Tammy Bruce: A Day at the Reviews, or The Modern Book Burning

A Day at the Reviews, or The Modern Book Burning

Conservative authors agree, you know you've done a good job when you've made Publisher's Weekly collective head explode.

Publisher's Weekly is a 'trade magazine' for the publishing industry, including agents, editors, publishers, book sellers, etc. Thy are generally looked to for their reviews, many of which are read for their entertainment value (they either really love you or really hate you. if you're a conservative, well, they hate you). They are also part of the leftist establishment. And like good footsoldiers their hate for conservatives knows no bounds and they don't even bother to hide it. I actually subscribe to PW and have a basic rule: if PW is foaming at the mouth about a book, and uses the words "screed," "strident," or "unfortunately," (in an effort to appear thoughtful), I consider it a must-read and put it immediately on my list of books to get.

Case in point: their review of my new book, "The New American Revolution: Using the Power of the Individual to Save Our Nation from Extremists," is even more vitriolic than their spew about "The Death of Right and Wrong." I knew they would hate TNAR, I just had no idea how crazed they can get. I suppose just as it is for the rest of the left, the fact that I'm a former cart-pusher for the cause places me in their 'attempt to disembowel' category.

I still get several emails a week from perplexed readers and listeners wondering why either their book store isn't carrying my book, or has relegated it to the back of the store. The following may explain the mentaility of the bookstores nationwide. It is an industry with a collective leftist attitude, like academia and the MSM. Reviews like the ones that follow are to send a message to book stores and others about what is appropriate and what is to be supported. That's why you being vocal at your local bookstore about whether or not they carry or highlight conservative books is so important.

Via Publisher's Weekly, published on TNAR's Amazon page:

From Publishers Weekly
Mostly a stage upon which to beat her stridently individualist chest and congratulate herself for melding seemingly contradictory political ideologies, this book opens with Bruce, a pro-death penalty, gun-owning, pro-choice lesbian feminist and former NOW chapter president who lives in San Francisco and is a Fox News contributor, hailing the 2000 election as "a message from the nation" that we were ready for someone "who was, at his core, decent." Bruce lashes out against liberals, whom she says carry around so much hatred toward the country that it has begun to infect the globe, and explains her unique politics by reasoning "party loyalty takes a backseat to the safety of your family and this nation," and "there's nothing more radically individual these days than a liberal who doesn't conform." Given the current bevy of accusations swirling over the Bush administration and its handling of intelligence, Bruce's extended attack on the "deep depravity of the American Left" seems like a victim of bad timing. Readers willing to wade through Bruce's frustratingly frequent invocations of "hate," "savage" and "evil" will hear the call to readers to think for themselves instead of relying on the party line, be it on the left or right. Unfortunately, her thesis is buried beneath mountains of dismissible rhetoric.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Not only did they get my home town wrong (Los Angeles) this is no real 'review.' And I couldn't help but laugh at their suggestion that the Plame/Wilson circus sideshow is proof somehow that the president isn't at his core a decent person. It's obvious all they read was the first chapter, which is indeed, despite all his faults when it comes to domestic policy, a defense of the president and the War on Terror. Apparently their head started to spin at about 15 pages in. I wonder if the foam was green.

But they didn't stop there. Reed Business Information, which owns PW, also owns the Library Journal, which "reviews" books for libraries. And you wonder why you have to lobby to get your library to carry your favorite conservative authors. The LJ "review" has posted in the online Barnes & Noble site. Let's just say that they used PW's extra green mouth foam with which to slash TNAR. And note at the very end: they go so far as to tell libraries no to carry it:

Via Library Journal, posted online at Barnes & Noble:

Library Journal
Michael Moore, John Kerry, Jesse Jackson, and Elton John, as well as organizations like the ACLU, NOW, and the UN, count among the members of radio and print commentator Bruce's (The Death of Right and Wrong: Exploring the Left's Assault on Our Culture and Values) "The Hate America First Club." Her vitriolic screed argues that those liberals who support multiculturalism are an assault on the "new American radicals" who believe in family values and have strong faith. Apparently, all liberals who have not seen the way as shown by Bruce have neither values nor faith. She maintains that the "New American Revolution" began on 9/11 and was reaffirmed by Bush's 2004 reelection. Liberals and a significant number of conservatives would question this contention in the wake of the unfulfilled claims about the Iraq war and the slow response to Hurricane Katrina's devastation. Bruce's allegations are not demonstrated convincingly; public libraries can pass on this one. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Now if you think I'm wrong--decide for yourself. After reading those two reviews from Reed, consider the PW review of Al Franken's newest, "The Truth: With Jokes," which many consider a "screed" on the left as the work of myself, Coulter and Malkin are considered on the right. But for Franken, it's a love-letter and a "starred' review which translates to booksellers as a must-have:

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Franken is George W. Bush's worst nightmare: a savvy liberal political satirist and Harvard fellow with a massive readership. Franken and his tireless team of fact-checkers are able to spread The Truth to people who might never pick up books by Eric Alterman (What Liberal Media?), David Brock (Blinded by the Right), Joe Conason (Big Lies), Ron Suskind (The Price of Loyalty) or Richard A. Clarke (Against All Enemies). Debunking the lies and allegations spread by "the right-wing blogosphere, radiosphere and asshole-on-TV-osphere," Franken details how the Bush team won the 2004 election through "smears, fears and queers." Believing that the Bush regime's plan was to "divide Americans to conquer them," Franken has created a reference manual that refutes propaganda issued by an administration he believes "shouldn't be running a small town hardware store much less the world's only remaining superpower." While Franken writes with a razor-sharp wit, his intention is deadly serious: to expose how hypocrisy, bigotry, ineptitude, unchecked corruption and partisan politics have resulted in war, debt and a divided nation. Franken considers the political motives behind the Terri Schiavo case and the distortions behind Bush's campaign to privatize Social Security. Along the way he takes on the Swiftboaters, Bush's fake "mandate," Tom DeLay, Iraq and Karl Rove. Like Jon Stewart's The Daily Show, Franken has the ability to entertain, illuminate and motivate. (Oct. 25)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.:

Now consider their attack on Michelle Malkin regarding her new book, "Unhinged,"

From Publishers Weekly
The spewing of vitriol, epithets and wild conspiracy theories suggest a collective nervous breakdown among liberals, according to conservative commentator Malkin who, in her latest book, makes no distinction between moderate and extreme liberals; everyone left of right is a nut who suffers from PEST-Post Election Selection Trauma. This syndrome, she explains, is democratic (small d), affecting stuffed-donkey clutching college students and seasoned congressmen and journalists whose overweening diatribes and hand-wringing Malkin has seized to illustrate an emotionally charged and irrational hatred of everything conservative. Malkin scoured blogs, speeches, media commentaries and even transcripts from Oprah for material, though she misses the boat in a number of instances, most notably in her obliviousness to sarcasm and irony, and she overextends her analytical prowess by offering shallow, shoddy critiques of theater, literature and modern art. Malkin uses extremist bloggers and airheaded celebrities as exemplars of the left, cherry picking the most egregiously tasteless examples of ill-conceived commentary or inflammatory behavior to bolster her case that liberals, as a whole, have gone off their rockers. Right-wingers looking for affirmation will enjoy.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Without you, the bookbuyers, the book industry would happily destroy any work that dares to challenge the leftist status quo. Ultimately, the financial bottom line is why our books are published and sold, and the establishment just can't stand it. Good work.

Posted by Tammy · November 29, 2005 02:27 PM · Permalink
Books | Leftists

Comments

You and your book greatly impressed the Philadelphia Inquirer's Beth Gillin, whose favorable review I very much enjoyed.

Congratulations!

Posted by: Eric Scheie at November 29, 2005 04:00 PM

Amazing. The PW 'review' is embarassingly (for PW) vitriolic, and an obvious (and immature) personal attack. Sounds slavish to personal anger and pettiness. Crazy.

Someone must feel psychologically threatened by who you are.

Posted by: Mighty Mouse at November 29, 2005 06:09 PM

Hi Tammy,
Just wanted to let you know that the Chester County Library in PA ignored the reviews! TNAR will be back on the shelves tomorrow, when I return it. By the way, thank you ever so much for the last chapter...
Roger

Posted by: Stonemason at November 29, 2005 08:26 PM

Absolutely unbelievable! Makes me glad I never read book reviews.

Franken has a "razor-sharp wit" and "has the ability to entertain, illuminate and motivate"????
That gets a triple head shake. There aren't words for it.

Posted by: CTinker at November 30, 2005 07:22 AM

Not really surprising though, is it? Yet more reasons why I laugh heartedly at my left-wing friends who tell me things like "the media is NOT controlled by The Left" (when I know first-hand exactly the opposite), or "a person's political views do not matter" when it comes to reviews or reporting the news. That's like saying sight isn't important while driving!

On a side note, there's something amusing about walking past the book store and seeing a book written by AL FRANKEN called "The Truth" in the window. It's like seeing a book called "Low Carb and Loving It" written by Michael Moore.

Posted by: PeteRFNY at November 30, 2005 07:57 AM

When I reserved your book at my public library, I was 103 on the waiting list! I guess it proves your point about individuals making the difference, not elites.

Posted by: Nikki at December 1, 2005 02:54 AM

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