Slate-Spin On Matalin Hire
Slate's biz writer, Daniel Gross, looks at the announcement by mainstream, Viacom-owned book publisher Simon & Schuster that it is starting a conservative publishing house with Mary Matalin at the helm and analyzes it only as Slate can:
That there is a strong market for conservative books can't possibly mean there's a big market of conservatives; oh no, it must mean that S&S made a bad business decision.
The silliness of his thesis aside, I particularly liked the snide, effete, snobbishness that Gross displayed, working hard to prove that being from a blue state must mean you're a blueblood:
Given their triumph in last November's elections (and their behavior since), the Republicans have nowhere to go but down.That's right. We're doomed. Gross likens the S&S announcement as akin to Time Warner selling to AOL at the peak of the Internet bubble, or Fortune putting Krispy Kreme on its cover just as the brand's sugar-coated slide started.
That there is a strong market for conservative books can't possibly mean there's a big market of conservatives; oh no, it must mean that S&S made a bad business decision.
The silliness of his thesis aside, I particularly liked the snide, effete, snobbishness that Gross displayed, working hard to prove that being from a blue state must mean you're a blueblood:
In 2003 Penguin Group (USA) started conservative imprint Sentinel, which churns out mind-candy for the National Review crowd. Random House has started Crown Forum, whose Web site contains handy links to the right-wing echo chamber.Al Franken and Michael Moore do not, of course, produce mind-candy for the The Nation crowd or play to an echo chamber that reverberates with "No Blood For Oil!" chants. And Liberals are famous for their wide-ranging reading preferences, because they are so ... what's that word again? ... tolerant.
All Simon & Schuster's bosses and editors seem to know about conservatives is that they buy books that pander to them and conform to their worldview.
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