Publisher Speaks Out On McClellan Hype, Backlash

Writing on Editor and Publisher this morning, Public Affairs Books founder and editor-at-large Peter Osnos addresses the media frenzy that's greeted the announcement of Scott McClellan's forthcoming volume, What Happened. In summation, Osnos is seemingly shocked--shocked!--that the marketing strategy his company pursued with regard to McClellan's book has actually worked in the manner that was intended.

For Osnos, there's a certain amount of expectations management that needs to be done now that everyone's suddenly interested in the book. For one thing, the book isn't finished. "McClellan is still at work on his book," Osnos avers, adding, "At PublicAffairs, it is not unusual for writers to be finishing their books at the time we announce publication because the sell-in to stores has to take place months before the books actually arrive." Besides, what happens if McClellan proves to be no better at writing than he was at being press secretary.

Still, there's only a certain amount of spin one can accept from Osnos before it starts to strain credulity. This may be Osnos' first experience with the accelerated hype machine of the internet, but for the lengths he goes to to express just how gosh darned flabbergasted he is that a humble bit of online ad copy has transfixed everyone's imagination, you can't help but notice that he's taken the opportunity to reproduce that copy in its entirety for E&P, even carefully honoring that boffo single-sentence paragraph, "There was one problem. It was not true."

"Rereading the excerpt now," Osnos confesses, "I can see why it was so exciting." The magical gnomes that coded up that excerpt for the Public Affairs website without anyone's knowledge could not be reached for comment.

Comments

[dajson]

I'd say we've all read everything in his book worth reading since his admission to lying probably won't even be in the final copy of this Republican BS.

[Spookcatcher]

Keep spinning, publisher, keep it spinning. Give more time for McClellan to try to come up with something to write in his book, that people might actually think they didn't really waste their foolish money on a hyped peice of bird cage liner, that they really got some great writng and insight from a Bush Crony, for their money this time.

[DLSteinhardt]

It's long been a ploy of the current GOP era that major figures try to be on both sides of the issues: witness Sen. Spector's repeated outrage, followed by consistent capitulation to the Administration.

McClellan's charges are out there now. There's no putting that genie back in the bottle, no matter how much he might protest what his intentions were.

[Maxbyte]

I doubt that the tale of McClellan's book will be told by the portion that has been "leaked". Rather, it will be how accurate it appears to be in overall context, and whether or not McClellan documents a sustained and deliberate attempt to mislead Americans and other nations. If McClellan does that, he will utterly destroy everything Bush and the gang have not already destroyed in terms of this administration's "positive" legacy.

With the exception of the current press secretary, it is interesting that Tony Snow has neither denied nor agreed with the pattern McClellan seems to present. I do not know if Tony's health has continued to improve, but hope it has. Unlike McClellan, who has a bad case of PMS around the clock, Snow is a pretty decent guy.

It is amusing but silly for Perino to speak out in support of Bush at this early stage. McClellan's point is that he was kept in the dark about the veracity of the information he was given. Why does Perino believe she would be treated differently? Dumb and dumber. Perino can't connect dots. Ditz.

[contrariandy]

The reason they are now saying that Bush and Card didn't lie to Scotty is that they weren't directly involved like the other three who directly committed the treasonous acts and therefore clearly knew that they were lying to Scotty. Apparently, Scotty doesn't have absolute proof that Bush and Card knew everything and that every word they said to him about it was also a lie.

[OckhamsElectricRazor]

Incompetent as press secretary; incompetent now.

[Dejack]

I predict this will happen: inasmuch as McClellan is STILL WRITING his book, watch the explosive passage be DELETED when the book is released in April? Why? Because he's re-writing it! The excuse will be he never expected to cause such an furor and give the wrong impression of the president's involvement; he wants to set the record straight; his earlier "draft" left the wrong impression, yada yada yada. I guarantee that will happen, and will be just another example of the Bush administration's revision of history. Guaranteed this will happen.

[ajax2]

The publisher has only one choice, remove the quotation marks around ' five WH officials including the President sent me out to lie'.

[MrBritesnide]

What hype?
We knew this all along. McClellan is re-stating the bloody obvious.

[ptarantino]

Tell it all Scott & help save this Country.

[drblack]

What media frenzy?
This man admits Cheney made him lie to the American people..This on top of all the other treasonous acts by Cheney should get him impeached and tried for treason.
If the Federal government doesn't follow the law why should anyone?

[desertdweller]

Does anyone notice the powerful and obnoxious odor of mendacity?

[TWOSHORT]

Greed will get you in trouble,Dam we have tablode press in this nation real new stories and bullshit sell's at 5 and 6 nitely in America! who really know the truth any more?Did any body check's too see if the story has leg's.Just a comment to wet the appite so that the book would sell.

[dax49]

these guys need to stop worrying about making a buck, and start being aware that these charges relate to our constitution being violated. aren't there any americans around anymore?

[jhNY]

Osnos has been employed in various capacities in the news business for better than 3 decades. It's a little late in the day, and he's a little long in the tooth, to get much traction out of his newfound naivete at least, one would hope, among his peers. It's called payday. He's cashing in. Wait to note the look of happy surprise when he counting up the receipts once the almost-book is real.