Pulitzer Prize Winning journalist (or somebody who created a blogger account to pretend to be him), David Cay Johnston (ex of NYT after a Jan 2008 buyout, and at the LAT 76-88), a NYT bestselling author of Perfectly Legal and Free Lunch took issue with my characterization of the LAT and their propensity to insert editorial language and spin into 'hard news' stories.
I'll cook up a response sometime before the end of July 6th, cause, why the hell not.
As far as the Kevin Coogan incident, that happened elsewhere.
But what I really want to talk about in this post is the book spines. I'm convinced that many books are sold based solely on their title, sub-title, and how the book spine will look when lined up with other like tomes. It's the only explanation for the myriad of screedy books of questionable literary merit that litter the top of the non-fiction bestseller lists.
I suspect many people, on both sides of the political aisle, display these books as talisman and markers of identification for their particular bent. They aren't buying a book for the tale it spins, or the cogency of its argument, or the information contained therein, rather they are buying the object itself. I've seen homes where the books are arrayed in a somewhat fetishistic display meant to evoke both a personal identity and a sense of belonging to a particular tribal identity.
There's really no other explanation for the relative success of books from the likes of Glen Greenwald (worst. author. evah!), or Sean Hannity (OK on the radio, annoying on TV, horrible in print). Both of them are on opposite sides of the fence politically, both are terrible writers in completely different ways, and both manage to churn out bestsellers on a regular basis.
The other thing is, it only takes a few thousand copies sold per week to make a bestseller, and the various lists are somewhat selective in the book stores they reference, so the NYT list doesn't really reflect the numbers on all books sold (they exclude big box retailers like Wal-Mart and Costco), Amazon is a much fairer gauge of real world performance for a particular book, in my opinion, and their list often barely resembles the NYT list.
UPDATE:
Clearly I'm no journalist, I can't even get my Coogan first names straight. If only I had layers of editors to help me with stuff like that.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
Oh it is me. You can Google my email address and find it posted at all sorts of sites. And you can check by calling me at my home or cell numbers, which are also posted on the Internet in area code 585.
I thought it was Keith.
For some reason, I'm picturing DCJ in his underwear and waving around a hlaf-empty bottle of scotch, screaming I'M IN THE PHONE BOOK!!! before passing out on the bathroom floor.
half...stupid lack of editor layers
He earned himself one of those tasty NYT buyouts, I bet it's really, really good scotch, I'm a bit jealous.
(although, sometimes the more expensive the scotch, the more it tastes like ass, got to be careful with that stuff, just cause they can charge more than $100 a bottle doesn't mean it's good)
Sitting here fully clothed, with a newly refilled glass of tap water at my side, for some reason I am imagining "Bill" lurching about with a half empty mind, screaming "I know nothing" ....
Meanwhile, XWL, I look forward to your thoughtful post on the issues later today (July 6) over at your "gloat" post.
Post a Comment