Inside Track- The New Censorship

"That's one group you don't want to mess with." The "group" is librarians, and the comment comes from iconoclastic author and filmmaker Michael Moore. Moore credits angry e-mails from librarians to his publisher, HarperCollins, with helping to end the impasse over release of his new book, Stupid White Men and Other Excuses for the State of the Nation. Moore was quoted in Publishers Weekly Newsline, an e-letter, which reported that the imbroglio between Moore and HarperCollins had finally ended with the publisher's decision to publish the title without changes in February.

Librarians' first take on the Moore book was a posting to the American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) list on December 4 by Englewood Public Library, NJ, librarian Ann Sparanese. She had heard Moore speak at the New Jersey Citizen Action convention, where he revealed that HarperCollins had told him it would not be distributing his new book in the wake of September 11 because of its "offensive" content. As Sparanese recounted it, Moore said he was asked to rewrite parts of the book, which was already printed and sitting in warehouses, or the book would be pulped. Among that "offensive" content is an open letter to President George Bush, with which Moore regaled his audience. Knowing Moore's brutal, sarcastic bent, it isn't surprising that the letter is insulting.

What Sparanese (and other librarians) found more offensive, however, was the attempt by HarperCollins to censor the book "because of the current war-inspired, antidissent atmosphere." Moore reportedly said the publisher "told him that he [was] being 'intellectually dishonest' not to state that G.W. Bush has done a good job in the last few months." When members of the audience asked Moore how they could help him, he reportedly told them they had more important censorship issues to deal with than his.

"I understand Moore's position," said Sparanese, "that with Ashcroft and the others running amok…the censorship by HarperCollins…is the least of the trouble we are in." Nevertheless, she wrote, "As librarians, it seems we are obligated to follow this up."

And, apparently, follow it up they did. The OIF posting made its way into librarians' e-mail via electronic discussion lists and e-letters, and they, in turn, responded with letters to the publisher that, along with hefty prepublication orders, Moore says helped persuade HarperCollins to publish Stupid White Men….

It is easy to say that Moore's book fell prey to charged post–September 11 feelings and the rah-rah war atmosphere. Originally, the publisher, with Moore's concurrence, had canceled his book tour, not unlike a number of other publishers and authors. According to Sparanese, Moore said, "He also didn't feel like going around selling books right after September 11." In the months since, while we're not back to business as usual, political humor has certainly rebounded (à la The Daily Show), and violent movies are back as is all the rest of pop culture that might have seemed so tasteless in September. If pop culture is back, why single out Moore to rewrite his book because it takes jabs at a president at war? Moore is right that librarians have stronger censorship issues than his on their plates—take a look at OMB Watch (www.ombwatch.org) for a list of public information removed from web sites by federal agencies and local and state governments, for instance.

The attempt to make Moore rewrite his book—already in print and ready for distribution—is less blatant and more insidious than the acts by our government and may be a harbinger of a new censorship that stifles creativity. Librarians like Sparanese are right to be on guard against it.