Are you proud of our “National Book Festival?”

by RoryLitwin

There’s a brief article in Counterpunch about the National Book Festival, which features our very non-warlike First Lady. It is intended as a happier source of news than the complete disaster we have created in the Middle East, from which news consumers and election-hopeful Republicans would understandably like some relief.

The main things that Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman point out in this article are that the “National Book Festival” is heavily corporate sponsored, that it is not a transparent operation at all but handled by a PR firm, that the books celebrated are all vetted by the organizers of the affair and don’t include anything critical of the government, and that though it is advertised as a Library of Congress event, Library of Congress staff have little or nothing to do with it.

3 comments on “Are you proud of our “National Book Festival?””

  1. And the article provides a pretty good reading list. So, the books may not be at the festival, but you can seek them out. Best, and keep on blogging.

  2. Rory, the Festival is sponsored by the Library of Congress: Why should it be expected to present views one way or the other about the “government” (i.e., the Bush Administration, as is shown by the article’s list of absent authors)? “History & Biography” is only one of the 7 categories of authors at the Festival, and of the 12 authors listed under the category, I don’t see any who appear to be saying anything about the Administration at all. Again, it’s sponsored by the Library of Congress. What’s the big deal?

    Also, where is your evidence that the books are “vetted” by sponsors? Where is your evidence that LOC staff had “little or nothing” to do with the event?

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