Thread by @SethAbramson

This is grotesque.

Celadon Books promises an 880-page final report from the House January 6 Committee by September 6, 2022, when there may be no report in September, any such report would be an interim one, and we’ve no idea when a final report will come. amazon.com/gp/aw/d/125087…

PS/ When I say major media cares more about money than America, this is what I’m referring to. Thompson already said any fall report would be a brief *interim* report—and if Democrats keep the House there may not be a final report until 2023/2024—yet this book is raking in money.

PS2/ A product like this creates a sense among the public and in media that the January 6 Committee will have done something *wrong* if it doesn’t issue its final report by early September. It’s an attempt to rush the most important investigation in U.S. history to make a buck.

PS3/ While I’d have to do more research to come to a final conclusion, I question the legality of marketing a book as a final report due on a date certain when the chair of the committee at issue has *explicitly* said at *best* a brief *interim* report *might* appear that month.

PS4/ Which brings me to the other issue with a disgusting cash-grab like this: having raked in hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in an at best misleading ad campaign, Celadon Books almost *has* to misrepresent this book as a final report even if it knows it isn’t.

PS5/ What legal liability should Amazon bear for listing a book that misrepresents what it is and the certainty of its release? Imagine legions of Americans reading a brief interim report and being told it’s a final report so Amazon and Celadon can make money off an insurrection.

PS6/ Keep in mind why Celadon is doing this: to profit off releasing the book before a national election. So it’s going to misinform Americans about the “final” findings of the most important congressional committee in U.S. history right before a national election—to make a buck.

PS7/ Does anyone at Celadon stop and say, “Well, we *could* get away with this, but we shouldn’t even *try* to because the stakes for our democracy are far too high”? No! In fact, it does the opposite: it holds up this book as evidence it cares about America. That makes me livid.

PS8/ If you buy this book, it’s entirely possible that what you’ll *actually* get is *not* an 880-page final report but a 100-page *interim* report with enough filler from people who know very little about January 6 for Celadon to *pray* that folks don’t ask for their money back.

PS9/ Of course, if the profiteering we saw around the Mueller Report is any indication, what Celadon *may* do instead is simply postpone the book indefinitely—*after* it has racked up preorders by pretending it had no advance warning a final report might not come until next year.

PS10/ If the U.S. publishing industry were in a healthy state—and not a dilapidated dog park in which editors and publishers scrabble around like starving mongrels looking for a buck—we wouldn’t see shamelessness like this. But publishing, like America, is in a state of sickness.

NOTE/ And I hope no one is naive enough to think there isn’t major money in a grotesque ploy like this. The Mueller Report summaries, which began appearing on Amazon a year before the report arrived—all with false publication dates and page-counts—were bestsellers. And now this: