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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhat's the best response to Simon & Schuster's book contract with internet troll Milo Yiannopoulos?
Theres been a lot of internet outrage in the past week over Milo Yiannopoulos recent book deal. I havent seen a lot of support, but presumably its out there or else Threshold Editions (an imprint of Simon & Schuster) would not have paid the man an advance of $250,000. To break even, the publisher will have to sell more than 50,000 books.
Yiannopoulos is an editor at the right-wing website Breitbart News, but he is best-known for being an internet troll, a provocateur, someone who says outrageously awful things online heinous, offensive, abusive things that are so disgusting Twitter has permanently banned him. (Twitter executives have not said why, specifically, he was banned, other than to say he violated their rules. But it is well documented that Yiannopoulos and his thousands of followers posted such racist, misogynistic and sexist tweets about black comedian Leslie Jones that she temporarily fled Twitter herself.)
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Outrage toward Threshold Books has spread to outrage toward all of Simon & Schuster. The Chicago Review of Books has taken a strong stand, vowing not to review any Simon & Schuster titles this year. (Adam Morgan, the Reviews editor, explained his rationale in an opinion piece in the Guardian, saying, I wanted Simon & Schuster to know that broadcasting his rhetoric would have real-world consequences.)
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It is worth noting that Threshold brands itself as a publisher dedicated to providing a forum for contemporary conservatism. Threshold has published books by Glenn Beck, Donald Trump, Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh. So Yiannopoulos might not be the most offensive just the loudest. Most big publishers have these so-called conservative imprints Penguin Random House publishes Ann Coulter under its Crown Forum imprint, and Harper Collins has published Donald Rumsfeld under its Broadside imprint.
As books editor of the Star Tribune, I wont boycott Simon & Schuster titles if I did, Id have to kill reviews of very worthy books, such as Timothy Tysons The Blood of Emmett Till or Madame President, Helene Coopers biography of Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
Simon & Schuster is a business, and it has the right to make business decisions any way it sees fit. But we also have rights. My advice? Follow your conscience. Internet trolls and book sales thrive on attention. Stay silent. Empty that wheelbarrow. Do not feed the troll.
http://www.startribune.com/what-s-the-best-response-to-simon-amp-schuster-s-book-contract-with-internet-troll-milo-yiannopoulos/409828515/
MADem
(135,425 posts)to be boycotted. Get their product from the library, kill their sales, warn off other authors to find another platform, etc.
How in hell can they AFFORD to make business decisions where they make pricey deals with haters and then need to sell large amounts of books in order to break even? Why do they want to take on the role of fostering the empowerment of fascists, Nazis, white nationalists, and other FAR-ALT-Right hate groups?
Why should DECENT people buying "normal" books UNDERWRITE HATE?
There's a difference between a cretin like Dild O'Reilly and this guy. There's a difference between hate-speechers like Coulter and this guy, too. This guy is VICIOUS. He's "over the line." Normalizing this guy is normalizing Nazis, in essence.
You've got to be a TOTAL asshole to be "banned from twitter" but that cretin managed it. None of the other jerks named in the article have gotten that prize. He's a hatemonger--vicious, inhumane, wretched.
If SandS wants to make money off of these types of people, they are aptly named: SS. UGH. I won't play.
My conscience says FUCK Simon and Schuster --until THEY get a conscience.
kelly1mm
(4,732 posts)kimbutgar
(21,126 posts)Did you expect any less from them?
msongs
(67,394 posts)last count in the costco book section there were at least ten right winger books on prominent display by the usual crowd like o'reilly