(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
The fact that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has been put in place by George W. Bush is being interpreted by some American pundits as meaning that Bush now needs to distance himself from the most extreme conservative forces ahead of next year's election. If that's right, it's probably wise of Bush. There are several clear signals that a liberal wind is sweeping over the United States at the moment – for example, if you look at the bestseller list for The New York Times. There is a lasting struggle between conservative and liberal ideologues. And it seems that the liberals have a small advantage.
For the past six weeks, books written by liberals have been over-represented on the list. The Publishers Weekly industry magazine went through last week's list, concluding that four of the top five had a liberal stance.
Americans are now using debate books to reorient themselves in the political landscape. This is especially true in the American context. Compared with Norwegian conditions, it becomes extra clear that something special is about to happen in the USA. The Norwegian Book Dealers' Association's overview from September does not distinguish between fiction and non-fiction books, but among the fifteen best-selling books there are also non-fiction books, but no one trying to enter the contemporary political ideology debate: Hamsun biography, Eva Joly memoirs, "Ona Fyr" , "Berlin", tips for you who want to quit smoking, a tribute to the slow life and Cappelen's new cookbook is in that case the closest we come.
Franken vs. O'Reilly
First on The New York Times bestseller list this week is "Lies (and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them) by Al Franken. It has been in the top ten for two months, and sales are starting to approach one million. The fierce popularity is partly due to the fact that the ultra-conservative Murdoch-owned TV channel Fox News Channel sued Franken at the end of August to stop the book. The reason was that the subtitle of the book, "A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right", was a reference to the Fox station's own slogan, "Fair and Balanced". Along with the cover, which showed a picture of the channel's high-profile anchorman, Bill O´Reilly, it was enough that Fox thought that the release seemed to be approved by the television station itself. It did not help that O´Reilly is one of the targets of Franken's satire. O´Reilly is a controversial figure in the American public. Not only does he ask his guests to shut up whenever it suits him, but he also has no qualms about comparing the Koran to Hitler's "Mein Kampf". The host has repeatedly boasted that he has received the journalist award Peabody, but Franken reveals in the book that O´Reilly does not. O´Reilly has also boasted that he is politically independent, but few have believed it. Franken has also excavated documents showing that the TV man is a registered Republican. After a few short days in the courtroom, the judge dismissed the lawsuit as being "totally unfounded both legally and factually". And the book, to the chagrin of Fox and O´Reilly, became a bestseller.
To make the farce even more complete: Second place on The New York Times bestseller list this week is Bill O´Reilly. "Who's Looking Out for You?" is called the book and O´Reilly has set out to attack individuals and institutions that he believes have failed the American population. This applies to both the US government, the media – and the Catholic Church.
Hard fronts
- This year's market for political titles seems to be stronger than ever. I never think I have seen so many books from the left on the bestseller list. It's pretty amazing, says David Rosenthal from publisher Simon & Schuster to Publishers Weekly.
He thinks some of the striking thing about the list is how hard the fronts are and how clearly they can be divided into a Republican and a Democratic wing.
Michael Moore's "Stupid White Men" is being touted as the prototype of the type of books that will dominate – and will dominate – the book market ahead of the 2004 election.
The Moore classic is still selling well, according to The New York Times list, with a 31st place this week – right in front of "The Lies of George W. Bush" by David Corn. With a slightly fresher title, the Corn book could quickly become an American bestseller, as is the expectation of Gary Webb's "The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq", which will be published in December. It is also expected that Michael Moore's new book "Dude, Where´s My Country?", Which has not yet been registered on the list, will challenge the top positions in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, Americans can look forward to number six on the list this week, “Bushwhacked. Life in George W. Bush´s America ”, written by the two Texas journalists Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose. The book is Moore for the slightly moody. It attacks Bush for everything from unemployment and tax breaks for the rich to the Enron scandal and the Iraq war. Both followed George W. Bush during his tenure as governor of Texas and even believe they could predict that this would happen. Not surprisingly, they recommend voters to be a little more creative next time. Just like Moore.
Bush criticism
Political commentator Laura Ingraham is in seventh place with "Shut Up & Sing". She is far more difficult to place on the political scale, because – as a conservative reviewer wrote: "The more you read Ingraham, the more you want to vote for the Democrats". Basically, Ingraham's errand is a critique of the elite in Hollywood, Washington and New York. Academics, anti-war protesters, secularists and French people alike get to review. Internationalists, she claims, "want to kill America." Entertainers, she believes, should "shut up and sing".
The book "The Great Unraveling", which is in eighth place, is also strongly critical of Washington. Differences are that the author Paul Krugman has knowledge of his topic. The economics professor and The New York Times columnist explores what went wrong in the transition between prosperity in the 1990s and the deplorable state the United States is in now. He places most of the blame on the Bush administration, which he believes is conducting "poor financial management hidden behind a flag."
In ninth place is a lost child, the TV psychologist Natasha Stoynoff, who offers readers "answers from the other side" in the book "After Life". Also third, fourth and fifth place is concerned with books that are not directly polemical (unlike last week) – a book that deals with Americans in Japanese captivity during World War II, a book that describes the ethnic genocides of Armenians and memoirs from Democrat Madeleine Albright.
In tenth place, however, is the polemical trend. In the book "Persecution", the conservative author David Limbaugh claims that liberals have declared war on Christianity. If you sneak further beyond the top ten list, you will find titles such as "Why America slept" (a critique of the Bush administration's betrayal ahead of September 11), "The Real America" (which defends most people against which any power) and "Losing bin Laden" (who blames Bill Clinton on 11/XNUMX).
The torch with list?
The New York Times bestseller list is the scene of an ideological war at the moment – in more ways than one, we must believe the newspaper itself. On October 5, The New York Times published a separate article about all the political books that topped the list, especially the war between O´Reilly and Franken. The journalist did not conclude, but went quite far in suggesting that the lists have been "fiddled" with. That is, liberal and Republican supporters have systematically placed orders for books at bookstores, but not necessarily picked them up. This means that liberals and Republicans recognize the importance of being visible on the list, but at the same time they are not sure who is actually leading.
Effective warfare against Bush is thus just a few keystrokes away – also for those in Norway who master the art of ordering books via the world's largest bookstore, American amazon.com.
