Tuesday night, I wrote about the controversy surrounding the forthcoming book by Police Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, one of the cops involved in the killing of Breonna Taylor in Louisville last year. The story followed my review of Send a Runner: A Navajo Honors the Long Walk, in the Book News section of my weekly Nonfiction Views contribution to the Readers and Book Lovers group. Since I haven’t seen a story about this, and in light of the George Floyd verdict yesterday, I thought I’d publish it as a stand-alone story.
The book world was roiled last week when Post Hill Press announced it would be publishing a memoir by Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, one of the police officers who fired one of the shots that killed Breonna Taylor—and who filed a suit against Ms. Taylor’s boyfriend for battery, assault and emotional distress. The book’s title is The Fight for Truth: The Inside Story Behind the Breonna Taylor Tragedy.
Actually, it wasn’t Post Hill Press who originally announced it; the Louisville Courier-Journal broke the news after the boneheaded Mattingly unthinkingly spilled the beans by calling one of the newspaper’s staff photographers to get permission to use a photo for his upcoming book. Post Hill subsequently confirmed the news when the Courier-Journal called them. Social media quickly erupted.
The indie press Post Hill has a third-party distribution agreement with Simon & Schuster. At first, S&S tried to finesse the issue by stating they had no editorial control over its distribution clients, but within hours backed down and announced they would NOT distribute this particular book.
Simon & Schuster faced a similar firestorm earlier this year, when under pressure they dropped a book by seditionist GQP Senator Josh Hawley. They’ve published some anti-Trump books, including Mary Trump, Bob Woodward, and John Bolton, though they also publish the likes of Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson…AND they just signed a two-book deal with Mike Pence. They also are the third-party distributor for the odious right-wing Regnery Publishing, which first rose to prominence with the swift-boating of John Kerry. Note that Regnery picked up Hawley’s book after S&S dropped it, so Simon & Schuster is having it both ways on that book.
Post Hill Press has a mostly conservative slant, and has published books by Dan Bongino, Laura Looper, and—yes—Matt Gaetz. They are publishing Mattingly under their Bombardier Books imprint, which has this charming mission statement:
In a time when the media and much of America’s elite tries to limit and stifle debate in the name of sensitivity, safe spaces, and political correctness, now more than ever we need writers with courage and conviction—and the gift to be able to express themselves with intelligence, eloquence, and good humor. Now is the perfect time to unleash a torrent of provocative thought onto the political and cultural battleground.
This is the mission of Bombardier Books. Because sometimes you need to drop rhetorical bombs from 40,000 feet to get people to hear new ideas. Other times you need to target bad policies with laser precision to take them out before they do too much damage. And occasionally you need a tailgunner to defend your comrades-at-arms from sneak attacks.
This we do without fear, but always with one goal in mind: that free speech and open debate make for a stronger society. Only by hearing all voices can we sustain the American Experiment into the 21st century and beyond.