Howlers? Try this:
Quote:
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"Amazon is holding the entire book industry hostage," says Oren Teicher, CEO of the American Booksellers Association. "First they disintermediated retailers, and now it's publishers and authors."
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People shouldn't use big words they don't understand.
Disintermediation doesn't mean what he thinks it does.
(And note neither the reporter nor the CNNMoney editors, if any exist, caught this. At a minimum it calls for a "SIC" highlight.)
Disintermediation is a short and snappy way of saying "cutting out the middleman".
Amazon can't disintermediated retailers; they *are* a retailer.
Amazon can't disintermediate authors; they are one of the two indispensable end points of the supply chain.
Presumably, Teicher meant to say Amazon is *facilitating* the disintermediation of publishers and *agents*. What he neglects is that the power to disintermediate publishers and/or agents lies with the *authors*, not Amazon. Amazon simply makes it a viable option.
And let's not get into the hyperbole of hostage-taking. (What demands is Amazon making?) Out of all the metaphors available (Hijacking, seducing, displacing...) that's the best charge to make? No wonder Amazon is eating their breakfast, lunch, and supper.
Sheer desperation...