Posted on 07/12/2003 1:36:19 AM PDT by DPB101
My father has never been a big reader, but lately, a curious thing has been going on: He's been asking for books.
First, he was desperate for Bias, Bernard Goldberg's report on left-wing bias in the media. Then, Ann Coulter's Slander and Bill O'Reilly's No Spin Zone. And as if these right-tilting texts weren't enough, it seems he's just heard that Coulter's new book, Treason, is out - and you guessed it, he wants that, too.
As books editor, I suppose I should be happy he's finally sharing the joys of my profession.
But as a liberal-minded person, I can't lie. His new habit is nearly as unsettling to me as the fact that George W. Bush won the last election by a few dangling chads. Couldn't the man just take up Harry Potter like everyone else?
Actually, my father isn't the only one clamoring for right-wing reading material. It's impossible to ignore the fact that something new is in the wind.
In the coming months, it seems we'll be seeing as many conservative faces on book jackets as there are Mercedes SUVs at a Republican fund-raiser.
Recently, Crown and Penguin Putnam announced the formation of imprints devoted to conservative authors. The Book-of-the-Month Club has reportedly followed suit, with the founding of an as-yet-unnamed club that will focus on conservative viewpoints.
In the next two years, Crown Forum plans to release titles from the likes of Michael Medved, Robert Novak, Bill Gertz, Norman Podhoretz, Tammy Bruce and Linda Chavez. Its Penguin counterpart has just signed syndicated columnist Mona Charen, with more to come.
Both aim to eventually release 15 titles a year, all of which should have the editors at Regnery, one of the main publishers of conservative viewpoints, wondering just what's so great about a free market, after all.
What's behind this sudden publishing turn to the right?
Ironically, politics has little to do with it. With books like Coulter's, Goldberg's and O'Reilly's enjoying recent rides on the New York Times best seller list, even a left-leaning publisher can smell good old-fashioned nonpartisan profit.
"I think, at this point, you don't have to spend a six-figure marketing research budget to realize that 50 percent of the population is conservative in one viewpoint or another, if not fully conservative," says Steve Ross, senior vice president and publisher of Crown Forum and other Crown imprints, "and yet in the past 15 years, no major trade houses have been publishing books for them."
"Half the country voted conservative," adds Bernadette Malone, editor of Penguin's new imprint. "I'm sure there's a tremendous opportunity for Penguin to serve that market."
While conservative books have always made it on publishers' lists here and there, such focused effort is a new development. Penguin plans "political books, memoirs, maybe an intellectual book," Malone says. "I'm sure we'll have some humor."
Crown promises that the same "high-level editorial standards will apply, as they do to all of our books," says Ross. He says his list will include "up-market" titles geared to readers who are "affluent sophisticated, very aware of current events and intellectually hungry."
If the books are anything like the current crop of conservative titles, however, those on the left might question that resolve.
Norman Provizer, professor of political science at Metropolitan State College of Denver (and jazz columnist for the News) dubs the bulk of current right-wing titles, often written by media celebrities, as "junkyard conservative books."
"They're the children of Rush Limbaugh," he says. "No one has ever seriously considered him to be a great thinker. (The authors) have limited background and limited expertise and a great flair for adding fuel to hot issues."
Conservative thinkers of the past, such as William Buckley, offered carefully reasoned arguments, says Provizer. "There was a certain civility to it and a certain intelligence. It seems that in a lot of this, civility and intelligence have been the two great casualties. . . . If I want to see bile spilling out, I'll watch ER, and that's the main focus of a lot of this. It's bluster, the idea that if you yell at something loud enough and long enough, it defeats your opponent. . . .
"The harm is if people start thinking these lightweights are providing heavyweight answers."
Ross counters that those who criticize the new wave of conservative books don't know their subject. He cites his experience publishing Slander, "for which I had a great many friends and colleagues who took out their knives and were sharpening them to attack me," he says. "I said, 'Did you read the book?' What I found was a pretty consistently sheepish 'Nnoooo.' "
"Not all conservative books are what you might call 'screamers,' " says Malone. "Some of them are very thoughtful. . . . That's like saying that every book with a liberal slant is like (Michael Moore's) Stupid White Men."
The whole discussion reminds me of a recent panel at the book convention in Los Angeles, during which liberal satirist Al Franken and O'Reilly squared off like bull mooses pawing the ground and angling for control of the herd. Franken attacked O'Reilly's credentials, O'Reilly called Franken an "idiot," and those in the audience, by all accounts, shifted uncomfortably in their chairs, waiting for it all to end.
What better metaphor for the new politics in publishing, in which name-calling is standard behavior on both sides of the political divide? (Lest we liberals start feeling smug, Molly Ivins' Bushwacked arrives in September, and Franken's Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right comes out in October.)
"Before the temperature decreases, I think, it will increase," says Ross, who knows that a country polarized by its politics will also be polarized in its book choices.
Kind of makes one wish for a Rodney King moment: Can't we all just get along?
Which, of course, brings me back to my father and me. Much to my dismay, my dad's reading habit continues unabated. But I've decided peace is more important than politics.
For Father's Day, he made yet another disturbing request:
Would I renew his subscription to Rush Limbaugh's newsletter?
I took a deep breath, held my tongue and sent in the check, realizing that life can be as baffling as those confounded chads.
The things we do for love.
Patti Thorn is the books editor. thornp@RockyMountainNews.com
| How about the new highway named for Clinton in his home stste of Arkansas? It's a little crooked, and has a long yellow streak down the center. Be careful if you drive on it, it's a little slick. Manufacturers announced today that they will be stocking America's shelves this week with "Clinton Soup, to honor one of the nation's most distingushed men". It consists primariy of a weenie in hot water. |
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Actually O'Reilly stood quietly through Franken's alloted time to talk, and when O'Reilly began to speak Franken interupted, insulted and tried to talk over him. And I think the word Bill used was "pinhead".
Ten out of ten liberals agree... ©
"The Real Story of the Hollywood Ten".
Anyone else have any other conservative title suggestions?
What one word title would best describes another aspect of what liberals are or do?
Subtitles are allowed. The full title of her latest book is Treason; Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism
After reading extensively about these characters, the McCarthy period and the HUAC, I came to the conclusion that the HT hated all things Americans. But the HT's rancor and lingering animosity is related to their being exposed as craven, hypocritical cowards. This they could not tolerate.
Joe McCarthy was on the right track but his modus operandi was wrong. His biggest error was to give the HT and their comrades the ammunition with which to fight him. The commie HT creeps used the very same constitutional protections that they sought to annihiliate to defend their sorry rumps.
Yup. The Bolsheviks used our system against us from the very start back when Baldwin created the ACLU and Willi Muzenberg ran the propaganda campaign to portray Sacco and Vanzetti as victims (It was hugely sucessful too. When reading the memoirs of Communist Party members from the 1930s is it striking how one after the next cited Sacco and Vanzetti for the reason they became activists).
Well, at least this guy is qualified to speak about lost intelligence and bile. He is one of the main dealers.
It's too bad the libs in this country can't take that to heart and look to the good of our country rather than their destructive search for power.
For Father's Day, he made yet another disturbing request: Would I renew his subscription to Rush Limbaugh's newsletter?
We just printed this where I work. It has a page of quotes from all those now bashing Bush on Iraq. Each one of them at one time in recent history has supported going after saddam citing WMD's as the reason.
One of the book's topics: When Elia Kazan testified truthfully before the House Un-American Activities Committee four decades ago, everybody concerned thought his career was kaput. And even to this day, people think he committed professional suicide by testifying and was left destitute.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Kazan went on to produce and to write books some of which were made into movies.
I personally think Kazan made a deal to get Hollywarped off the hook by offering himself up as a sacrificial lamb. The deal in my estimation was that Hollyweirdos would continue to subsidize him, which they dutifully did.
Liberals, especially liberals in the communications and entertainment media, closet themselves so resolutely away from the opinions and tastes of normal people that they're prone to coma-inducing shock when they come into contact with them. Regard the following two quotes:
"I can't imagine how Nixon beat McGovern. Nobody I know voted for him." -- Pauline Kael, film and theater critic, 1972."I can't imagine how Reagan beat Mondale. Nobody I know voted for him." -- Katherine Graham, publisher of the Washington Post, 1984.
Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit the Palace Of Reason:
http://palaceofreason.com
Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit the Palace Of Reason:
http://palaceofreason.com
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