“When progressive provocateur Michael Moore was down and out, he found help from an unlikely source. After September 11, Moore’s publisher, HarperCollins, told him that his new book, Stupid White Men, wouldn’t be released unless he cut some controversial sections and rewrote others. When Moore balked, HarperCollins told him it would simply cancel the book. That December, a few days after he learned that his book was destined for early recycling, Moore went to speak to a meeting of the progressive group New Jersey Citizen Action. He told group members of his plight and read a few chapters from the doomed book. When members asked him what they could do, Moore told them that there were more important battles to fight.”
“Ann Sparanese, who was sitting in the audience, didn’t see it that way. “Problem is, I am a librarian,” says Sparanese, head of reference at the Englewood Library in New Jersey. “I was shocked . . . I think we’re used to books being censored by the government for having either classified or embarrassing information in them, but this was actually being censored by a publisher who had already invested in printing the book . . . That really kind of stunned me.” (from American Prospect)
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