Free Republic

Dear Jon, So “America (the Book)” was named Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly. More than successful, it’s a cultural phenomenon. I had to see what all the shouting’s about. If your goal was money and self-promotion, congratulations. If you had a higher goal, close but no cigar. Begin with the Foreword “by” Thos. Jefferson. Ol’ Tom was one of the greatest political thinkers in history. I’m not going to pick on deliberate falsehoods or fake quotes. Nor brevity, nor attempts at humor. Just flat-out, factual errors. You have Jefferson say “we” composed “the Declaration and the Constitution.” You...

An academic researcher has found 11 passages in Senator Kerry's published writings that appear to have been taken from other works without attribution, though experts disagree about whether the copying should be considered plagiarism. Six of the passages come from Mr. Kerry's 1997 book, "The New War: The Web of Crime That Threatens America's National Security." All bear some similarity to news accounts that preceded publication of the book. In one instance, Mr. Kerry wrote, "Russian mobsters have been arrested in Germany for extortion, car theft, counterfeiting, prostitution, selling drugs and illegal weapons, and smuggling everything from icons to uranium."...

Teaching History: Fact Or Fiction? by Phyllis Schlafly Posted Aug 1, 2003 In rare moments when Congress isn’t preoccupied with the war, taxes or prescription drugs, Congress is worrying that American students don’t know any American history. Congress is right to worry because this is true, but it doesn’t follow that the federal government is capable of remedying the problem. The National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the Nation’s Report Card, reported that less than half of high school seniors demonstrate even a basic grasp of history. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni, in a report called Losing...

This should be a great time for the book world. "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" has set sales records. Hillary Clinton's memoirs, "Living History," have sold more than 1 million copies. Other recent successes include Oprah Winfrey's book club pick, "East of Eden," and Walter Isaacson's biography "Benjamin Franklin." But instead of celebrating, publishers have been cutting. Scholastic Inc., the U.S. publisher of the Potter books, announced in May that 400 employees had been laid off worldwide and said that in mid-July there would be additional spending reductions. Simon & Schuster, which released both the Clinton and...

<p>NEW YORK - This would seem to be a great time for the book world.</p> <p>"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" has set sales records. Hillary Clinton's memoir, "Living History," has sold more than 1 million copies. Other recent successes include Oprah Winfrey's book-club pick "East of Eden" and Walter Isaacson's "Benjamin Franklin."</p>

Big publishers cash in as right-wing polemics sell in their thousands Two large American publishers are to launch off-shoots to capitalise on the latest literary phenomenon gripping the United States: the right-wing diatribe. Hillary Clinton's autobiography leads this month's US bestseller lists, but over the last year it has been books written from the opposite end of the political spectrum - many of them accusing her husband of everything from treason to destroying the American way of life - which have gripped the imagination of the book-buying public. Among the most successful has been Treason: Liberal Treachery From the Cold...

Blasts at liberal 'traitors' win US book war Big publishers cash in as right-wing polemics sell in their thousands Lawrence Donegan in San Francisco Sunday July 27, 2003 The Observer Two large American publishers are to launch off-shoots to capitalise on the latest literary phenomenon gripping the United States: the right-wing diatribe. Hillary Clinton's autobiography leads this month's US bestseller lists, but over the last year it has been books written from the opposite end of the political spectrum - many of them accusing her husband of everything from treason to destroying the American way of life - which have...

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...

Publishers Weekly has already declared 2003 “a banner year” for conservative books. But after the upcoming fall season, they may have to revise the hype. Liberals, who think there are already too many books by conservative writers on the bestseller lists, should brace themselves for what’s coming. Suddenly, conservative authors are mainstream. Crown Books and Penguin Putnam have started their own conservative imprints, while Warner Books plans to aggressively market new books by writers with proven anti-liberal credentials, including Bernard Goldberg’s Arrogance: Rescuing America from the Media Elite, coming in November. The trend started more than a decade ago with...

A SCANDAL? STM ISSUE HEATS UP WITH PLOS TV ADS, LEGISLATIONFor years the academic library community has fought what it has called a serials crisis in STM publishing, slowly making headway in pushing the public's interests vs. the interests of commercial publishers. Those efforts now appear not only to have taken root, but bloomed. This week a national campaign will shift into gear, breaking the STM issue out of library conferences and professional literature and onto popular television. A TV commercial, funded by the Public Library of Science (PLoS), touting free access to publicly funded research, will run during episodes...

If it's allowed to stand, an FCC ruling will feed media merger mania BY BILL CLINTON "It's your money," says President Bush when he promotes tax cuts. I disagree with his tax policy but admire his spin. The same argument applies with greater force to whether big media conglomerates should be allowed to control more television and radio stations: "It's your airwaves." The American people own the bandwidth that broadcast media companies use to deliver programs to our TV and radio sets. Because the space on that bandwidth is limited, the Federal Communications Commission regulates who has access to our...

<p>Saddam: French media mogul MEDIA monolith Hachette Filipacchi, already fearing an anti-French backlash, has a bigger problem: Saddam Hussein owns a $90 million stake in its parent company. Saddam owns just under 2 percent of Lagardere SCA, the French company of which Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., publishers of Elle, Car & Driver, Women's Day and other titles, is a unit. His shares are held by Iraqi-controlled Montana Management, based in Geneva. Saddam's Hachette holdings first came to light when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, and the UN Security Council along with the French and U.S. governments acted to freeze Iraq's assets. At the time he was the second-largest shareholder in Hachette SA, controlling 8.4 percent of the company. Fearing a backlash, Hachette brass voiced their intention to buy the Iraqi strongman out, which most people assumed had been done long ago. In fact, Saddam still has his stake and it's currently worth $90 million, a Hachette rep confirmed to PAGE SIX's Jared Paul Stern. "Under international sanctions, blocked assets are being held until future direction from the UN and applicable governments," the rep said. "Those assets are frozen." Since Saddam has no representation on Hachette's board of directors, he has no influence over the company, and Hachette's spokeswoman assured us the firm is unafraid of a backlash. Some American Elle advertisers we contacted yesterday had no idea Saddam ever owned a slice of Hachette. "We don't know anything about it," said a rep for MAC cosmetics. Donna Karan's people had no comment. Reps for Coach, Estee Lauder and Banana Republic were similarly in the dark. In 1990, when the Saddam-Hachette news broke on "60 Minutes," publishers of Hachette magazines placed emergency calls to top advertisers in a bid to keep them from leaving. They also established a "circulation crisis group" to deal with subscribers who wanted to cancel over the news. Hachette has been testing consumer reaction to the fact that it is a French company, to determine whether "guilt by association" will harm it, Hachette U.S. CEO Jack Kliger told Media Industry Newsletter. Americans "feel comfortable buying [Elle] just as they do with say, Evian and L'Oreal, and dining in French restaurants. Remember too, there are Americans who oppose war with Iraq."</p>

Now if it were true that Horace and the great poets of the English Renaissance advocated the pursuit of pleasure in response to aging and death, textbook publishers could be reproached with at most a failure to warn students that pleasure is not the same thing as happiness, which is the result of virtue. But it is not true. And finding out why it is not true means unlearning most of what we have been taught about English literature and learning how to fill the rest of our lives with glimpses of heaven.