An open letter to the Penguin Group from David Brock

[Judi Lynn]

An open letter to the Penguin Group from David Brock
June 20, 2005

Susan Peterson Kennedy
President
Penguin Group
375 Hudson Street
New York, N.Y. 10014

Dear Ms. Peterson Kennedy,

I'm writing today to seek a public explanation of what, if any, editorial standards and fact-checking processes the Penguin Group applies to its imprints. Specifically, I believe the public, and the Clinton family, deserve an explanation for why Penguin has chosen to publish through its Sentinel imprint Edward Klein's attack book on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, The Truth About Hillary: What She Knew, When She Knew It and How Far She'll Go to Become President, which pre-publication reports have already exposed as an obviously false and defamatory tract.

In light of its false and defamatory charges, many of which are easily discredited, your publication of this book constitutes gross negligence at best.

Throughout his book, Mr. Klein engages in gay-baiting innuendo. One of the most striking examples of such negligence occurs on page 94, where Mr. Klein introduces Nancy Pietrafesa, whose name he misspells throughout, as someone "rumored to be Hillary's lesbian lover." An attorney for Ms. Pietrafesa, a non-public figure, told the New York Post: "These allegations are totally false and unsubstantiated. Klein has apparently done no investigating. This is scurrilous, despicable and politically motivated." On June 15, The Syracuse Post-Standard quoted Ms. Pietrafesa, who has been married for 35 years and is the mother of three sons, as saying, "This could hurt my family. This could be an insidious, totally destructive thing in a family. Having that even as a question about my love and loyalty to my husband is very hard, and very sad." As Ms. Pietrafesa told the New York Post: "No one deserves this kind of crap."

Proper legal and editorial review of Mr. Klein's manuscript would have alerted the publisher to Ms. Pietrafesa's contention that Mr. Klein did not even bother to contact her before repeating a false rumor as if it might be true. That a newspaper in Syracuse easily determined the falsity of the Pietrafesa story suggests a serious lack of due diligence on the part of Mr. Klein and you, his publisher.
(snip/...)

http://mediamatters.org/items/200506200004

[getmeouttahere]

1. Another Boycott target....

The Penguin Group

[lancdem]

2. I just read this on mediamatters.org

It's very good.

[wryter2000]

3. Media Matters rocks!

Franken was saying he's really p*ssed at them, too. Another imprint has published him, and he specifically asked them when they started Sentinel if they'd do the same fact checking that they do on his books.

Turns out the only "fact-checking" was done by an attorney checking to see if anything was libelous. Looks as if he failed at that, too. I hope the woman brings suit.