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| MYSTERY WRITER | |
 October 28, 1999 
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The NewsHour Media Unit is funded by a grant from
the Pew Charitable Trusts.
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JIM LEHRER: A recalled book is making headlines in the media and waves in the publishing business. Media Correspondent Terence Smith has the story.
PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH: That book accused me of being anti-Semitic. It accused me of obstructing the justice system by going to a judge and having a narcotics charge dropped and have George do community service. It's a lie. It was a vicious lie. TERENCE SMITH: On the book jacket, Hatfield is identified as a freelance Texas journalist and businessman. But the publisher discovered last week that Hatfield also is apparently a felon, convicted 11 years ago of hiring a hit man to kill a former boss.
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| What went wrong? | ||||||||||||||
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TERENCE SMITH: Joining us to discuss this latest publishing controversy are Lindy Hess of Radcliffe College, a former executive editor at Doubleday, and Bruce Sanford, a Washington lawyer who vets nonfiction books. He is author of Don't Shoot the Messenger, a book about the media. TERENCE SMITH: Welcome to you both. Lindy Hess, from your knowledge of publishing and your experience in publishing, how could this happen? What went wrong here?
TERENCE SMITH: But wouldn't you, as a publisher, if someone came to you, particularly someone's background who you didn't know personally, came to you with such a - you know, sort of extraordinary and explosive charge in the book, wouldn't that set off some bells? LINDY HESS: Well, as I say, a decision to publish the afterward, which contains this allegation, was made by the house at large with the help of lawyers. And one of the things that's puzzled me about the story is that the New York Times received an early version of the book, and they had three reporters work for three or four days nonstop to see if they could corroborate the story, and none of them came up with the fact that the author was a felon. So it may not be such an obvious kind of thing to be looking for. TERENCE SMITH: All right. Bruce Sanford, who, in fact, is responsible for the veracity of the contents of a book, the author or the publisher?
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| A case for libel? | ||||||||||||||
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BRUCE SANFORD: I think President Bush and Governor Bush, for that matter, could sue the author. And I think they would have a good case against the author, a strong case against the author. Here is an accusation that has been rumbling around Texas for years, floated by Governor Bush's political adversaries, undoubtedly. And nobody - dozens of news organizations have been to Texas to scour the landscape and try and find out if it's true - and there isn't any hard evidence. These are false accusations. And the sourcing in this book is three confidential sources. You know, they're not going to show up at a libel trial. TERENCE SMITH: Right. Lindy Hess, Robert Wallace said that he - we'd spoke to him today even though he wasn't willing to come on the broadcast - and he said that if Bob Woodward or some other responsible journalist had come to him with this book, he would not have had a problem with it. Would that have been your reaction? LINDY HESS: Absolutely. I think that issue was the book was ready to be published. And this afterward appeared two months ago. But the whole house considered it. I think even Bob Wallace did. The publisher looked at it. The editor looked at it. Tom Dunne looked at it. And the lawyers looked at it. The decision to publish the book with the afterward and bring it out early was a joint decision, so that there are a lot of people who felt that the book was true. Certainly, if you think about the news at that time, there was a lot of talk and Governor Bush himself was saying that he hadn't tried cocaine in seven years or twenty-four years. But this whole issue was very much in the air. TERENCE SMITH: Well, surely it was. Bruce Sanford, a criminal conviction, a criminal record is not in and of itself a bar to writing a book.
TERENCE SMITH: Lindy Hess, would you publish an author who had been convicted of such a crime? LINDY HESS: I think it was the fact that the author had lied to them. And when they realized that the author wasn't telling them truth, they, I think, confronted him with the fact that they had heard that he was a convicted felon. I believe he was actually in their offices at the time. He denied it. And they did the honorable thing immediately. Sally Richardson recalled the books instantly, which is the honorable correct thing to do, and shows that she is still a good gatekeeper of the ideas. TERENCE SMITH: And I assume financially punishing for a publisher. LINDY HESS: Oh, absolutely. 90,000 books is a significant part of anyone's budget. |
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| Competitive pressures in publishing | ||||||||||||||
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TERENCE SMITH: Right. Bruce Sanford, what does this decision tell you about the competitive pressures of the publishing industry these days? BRUCE SANFORD: I think it tells us actually, Terry, more about journalism, I think, than the competitive pressures. I think any publisher - TERENCE SMITH: How so? BRUCE SANFORD: Any publisher can make a mistake, I think. Every reputable publisher in New York and elsewhere have published books that in hindsight they wished they hadn't published. You can make mistakes. That's part of the process when you contract for a book and then a year or two later, you get a manuscript and it may or may not be more or less what you contracted for. So, it's not a perfect science, this business of publishing books. I think what's most troubling about this whole story is this rumor-mongering that keeps going on in journalism about the story that just keeps getting repeated so that I think half of the American people end up thinking that Governor Bush did something that in his past where there's no hard evidence of it. There's no substantiation for it. And I think that has a corrosive effect on the quality of our public life and on journalism.
LINDY HESS: I don't think so. I think that they published this book fast because there were other competing books coming out and because they felt they had a good news story. I feel when they made the decision to go ahead and publish this book, they believed in their author and they felt they had an important book and important message to tell the American people. And as soon as they lost confidence in their author, they pulled the book. So I feel that St. Martin's did responsible thing. TERENCE SMITH: Okay. The credibility of the - Bruce Sanford - the publishing industry to the consumer, how does that stand today? BRUCE SANFORD: Well, I think that's a problem for not just book publishing companies, but media companies, because when the public approaches media today, they worry that they're no longer about public service. They worry that all they're about is just making money. And I don't think that's necessarily true. I think journalism is still as much about public service as it's ever been. But I think the perception is different. TERENCE SMITH: Okay. Lindy Hess and Bruce Sanford, thank you both very much. LINDY HESS: Thank you, Terence. |
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TERENCE
SMITH: Last week, the publisher, St. Martin's Press, suspended distribution
of a new and controversial book, Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and
the Making of an American President, by J.H. Hatfield. 90,000 copies
of the unauthorized biography of the Texas governor had been printed
under the Thomas Dunne imprint. In an afterward, the book purports to
tell the untold story of George W. Bush, including an uncorroborated
allegation that he was arrested in 1972 for cocaine possession. The
book says that his father, the future President Bush, had used his influence
to get his son off -- and expunge the criminal record, a charge that
both father and son have denied. 
No
news organization has been able to corroborate the story of Bush's alleged
cocaine use, and reporters were pressuring Robert Wallace, a former
journalist and the editor in chief of St. Martin's for details. On Tuesday,
Wallace suddenly resigned, issuing a statement in which he denied that
he or his staff had oversight or control of the book. Robert Wallace
declined to come on this broadcast, but yesterday accepted a new job
as editorial director of "Talk" Magazine. 
LINDY
HESS, Radcliffe College: Well, I think that it's unusual for an editor
-- for a lawyer to -- for a writer not to be honest about who he is.
Apparently, Mr. Hatfield was very, very credible. And the book was vetted
by in-house counsel, out-of-house counsel, and he was an author who
had done a lot of publicity tours, had written a number of books. And
he was very persuasive, both personally and in his book. I mean, he
not only fooled the publisher, he fooled the agent, and I think he was
a kind of con man about his past, certainly. 
BRUCE
SANFORD, Lawyer/Author: It's the author. The author has a contractual
relationship with the publisher where they always warrant the truthfulness
of what they're giving the publisher, that there's no libel in it, that
there's no invasion of privacy, that all the copyright issues have been
cleared and authorized. And it's really the author's responsibility.
And then the publisher does -- because they can't independently verify
and re-research everything, it just is not possible to do that with
every book -- the publisher does a sort of legal review or vetting process.
And if something screams libel off the pages, they do a check. I think
what went on here, clearly, there was a conversation between the author
and the publisher that we don't know about because I know the lawyers
at St. Martin's Press. They're very good lawyers. There's something
here where I think St. Martin's just good hoodwinked; they got snookered.
TERENCE
SMITH: President Bush has said that he is still considering whether
or not he will sue over this matter. If he does, who would he sue, the
author, the publisher, and would he have a case? 
BRUCE
SANFORD: No. Certainly not. I think the problem here is I think St.
Martin's didn't know who they were dealing with, and they clearly had
had some conversations. But the fact that they've recalled the book
and taken it out of circulation, I think it must mean that they felt
deceived by this author. 
TERENCE
SMITH: Lindy Hess, does this speak more broadly to the publishing industry
to you? In other words, there are more titles being published all the
time and more pressure on publishers to produce books and to make money.
Is this what this was about?