🚀 go-pugleaf

Exactly what law are they breaking?

"musea" <tomhendricks474@cs.com> wrote in message 
news:1154098984.673771.31950@s13g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> The last Musea club message was an e-mail to, and a response from,
> Jerome Weeks,
> the book reviewer for the Dallas Morning News. It challenged him to be
> fair in his coverage and consider reviewing indie publications.
>
> One of my readers, McGinnis' from the
> ULA, Underground Literary Alliance, followed up with his own letter to
> Weeks
> suggesting some indie publications worthy of reviews.
>
> Weeks responded with a clear message. No indie publication will ever
> get reviewed in his or any major  newspaper or national magazine
> because of legal fears.
> I think this ban of small publishers is against fair trade and against
> the law.
> Here is Weeks response to McGinnis. What are your thoughts?
> ___________
> Mr. McGinnis:
> I'm sorry, but it's the policy of The Dallas Morning News -- and every
> major
> daily newspaper I know of, every national magazine -- not to review
> self-published or print-on-demand books. It's out of my hands. Our
> legal
> department has advised strongly against it.
> This is why: If we print a review of a book that has libelous material
> in
> it, we open ourselves to a lawsuit -- we helped spread the libel. If
> that
> book comes from an established publisher, it has been vetted by their
> legal
> department, so such a likelihood is considerably lessened. Even if a
> possible libel gets through, their vetting process is our defense. We
> can't
> be expected to vet every film, every book, ever music CD we review.
> Moreover, if someone is keen on going to court for damages, who are
> they
> likely to sue -- us or the big media conglomerate in New York?
> Now, consider an 'independently published' book. We have no defense
> whatsoever. No one has vetted the work. In all likelihood, no one has
> even
> edited it. And in the case of a libel suit, who will be the probable
> target
> -- the author, who has no money, or us?
> On the other hand, a feature story is a possibility.
> Thanks for writing.
> Jerome Weeks
> Book columnist
> The Dallas Morning News
> ___________
>
> Tom Hendricks
> ed. of the 14 year old zine Musea
>
> musea.us
> hunkasaurus.com
> Myspace.com/musead
> Myspace.com/hunkasauruscom
> tomhendricks474@cs.com
> Wikipedia
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Hendricks
>