Quote:
Originally Posted by desertgrandma
Okay, we will politely agree to disagree.
I can't get over the fact that this book is touted as 'non-fiction' That means it has to be the truth.
If you, as a person with terrific influence, are going to recommend it, then you had better be frackin' sure it is indeed the truth.
Otherwise, your credibility is in question. Leaving the responsibilities to the publisher is a cop out.
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DG .... even the Bible is only somebody's version of what they think the truth is.
Non-fiction doesn't mean a book is the truth. It only means that the person the story is based on actually lived and that the author has made an attempt to stick to the facts as closely as possible based on the resources at hand.
I'll grant you that the people who write (heh ... first I wrote "right" ... then I wrote "wright" ... I'm hopeless) first person accounts of something and then lie their freaking heads off should be publicly shamed and banned from writing anything that is not labeled fiction for the rest of their days.
However, expecting the publishers -- who are making buckets of money from a best selling book -- to do their job is not a "cop out." It is the publisher who sends the author out on that book tour, and if they are going to do that without checking the facts in the book they published, then they should take the hit.
It's a bit like blaming the teacher when a kid is uncontrollable in class. It's the parents who are raising the little angel, that's their job. It's the teacher's job to put some knowledge into it's little head ... not to teach it to act like a human being.
Oprah's job, Conan's job, Jay's job .... is to entertain their audience. They do it primarily by light interviews of people who are there specifically to promote a product. That's it.
Those people really have more than enough on their plate without expecting them or their staff to take on an huge background check on each and every detail of a book, or movie beforehand. Keep in mind, they do five shows every week, usually with more than one guest (forgive me if I do not know whether Oprah limits herself to one guest or not). How much time do you think they have to vet (sp??) each guest?
The publishing house, on the other hand, has ample time before they publish a book, sometimes even while the book is being written, to fact check. They even have people on staff who's job it is to do nothing else. It's their name going on the product ... not Oprah's.
I know when I recommend something (book, movie, product, web-site), it's based on my
experience with the thing. I don't fact check ... I either enjoyed the site, the book, the movie .... or I didn't. I place no guarantees on my recommendations. If I did, then I would expect someone to be paying me big bucks to do that job.
Oprah makes big bucks ... but as an entertainer, not as a book critic. And, speaking of which, there were a whole lot of professional book critics who were fooled by these twits. Then again ... they are employed as book critics ... not fact checkers.
And, I suppose we could do the dead horse number for several more posts, but, we are friends (and good ones), so we probably will just have to agree to disagree. But .... I am right, you know.
