalistic integrity is almost nonexistent) on reporting anything about GWB, free of bias.
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