Tell Amazon to Treat Carter's Book Fairly

[helderheid]

To: Jeff Bezos, CEO, Amazon.com

As longtime Amazon customers, we are deeply disturbed by your treatment of Jimmy Carter's important new book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.

Under the "Editorial Reviews" heading – a space normally used either for the publisher's own description of a book, or for short, even-handed summaries from listing services such as Booklist and Publishers Weekly – you insist on running the complete, 20-paragraph, 1,636-word text of a review unabashedly hostile to Carter's viewpoint. You have refused to add information shoppers should have in evaluating this review: the fact that the reviewer, Jeffrey Goldberg, is a citizen of Israel as well as the United States, and that he volunteered to serve in the Israeli Defense Forces, for which he worked as a guard at a prison for Palestinian detainees. And you have refused to balance his negative review by giving comparable space to a favorable assessment of the book, even though positive reviews by qualified experts have appeared in many reputable publications.

Because giving so much space in this location to such a negative review is so unusual – if not unprecedented – for Amazon, and because you have refused requests from many customers that you take a more balanced approach, we can only conclude that you are deliberately trying to discourage shoppers from ordering the former President's book.

This is contrary to Amazon's own interests as a bookseller. More important, it's also contrary to the interests of understanding, peace, and justice for all parties to the Israel/Palestine conflict

We are not interested in supporting a corporation that uses its power in the marketplace in such a biased and unconstructive way on such an important issue.

Accordingly, if you do not, by Jan. 22, remove the Goldberg review, move it to the more appropriate "See all Editorial Reviews" page, or restore a semblance of balance by giving comparable space and prominence to a more positive evaluation of Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, we the undersigned pledge to:

1. Stop shopping at Amazon.com;

2. Completely close our accounts on your service; and

3. Encourage our friends, family, and associates to do likewise.
Sincerely,

The Undersigned

View Current Signatures


http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?Amazon07

[Jeffersons Ghost]

1. I feel this got pushed to the back pages with too few viewings... maybe it deserves attention...

sine, President and humanitarian Jimmy Carter is a genius that won the Nobel Peace Prize.

[Junkdrawer]

2. K&R

[Junkdrawer]

3. K&R

[Tom Joad]

4. A friend of mine put that petition up. It's doing well.

[IndyOp]

9. Kudos to your friend - that is a well-reasoned and well-written

petition. Setting aside intense emotion and saying what you want simply goes a long way.

:applause:

[Junkdrawer]

5. I ordered a controversial book from Amazon and they kept telling me...

that there would be another 1 month "delay" in fulfilling the order. I canceled the order and BN.com had it in my hands in 2 days.

Go figure.

[mnhtnbb]

6. WOW. Thanks for posting. Carter is being smashed for daring

to express a viewpoint that needs exposure.

[bonito]

7. More neocon propaganda

Americans for victory over terrorism

Though it seems barely to be active as of fall 2006, AVOT now describes itself as a “project of the Claremont Institute,”

During its inaugural press conference, AVOT leaders announced that as part of the effort to combat the internal “threat” posed by dissidents of Bush's war on terrorism, they had compiled a list of statements by professors, legislators, and writers that the group deemed objectionable—an effort that mirrored an earlier initiative to monitor war opponents by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a group founded by Lynne Cheney, the wife of Vice President Dick Cheney, and Lieberman. Among those listed were Lewis Lapham, the longtime editor of Harper's Magazine, former President Jimmy Carter, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), and novelist John Edgar Wideman.
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1437

[me b zola]

8. done, k&r

:kick:

[malaise]

10. I've ordered a copy from B & N

I never shop at Amazon.

[femmedem]

11. Thanks for posting this.

Amazon just lost my business.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Diane R]

13. I won't shop at Amazon, either. K&R

[EdwardM]

14. This sounds like a stupid reason for a boycott.

Must we boycott everything for every trivial reason? Many books there have negative reviews. In fact the current right wing turd of the week, Dinesh D'Souza, has a very negative review at Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Enemy-At-Home-Cultural-Responsibility/dp/0385510128 Read there, the first editorial review is not friendly at all. Probably an automatic computer put up the reviews for Jimmy Carter's book. I'm sure Amazon isn't on a crusade against Jimmy Carter. Please, you look foolish for boycotting over stupid stuff like this.

[Behind the Aegis]

15. Tempest in a teapot.

[Scurrilous]

16. Kick

:kick: