Monday 18 July 2005

Goldberg Book Gets Heat From Govt, Conservatives

Publishers Considers Changes In Face of Pressure; Calls Come For New Slant To Push Abstinence

Harper-Collins, publisher's of the Bernard Goldberg book, '100 People Who Are Screwing Up America', is pulling the book out of stores and off of the internet, after increasing and mounting pressure from Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and other conservative groups.

"We believe Mr. Goldberg has acted irresponsibly in promoting this level of sexual promiscuity", said Secretary Spellings. "This is far worse than anything Buster could do."

Spellings, of course, was referring to her letter and pressure from last January, to PBS CEO Pat Mitchell, expressing "strong and very serious concerns" about the "Postcards From Buster" episode. The episode in question, "Sugartime!", was when the 8-year-old animated Buster visited two families in Vermont who made maple syrup and cheese; one of the families was headed by gay parents.

Spellings sent a similar letter to both HarperCollins and Mr. Goldberg.

In a copy of the letter obtained by The Garlic, Spellings expressed "a concern for young school children seeing this book cover, and the explicit language and act inferred". Spellings included a computer print out, as a sample, of New York City, listing bookstores near schools.

Spellings also noted in her letter that the specific word, "screwing' and added "I thought we nipped this kind behavior following the Janet Jackson incident".

Spellings ended the correspondence with "I hope that Mr. Goldberg can imbue his work with some strong, Christian values, including the equal promotion of abstinence".

HarperCollins issued a statement that "we are re-evaluating our marketing and campaign for Bernard Goldberg's latest work".

Goldberg has also published 'Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How The Media Distort The News' and 'Arrogance: Rescuing America From the Media Elite' and also appears on HBO's Real Sports, as a reporter.

Goldberg, at a press conference, was livid.

Clutching the letter from Spellings, he angrily denounced the "implied censorship".

"She wants me to include abstinence? … Fine - We call the new book '100 People Who Give Blow Jobs To America'!"

Along with the Spellings letter, conservative Christian groups and organizations have also called for the book to be changed or edited.

"We really can't have a title like that", stated Tony Perkins, leader of the Family Research Council.

"If we have to, we'll call a massive 'Bernard Goldberg Sunday' and have ourselves a big bonfire".

Denny Pattyn, leader of the Silver Ring Thing, a group that hold events for young teenagers and gets the message of abstinence across through music, activities, and 'The 7 Stages of Silver Ring Thing', supports the call for the Goldberg book to be taken off the market.

'We can't be waving that in these teenagers' faces"

Pattyn set up The Silver Ring Thing to "attract the attention of the typical 21st century teenager and offer them protection from the destructive effects of America's sex obsessed culture". Teens in The Silver Ring Thing take a voluntary pledge to abstain from sex until marriage.

Pattyn is planning a new product to market - The Silver Bookmark - to the members of his group. The Silver Bookmark is to be used in classics and other books that don't focus or promote sexual activity.

"You won't find any of our teens with The Silver Bookmark in Bernard Goldberg's book".

The ACLU has gone to federal court against The Silver Ring Thing and Federal Government, in an attempt to strike down federal funding for an abstinence-based sex education program, calling it an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.

The Union of Concerned Scientists charges that the Bush Administration has ignored, and actually distorted scientific evidence regarding performance measures that test whether abstinence-only programs were proving effective. The UCS also says that the Bush Administration has suppressed other data that is at odds with their preferred policies.

Ironically, in ''100 People Who Are Screwing Up America', Goldberg takes a conservative position and 97% of the people listed are liberals.

And the reviews?

One Amazon.com Customer reviewer calls Goldberg a "balding 'Ann Coulter in a suit" Another writes that Goldberg "exposes his own flagrant bias by writing a nasty piece of work where he blames liberals for everything that is wrong with America".

Goldberg indicated that he did receive a letter of support from White House Chief Strategist, 'Karl Rove, who, himself, is also under fire.

Goldberg said that Rove told him to "hang in there" and also asked if Goldberg "knew that Joe Wilson's wife worked for the CIA".