Yahoo Movies Sen. Josh Hawley Book Dropped By Simon & Schuster Lands At Conservative Regnery Publishing
Conservative publishing house Regnery has picked up Sen. Josh Hawley’s upcoming book The Tyranny of Big Tech that was dropped by Simon & Schuster after the Jan. 6 siege on the Capitol. The Missouri Republican had repeatedly supported and gave voice to President Donald Trump’s disinformation campaign about vote tampering and election results leading up to the deadly attack.
Hawley, who was photographed giving a clenched fist salute to Capitol protestors shortly before the gathering turned violent, was dropped by Simon & Schuster on Jan. 7, with the publisher citing Hawley’s “role in what became a dangerous threat.”
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Today, Regnery president and publisher Thomas Spence called Simon & Schuster’s decision an example of blacklisting. In a column published in The Wall St. Journal, Spence wrote, “We’re proud to publish Mr. Hawley’s book, which his original publisher has made more important than ever. We don’t have to agree with everything—or anything—Mr. Hawley does. We ask only if his book is well-crafted and has something true and worthwhile to say. The answer is yes.”
Spence, whose company publishes books by Ann Coulter, Sarah Palin and Ted Cruz, wrote, “Reasonable people can disagree whether [Hawley’s] act was noble or cynical, courageous or rash, but no one can reasonably argue that he intended to incite that afternoon’s invasion of the Capitol by a lawless mob.”
Simon & Schuster had planned on releasing the book in June, but reversed course after, the company said, “witnessing the disturbing, deadly insurrection…”
Hawley called Simon & Schuster’s decision “Orwellian” and “an assault on the First Amendment,” descriptions that were factually inaccurate. Both Orwell’s 1984 and the First Amendment address governmental control of speech.
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