Wow. This is very surprising to me and is sure to provoke howls of protest and claims of persecution from Barton, Glenn Beck and the rest of those liars. Thomas Nelson has decided to pull David Barton’s book The Jefferson Lies because it contains so many falsehoods.
The Thomas Nelson publishing company has decided to cease publication and distribution of David Barton’s controversial book, The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You’ve Always Believed about Thomas Jefferson, saying it has “lost confidence in the book’s details.”
Casey Francis Harrell, Thomas Nelson’s director of corporate communications, told me the publishing house “was contacted by a number of people expressing concerns about [The Jefferson Lies].” The company began to evaluate the criticisms, Harrell said, and “in the course of our review learned that there were some historical details included in the book that were not adequately supported. Because of these deficiencies we decided that it was in the best interest of our readers to stop the publication and distribution.”
The Jefferson Lies no longer appears in searches on Thomas Nelson’s website. Barton’s own WallBuilders Press published most of his earlier books.
Thomas Nelson is a huge Christian publishing house. Unfortunately, this will do little good. Barton will simply publish it on his own and now he’ll be able to market it to the ignorami by telling them it’s what THEY don’t want you to see. They might as well rename Wallbuilders as “Crossbuilders” because you know damn well they’re building a cross right now for Barton to climb up on and crucify himself to prove his martyrdom.
Unfortunately, while all the credit for this is going to Warren Throckmorton, John Fear and other evangelicals, it’s our own Chris Rodda who has, for years, done the painstaking research to reveal one lie after another told by Barton. She deserves a lot more credit and much wider recognition for all the work she’s done to expose him.
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David C Brayton
August 10, 2012 at 11:12 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
After saying that they “lost confidence in the book’s details” one has to wonder how they became confident in the details initially. It’s not like Barton doesn’t already have a notorious reputation. I wonder what the publisher’s process was.
TGAP Dad
August 10, 2012 at 11:18 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
As it turns out, the title iof this book was completely appropriate! (But I believe Chris Rodda pointed this out early on, and way before I did.)
Randomfactor
August 10, 2012 at 11:23 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I wonder what the publisher’s process was.
“He’s a Christian? OK, he’s in.”
VeritasKnight
August 10, 2012 at 11:30 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
So, you’re donating your share of the proceeds from publishing a liar to…who?
Not that I think they have to, but if I was selling a book that dirty, I’d want the profits gone as well.
tubi
August 10, 2012 at 11:31 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Barton responds.
As the writer at Right Wing Watch points out, we’ve so far heard nothing in Barton’s defense from the usual suspects-Beck, Bachmann, Huck, Newtie, et al.
oranje
August 10, 2012 at 11:58 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I love the response that there was a room full of Ph.D.s who approved of his work. But that he can’t name any of them because they didn’t give their permission. I bet his girlfriend is Canadian, too. We wouldn’t know her.
usingreason
August 10, 2012 at 12:05 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Ah yes, the old ‘They have a PhD’ defense; a doctorate in Theology from a wingnut school is the trump card they like to play; grow up.
d cwilson
August 10, 2012 at 12:05 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
No names and apparently, nothing about what field their PhDs. were in. We’re just supposed to assume they were all historarians and not say, theologians with doctorates from Ken Hamm’s diploma mill.
d cwilson
August 10, 2012 at 12:06 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Argh! usingreason beat me to it!
Michael Heath
August 10, 2012 at 12:21 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Whee!!!
However, I have zero confidence this publisher will effectively change their processes to eradicate publishing future falsehoods. That their commitment to lying remains firmly in place.
Evidence they actually care about not promoting falsehoods would require them putting disclaimers in the front of Bible’s revealing that certain assertions made by the Bible’s authors and editors have been falsified, and then footnote each one which is false or lacks evidence and in some cases is irrational as well. Evidence they’ve changed their process would have them not publishing hardly any of the original content currently being written and published by them.
So while it’s a sweet day encountering a liar being ostracized to some extent, the commitment to lying by evangelical Christians remains firmly in place, including by those conservative Christians who are the critics calling Barton out on this book.
Eric R
August 10, 2012 at 12:25 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
He cant tell us how many PhD’s were in the room?, it could be because he doesnt know if any PhD’s were in the room, or he does know and the answer is zero.
Eric Ressner
August 10, 2012 at 12:27 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Barton’s “I can’t tell you how many Ph.D.’s were in the room” is not quite the same thing as saying, “There were a shitload of Ph.D.’s in the room.”
Not that Ph.D. by itself is a superior qualification to validate his work, as others have pointed out … but the number he can’t tell us could just as easily be zero as twenty.
Eric Ressner
August 10, 2012 at 12:28 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Rats, beated by two minutes, curiously by someone with the same first name and last initial as me. We aren’t in an alternate universe today by any chance, are we?
Geds
August 10, 2012 at 12:38 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Not that Ph.D. by itself is a superior qualification to validate his work, as others have pointed out … but the number he can’t tell us could just as easily be zero as twenty.
Yup. I have a mere BA in history and I can tell you that Barton is full of shit. At this point I’m not willing to trust him when he says his name.
Big Boppa
August 10, 2012 at 1:15 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@11 and 12
I can’t tell you how many Eric R.s are in this thread.
Well, I could….but I don’t want to.
ArtK
August 10, 2012 at 2:15 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I’m sure that several of those PhDs are going to waive confidentiality and step forward to support Barton…
… Anyone? … Beuller? …
I can just imagine the conversation:
Barton (to PhD): I need your help. God wants you to waive confidentiality and come out in support of my book!
PhD (to him/herself): God wants me to commit career suicide? I’d take a major hit to my credibility if I said anything positive about that POS. Look at the people who’ve come out against it!
PhD (to Barton): Do I know you?
As an aside, the “we have evidence but can’t show it to you” has always bugged me. It’s so very, very childish.
Ed Brayton
August 10, 2012 at 2:59 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
oranje wrote:
You are hereby awarded one internet. That’s brilliant.
mikedoughney
August 10, 2012 at 3:12 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Thomas Nelson isn’t just a “Christian publishing house.” As of last month it’s a subsidiary of HarperCollins, which is part of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. Since 1988, they’ve also owned Christian publishing house Zondervan.
Fact is, a number of supposedly “Christian” publishers and music labels are owned by secular conglomerates. Another example is EMI’s ownership of the Christian music label Sparrow, among others.
“Lost confidence” is PR bullshit. They were just too lazy to bother checking, they already know they’re in the business of selling massive piles of crap and lies, why should they care about adding one more turd on the pile?
tacitus
August 10, 2012 at 6:12 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
CBN got it’s interview with Barton
So, Thomas Nelson is ditching Barton completely, having been stung by their own lack of due diligence, and Barton is, well, continuing to be Barton.
democommie
August 11, 2012 at 2:42 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Any bets on whether this dust up between Barton and Nelson is more about profit sharing than truth or religion?
Thomas Nelson Realizes David Barton’s Latest Book is Full of $@#%, Pulls Book From Publication. I Faint. « Foster Disbelief
August 10, 2012 at 1:46 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
[...] Dispatches from the Culture Wars has the story: Wow. This is very surprising to me and is sure to provoke howls of protest and claims of persecution from Barton, Glenn Beck and the rest of those liars. Thomas Nelson has decided to pull David Barton’s book The Jefferson Lies because it contains so many falsehoods. The Thomas Nelson publishing company has decided to cease publication and distribution of David Barton’s controversial book, The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You’ve Always Believed about Thomas Jefferson, saying it has “lost confidence in the book’s details.” [...]