Publisher pulls Jefferson book over inaccuracies (David Barton's "The Jefferson Lies")
Source: MSNBC
A best-seller about Thomas Jefferson by an influential Tea Party and evangelical figure has been recalled after the publisher announced on Thursday that it has detected factual inaccuracies in the book.
Nashville-based evangelical publisher Thomas Nelson is no longer shipping any copies to retailers of The Jefferson Lies by David Barton and is recalling existing copies from brick-and-mortar retailers. It also has requested to online booksellers that they no longer sell the e-book version and has removed the book from its own website. The book is still being sold on Amazon.
Barton argues in the book that Jefferson was an orthodox evangelical and not an anti-Christian secularist. In addition to the book by Throckmorton and Coulter refuting that claim with historical evidence, religious scholar Greg Forster wrote a piece, David Bartons Errors, that details the errors in the book and says Bartons inability to write reliable history stretches beyond ideological cheerleading into outright incompetence.
Its clear that even the evangelical community is starting to see David Barton for what he is a propagandist who distorts history for political and ideological purposes, TFN President Kathy Miller told Daily Kos. The question is now, will politicians and pundits who have promoted his views have the integrity to follow suit and repudiate Barton?"
Read more: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/48617599/ns/today-books/
Author David Barton at the 2004 Republican National Convention at Madison Square Garden in New York.
David Barton on The Daily Show
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-may-1-2012/david-barton
mzteris
(16,232 posts)he's been dinged for plagiary and just plain making shit up before.
He is a complete buffoon who doesn't deserve the moniker "historian" nor "author"
Smilo
(1,944 posts)lying ass was brought up on his rewriting of history - amazing it was an evangelical publisher that is doing this.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)I'm surprised to find out the publisher wasn't Simon and Schuster (owned by Viacom, as is Comedy Central). That's usually where his crappiest guests come from.
JackRiddler
(24,979 posts)Whatever the conventional "centrist" thinking is, there they will dare to tread. The war criminal Condoleezza Rice took her book on tour with Stewart. A thoroughly disgusting state of affairs.
randome
(34,845 posts)Sometimes he has crap guests with their agendas and sometimes he doesn't. He doesn't run his show to please you or anyone else.
I'm not saying this as a 'fan' of Jon Stewart because I dislike the term. It's just the truth. Sometimes Stewart is spot on with his guests, sometimes he isn't.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)Viacom picks them. Quite often they're people who have books to flog, usually Simon and Schuster's.
You can tell when Jon really likes a guest. S/he gets to come back after the break for an extra five minutes on the Web.
JackRiddler
(24,979 posts)Tony Blair.
These are criminals. They get powder-puff treatment. It's also an extremely pro-military show.
He's made his ideology clear enough. He had a march in Washington and held a speech. He's for the false centrism that would exonerate the war criminals.
The first 10 minutes of the show are usually cool.
Politicalboi
(15,189 posts)At the Grand Canyon right next to that Creationist crap they allow to be sold.
ErikJ
(6,335 posts)TheMadMonk
(6,187 posts)xchrom
(108,903 posts)SoapBox
(18,791 posts)That's the name of the game. Repeat the lies over and over and over...some dolts will eventually believe it to be the truth.
SO how many copies of this garbage are already floating around in the world? I don't see anything in the article. It's
almost laughable how they did the recall...maybe they should have announced, "...we've poisoned a few thousand
minds and that's enough for now."
The Crazy is running wild.
underpants
(182,604 posts)I thought about saying to this guy (who I don't know) "Do you know anything about the author of that book?" but then he may have been reading it....well I gave him the benefit of the doubt as unlikely as that is.
Curmudgeoness
(18,219 posts)prior to putting money into publishing it. Instead, they wait until someone else checks for them. Too bad. What a POS!
underpants
(182,604 posts)Although we do carefully edit every book we publish, Thomas Nelson relies on the expertise of our authors concerning their subjects,
Curmudgeoness
(18,219 posts)that is just right for it. You see, I don't want anyone to look too carefully at what I write.
This is one way to make your company look the fool. But when an author costs you money, hopefully that author is history instead of historian.
bucolic_frolic
(43,045 posts)One must publish a seriously flawed book to have it recalled.
I can only think of two that I remember being recalled.
One was the Clifford Irving "autobiography" of Howard Hughes.
The other an obscure biography of one of the Rockefellers.
Freedom of the press is great, but Freedom of the press tempered
by fact and objective truth is something better.
bedazzled
(1,759 posts)it was called "fortunate son" by j. hatfield.
it had a lot of truth in it
so much that hatfield ended up dead...
so a book doesn't have to be flawed to be recalled...
southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)GoneOffShore
(17,337 posts)When I hear about Barton, I'm overwhelmed with a sense of shame that people like him are actually walking around talking out of their asses.
southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)...five months AFTER they published this garbage to find factual errors in it???
- KMA-Thomas Nelson
K&R
valerief
(53,235 posts)WinstonSmith4740
(3,055 posts)This publisher printed and distributed this piece of crap obviously without proof-reading, or for that matter, reading it at all. He gets a book written by a Tea Party/Republican operative and depends "...on the expertise of our authors concerning their subjects", instead of, you know, actually fact checking for historical accuracy. Then after it gets out there and becomes a best seller, decides there are enough inaccuracies to pull it off the shelves. This was about Jefferson for cryin' out loud, not some obscure, shadowy figure from colonial America.
This stinks, but what else do you expect from the RW?
underpants
(182,604 posts)spot on
Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)on the Thomas Jefferson Hour and it in a very kind and gentle way called the book exactly what it is...............
ThomThom
(1,486 posts)to better suit them
text books are another example
underpants
(182,604 posts)If I am wrong Thom let me know. I will donate it to any charity you want.
BTW- Aug 9th was 17 years since Jerry passed. I grew up 10 minutes from Hampton. By brother saw about 200 shows.
ThomThom
(1,486 posts)they probably are putting them on the shelf as we speak
very, very sad and dangerous common practice by the right wing. textbook publishers are purging the Vietnam conflict at the behest of RWers. I've got to talk to more high school students but I was very surprised they did not have it mentioned in class or text. They only know because of old farts like me.
alp227
(32,006 posts)Eden other evangelicals can't stand him.
ThomThom
(1,486 posts)can't believe the book was even published
where was the editor, fact checker, etc
the bible quotes alone would have it in the trash
LiberalFighter
(50,783 posts)Glad I caught it.
underpants
(182,604 posts)"I almost wish that there would be like a simultaneous telecast," Huckabee said at a conference last year, "and all Americans will be forced, forced at gunpoint, no less to listen to every David Barton message. And I think our country will be better for it."
Thanks for the link. I read the story - even checked out his claims about Articles 2 and 3 myself - I will listen to the audio later.
tanyev
(42,516 posts)I don't think Garth Brooks even wears crap like that anymore.
Historic NY
(37,449 posts)heaven05
(18,124 posts)even the evangelical right had to question this revisionism. Some kids now don't even know there was a conflict in Viet Nam. It's been completely purged from history lessons: huh: well you know what Santayana said....
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Volume 1, 1905
Citizen Worker
(1,785 posts)Uncle Joe
(58,284 posts)Thanks for the thread, underpants.
Judi Lynn
(160,450 posts)The faces in the photo look as if they are above absolutely NOTHING in pursuit of their goals.
That kind of stupidity which has overtaken their faces is unnatural.
ronnie624
(5,764 posts)Rational discussion of political issues is rare in these parts.
Godot51
(239 posts)... from a "people" who want to rewrite their own scripture because they cannot live up to the expectations of their religion, their savior and their god?
We live in a world of hacks. David Barton will not be the last revisionist, alas.
Jack Sprat
(2,500 posts)but why was it a best-seller to begin with? I guess the conserva-quacks don't mind wasting their time reading make-believe books. Why doesn't he write a book detailing Old Hickory's lifelong pursuit of defending Native American lands? That's probably next.
caveat_imperator
(193 posts)How many of them has he altered or destroyed because they show his view of American history is entirely wrong?
I'm concerned for those papers.
rucky
(35,211 posts)The Jefferson Lies
and-justice-for-all
(14,765 posts)I wish I could say I am shocked.
and-justice-for-all
(14,765 posts)not a bible thumping neanderthal, he also did not believe in any of the magic that litters the bible and so he wrote "The Jefferson Bible" which brought jeebus down to earth and nothing more than a man.
When facts are not on your side, all you can do is LIE LIE LIE.