AP Neglects to Mention Reason for Carter Book Brouhaha

July 12th, 2007 2:39 PM

Jimmy Carter is writing another book. Already, you ask? Well, this one is a little different than some of his others. Due out this fall, it's a memoir about his mother, "Miss Lillian" Carter, the woman whom Carter says was his "inspiration" to "commitment and faith."

The topic of this new book doesn't interest me so much as how the short AP article by Hillel Italie describes Carter's career as an author in the final paragraph:

Jimmy Carter, 82, has been a prolific author since leaving the White House, in 1981. His many best sellers include "An Hour Before Daylight," "Our Endangered Values" and "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," which angered supporters of Israel and led 14 members of an advisory board to the Atlanta-based Carter Center to resign in protest.

But why were Israel supporters upset about "Palestine: Peace Not Apartehid"? Why did the 14 members of the Carter Center advisory board quit? Because the book itself was chock full of inaccuracies and misrepresentations (as Newsbusters reported at the time). From the article from CBS News about their resignation:

"You have clearly abandoned your historic role of broker in favor of becoming an advocate for one side," the departing members of the center's Board of Councilors told Carter in their letter of resignation.

Not that you'd get all of that from the short blurb at the end of the article. Then again, the paragraph did describe him as prolific, not honest. That must count for something.