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Saturday, Jul 4, 2009
When Michael Moore's publisher insisted he rewrite his new book to be less critical of President Bush, it took an outraged librarian to get it back in the stores.
Jan 7, 2002 | It was the kind of battle that provocateur journalist Michael Moore would ordinarily consider red meat: a major media corporation threatening a writer's freedom of speech. Moore's new book, "Stupid White Men and Other Excuses for the State of the Nation," which pointedly criticizes President George W. Bush and his administration, was due in stores on Oct. 2. As with many books scheduled for release in the weeks that immediately followed Sept. 11, plans to ship the title to stores were put on hold. According to HarperCollins, "both Moore and [Judith Regan's HarperCollins imprint] ReganBooks thought its publication would be insensitive, given the events of September 11."
By mid-October, there were 50,000 finished books (out of an announced first printing of 100,000) collecting a month's worth of dust in a Scranton, Pa., warehouse, and ReganBooks had yet to schedule a new release date for "Stupid White Men." It was holding off in hopes that Moore would include new material to address the recent events, and would change the title and cover art. Moore says he readily agreed to these requests. But once HarperCollins had his consent, it asked Moore to rewrite sections -- up to 50 percent of the book -- that it deemed politically offensive given the current climate. In addition, the Rupert Murdoch-owned publishing house wanted Moore to help defray half the cost of destroying the old copies and of producing the new edition, by contributing $100,000 from his royalty account.
Moore was aghast. "They wanted me to censor myself and then pay for the right to censor myself," he declared. "I'm not going to do that!" After close to three months of relentless negotiations that threatened to embarrass one of the country's leading publishing houses, the potentially explosive drama was suddenly resolved when HarperCollins announced on Dec. 18 its plans to publish "Stupid White Men" as is, slating the title for early March 2002. "We have made the decision to move it forward as it was. We're very happy about that," says Lisa Herling, HarperCollins' director of corporate communications. What motivated the publisher's change of heart? Not, as some might well expect, an ugly public fuss orchestrated by Moore. Instead, the author remained uncharacteristically quiet, and the protest over the holdup on "Stupid White Men" came from an unexpected source.
In fact, the turnabout was a surprise to Moore, but then so were HarperCollins' initial reservations about publishing "Stupid White Men." After all, Moore observes, "They not only bought the book, but they accepted the manuscript and printed it." But after Sept. 11, the satirical bite of Moore's book was too sharp for his publisher. In particular, HarperCollins flagged an open letter to George W. Bush, in which Moore asks the president whether he's a functional illiterate, whether he's a felon and whether he is getting the necessary help for his drug and alcohol problem. "They said it would be 'intellectually dishonest' not to admit that Bush has done a good job, and that the other things in the book wouldn't be believable if I didn't at least give Bush that much," says Moore. The author was certain that HarperCollins would cancel and destroy the book if he didn't accede to its demands. (The rights to publish the book would subsequently revert to Moore after six months.)
HarperCollins also wanted him to take out the chapter "A Very American Coup," about Dubya's dubious victory in Florida, and it objected to the title of an essay about race in America, "Kill Whitey." According to Moore, his editor at ReganBooks, Cal Morgan, explained, "It's not the dissent we disagree with, it's the tone of your dissent. You can't question the president about his past felonies or alcohol problems right now." (Cal Morgan did not respond to requests for comment.)
