The book by disgraced former CBS producer Mary Mapes, Truth and Duty : The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power, has finally been put back on Amazon.com. But this time the excerpt from the book has been removed.
Last month the publisher, St. Martin's Press, proudly displayed the book on Amazon and included a lengthy excerpt. After realizing that Mary Mapes' own words from the excerpt were outrageous and factually inaccurate, the publisher panicked and had the book completely delisted from the online vendor, excerpt and all.
The blogosphere had a field day with her remarks such as this:
Dan told me he was confident in the story and that he was lucky to work with me. He signed off by saying something that had become a shorthand for us over the years: “F-E-A.” That was code for “F---’Em All,” a sentiment that needed to be expressed from time to time in any newsroom.
And this:
All these Web sites had extensive write-ups on the documents: on typeface, font style, and peripheral spacing, material that seemed to spring up overnight.
The actual term was "proportional spacing," not "peripheral spacing," which demonstrates an embarrassing lack of knowledge over the controversy regarding her own story.
The book has finally been put back on Amazon, and the link that used to direct users to the excerpt now goes to a write-up from the publisher praising the book. The write-up, naturally, is much less embarrassing than using Mapes' actual words.
Some of the new blurb seems to be a response to the firestorm that erupted from the first listing of the book:
An answer to Bernard Goldberg and the thunder from the right, TRUTH AND DUTY is always fast, sometimes furious, and often unexpectedly funny about the collapse of one of America’s great institutions.
P.J. Gladnick has an excellent roast of the new write-up.
