Reg Against The Machine

New York Sun staff writer Robert Assshiner Asahina takes a brave stand against the persecution of Dame Judy Stench:

But aren't publishers supposed to be daring, even if they act in dubious taste? In a publishing environment that is increasingly bottom-line driven, Mr. Murdoch and Ms. Regan's immediate superior at HarperCollins, Chief Executive Officer Jane Friedman, can hardly complain that Ms. Regan's daring hasn't paid off. In fact, she has probably been the single most successful publisher in the industry, perhaps in recent memory.

It's difficult to avoid the conclusion that Ms. Regan was fired not for her legendarily difficult personality -- and not, or not just, because of her longstanding rivalry with Ms. Friedman -- but for her repeated affronts to the bland conformity of New York publishing.

Assshiner then takes the time from mailing his ms. to Ms. Regan to portray her as a victim of the elitist liberal publishing industry:

Would Ms. Regan be considered even remotely controversial if she had published, say, Noam Chomsky, Al Franken, and Karen Finley? By this measure, Ms. Regan's chief sin seems to have been that her authors sold millions of books to exactly the kind of readers that New York publishers wish weren't their customers.

If she recruited Noam, Al and/or Karen to write a book about how they might have knifed two people to death (who had in fact been knifed to death), probably, yes.

(By the way, Regan published books by Ralph Nader, Michael Moore, and Joe Trippi. Isn't that the exact same thing?)

Don't worry, Bob, there are plenty of other sewers Regan can infest, and it's more likely she'll return your calls now.