Bush murder trial book, blacked out by mainstream media, thrives on Internet

07/15/2008 @ 9:43 am

from Rawstory.com

Former Los Angeles district attorney Vincent Bugliosi became widely known as the prosecutor of Charles Manson and later wrote bestselling books about that case, the O.J. Simpson trial, and other topics. However, Bugliosi's latest effort, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, has faced what CNN calls "a virtual media blackout."

Bugliosi says that no one in the mainstream media would review his book, which argues that Bush should be charged with murder for the deaths of over 4000 American soldiers in Iraq if he lied to get the nation into war. "My book was completely rejected across the board by network and cable," Bugliosi told CNN.

Larry King passed up the chance to interview Bugliosi, and neither MSNBC nor Comedy Central's The Daily Show expressed any interest when the book came out in May. (Bugliosi did finally appear on MSNBC's Morning Joe last Friday.) ABC Radio even refused an ad for The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder.

"So how did the book become a bestseller?" asks CNN.

The answer is that Bugliosi's publisher, the Vanguard Press, started advertising on liberal blogs. The blogs themselves then began discussing the book, and it sold 130,000 copies in six weeks.

"I'm very, very encouraged, and very grateful to them," Bugliosi stated. "Without them, the book would not be a New York Times bestseller."

"There was a decision that was made by the media that was actually really out of sync with the demand," Isabel MacDonald of Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting told CNN. "With the rise of the Internet and the blogosphere, we've really seen books take off without any reviews."

Buglosi insists that his book was not merely overlooked by the media because of "Bush-bashing fatigue," but that he was the victim of a deliberate blackout. "I've had national coverage for every one of my other books," he notes. "People are extremely interested in this book, but they're terrified of it."