CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER
Johnston’s
Book on Corporate Welfare Strikes out at the Times
22 Corporate Crime Reporter 5, January 31, 2008
(Woops -- After running this,
we received a phone call from a person in the know who says this -- A book review
of Free Lunch will run this Sunday in the New York Times.)
David Cay Johnston is a Pulitizer-prize winning business reporter at the New
York Times.
And he has written a book about corporate welfare.
The title of the book is Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (And Stick You With the Bill) (Portfolio, 2008)
The title of the book says it all.
The book has been reviewed by Business Week, the Milwaukee Journal, the Baltimore Sun, the Denver Post, and the Oregonian, among others.
Johnston has appeared on Fresh Air with Terry Gross and Democracy Now with Amy Goodman.
And today, Free Lunch sits at Number 8 on the New York Times best sellers list.
As a little known perk of working at the paper of record, every New York Times' reporter who writes a book gets two reviews in the paper of that book – one in the Times’ Sunday book review section and one in the daily book review section.
But Corporate Crime Reporter has learned that Free Lunch will not be reviewed in the Times.
Not twice.
Not even once.
The reason?
We are told that the heavies at the Times believe that the book is “too strident.”
Too opinionated.
Not balanced enough.
What’s Johnston supposed to say – the richest one percent of this country has an inalienable right to rip it off?
Yes, the book is an attack on deregulation.
Yes, the book details how homeowners’ title insurance became a deceitful, yet almost invisible oligopoly.
Yes, the book exposes how government gives hidden subsidies to posh golf courses.
Yes, the book shows how the most powerful 0.1 percent of American manipulated our government at the expense of the other 99.9 percent.
Yes, the book puts under a microscope the nation’s health care system and shows how it got so messed up.
And yes, this book will not be reviewed by the New York Times.
The author’s own newspaper.
The newspaper of record.
Every other reporter for the Times gets two reviews.
David Cay Johnston gets zero.
Yes, Margaret, there is no such thing as a Free Lunch (book review) at the New York Times.
Corporate
Crime Reporter
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