After reading David Brock's memoir Blinded by the Right a couple of years ago, I came away with the impression that right wing hatchet job writers were awash in filthy lucre. Before founding liberal media watchdog group Media Matters, Brock was a right wing junk journalist, specializing in character assassination and invective. He bounced from plum gig to plum gig at conservative magazines and think tanks, with fat paychecks provided by Clinton-hating gazillionaires like Richard Mellon Scaife.

Brock made being a conservative writer in the '90s seemed like the easiest, most lucrative writing gig in the world, aside from maybe being Steven King. Judging from recent bellyaching by conservative writers, it looks like things have gotten a little harder since.

This week, five conservative writers brought a lawsuit against the right wing publisher Regnery. The authors, whose books include Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry, Dereliction of Duty: The Eyewitness Account of How Bill Clinton Compromised America's National Security and Shadow War: The Untold Story of How Bush Is Winning the War on Terror, claim that Regnery's owners, Eagle Publishing, distributed books in ways that screwed their authors out of cash.

[T]he authors say that Eagle sells or gives away copies of their books to book clubs, newsletters and other organizations owned by Eagle "to avoid or substantially reduce royalty payments to authors."

The authors argue that in reducing royalty payments, the publisher is maximizing its profits and the profits of its parent company at their expense.

There's something deeply satisfying for liberals about how the literary source of swift boating is getting screwed out of what he believes he deserves for screwing America out of having Bush as a single term president. But, as Jane at Firedoglake points out, there's a lot of room for doubt about whether the swift boat dude or his cronies were getting screwed at all.

Do these authors really not understand that it takes incredibly deep pockets to do what they're accusing Regnery of doing, and that they are the beneficiaries of it? That when Regnery is basically giving away books for free it's not making any money off them, and is doing so in order to get them on the New York Times' bestseller lists, from whence so much of their publicity and further book sales are generated? That 30,000 people aren't going to buy their crappy books at full price, and most authors would kill to have their works seeded out there at such great expense?

Without Regnery's blanket exposure, authors like Richard Miniter (Losing bin Laden: How Bill Clinton's Failures Unleashed Global Terror) probably wouldn't have been asked to appear on "1000 talk radio shows" or have become a "widely sought speaker" as Miniter claims he has on his Web site. Still, that doesn't mean he's above painting his publishers as commies for the New York Times.

"It suddenly occurred to us that Regnery is making collectively jillions of dollars off of us and paying us a pittance," [Miniter said.] "Why is Regnery acting like a Marxist cartoon of a capitalist company?"

Well, the simple answer to that question is that they're acting that way because they are a Marxist cartoon of a capitalist company. Well, maybe more of a vintage Bloom County cartoon; according to their Web site, Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak is on Eagle Publishing's board of directors.

JekyllAndHyde

Nottingham, MD

April 2005

NOV 10, 2007 12:12 AM

Having realized that no one is interested in their bull shit claims anymore, and owning no other knowledge other than how try to start fights, they've all started to turn on themselves. I hope this continues; this way I won't have to spend $20 to go to the movies.

Crosse

Wichita, KS

October 2007

NOV 10, 2007 06:43 AM

"Bubble Bursting" Those books have little to no affect on the outcome of elections.

"There's something deeply satisfying for liberals about how the literary source of swift boating is getting screwed out of what he believes he deserves for screwing America out of having Bush as a single term president."

These books are simply writing to the base constituency and rarely if ever are read by the moderate majority.

Subrosa

San Francisco, CA

July 2004

NOV 10, 2007 07:30 AM

This article made me happy. Nice work.

MrCrisp

Charleston, SC

August 2004

NOV 10, 2007 07:39 AM

could anything this guy writes get any sillier? oh wait.

Kindle

Seattle, WA

March 2006

NOV 10, 2007 07:51 AM

MrCrisp said:

could anything this guy writes get any sillier? oh wait.

*snort*

xazapdmytinu

Fort Collins, CO

July 2007

NOV 10, 2007 02:09 PM

Oh really? I thought it was all about exposing the liberal media and left wingers as nut-jobs and pinko commies but thanks for finally admitting it's all about the Benjis!

SockPuppet

I'm lost

July 2006

NOV 10, 2007 02:56 PM

Right-wing stooges suddenly discover what everyone else has been telling them all the time: the right wing is run by people who see everyone else as hired labour, and hired labour as disposable tools. Awww.

Is there an Imaginary Violin LOLcat?

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Hartford, CT

March 2003

NOV 07, 2007 07:25 PM