At the same time, these publishing houses are, like many corporations in the country, being asked by their employees and customers to live up to a set of values. And that would seem to be impossible while also publishing the likes of Tucker Carlson, who declared on his show earlier this week that the protests across the country are “definitely not about black lives.” (Carlson’s most recent book, Ship of Fools, was published by Free Press, a Simon & Schuster imprint.)
Some have suggested that a form of quality control is required. “I’m OK with books being published from different political viewpoints—in fact, it’s necessary for debate and being able to see a whole picture,” publicist Kimberly Burns told Vanity Fair last year. “The problem is when authors write things only to get themselves attention or to make news, instead of to enhance a dialogue. If publishers are going to continue to cash in, as they have been, it’s time for those publishers—certainly the Big Five publishers—to bring in fact-checkers and more copy editors.” The lack of fact-checking in corporate publishing remains a scandal, but there are few signs that any conglomerate publisher plans on making the expensive decision to apply basic scrutiny to its books any time soon.
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