Hi Barrett -
Sorry for delayed reply - just back from two weeks away.
Thanks for sending your materials, which crisply summarize the project.
Unfortunately I'm still not convinced this presentation of your astute
research and insights would attract a large enough audience to make it
commercially attractive for a major publisher, so I think I should step
aside. I have no monopoly on wisdom, though, so I hope you'll query other
agents.
Let's keep in touch regardless and I hope we might get the chance to work
together on another project soon.
/Ted
Ted Weinstein
TED WEINSTEIN LITERARY MANAGEMENT
35 Stillman Street, Suite 203
San Francisco, CA 94107
+1 415.546.7200
tw@twliterary.com
www.twliterary.com
From: Barrett Brown [mailto:barriticus@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, December 29, 2010 4:45 PM
To: tw@twliterary.com
Subject: Re: Barry Eisler, book
Hi, Ted-
I decided to heed your advice and take my time on this proposal and to take
the opportunity to do some editing, thinking about how I'd change the last
chapter in particular to reflect ongoing events, etc. Meanwhile have begun
writing for the Guardian and finished off some other projects that would
prove helpful in marketing the book if you decide to represent it and a
publisher decides to buy it. I also like to turn things in at the worst
possible time; was aiming for Christmas Eve but this will have to do.
Below, I have pasted the two-page proposal you asked for. I've run it by
Barry Eisler and one of my colleagues who assists me with administrative
tasks and thus this is something of a second draft. Take a look when you
have a moment and let me know if you'd like to discuss further. Also,
thanks again for taking the time to read through my first chapter as well
as for the informative phone conversation last month.
Summary
In 2003, Thomas Friedman won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. In 2005,
Friedman was invited to join the board of the Pulitzer committee. Our
nation is killing itself from within.
Most every industry contains within itself a system of negative feedback by
which to ensure that those who fail in their efforts are discouraged
whereas those who succeed are encouraged. The most notable exception is the
opinion media, which is itself among the most crucial and fundamental of
all industries, being fundamental to the manner in which the public thinks
- and thus votes, donates, and convinces its fellows, with the cumulative
process thereafter being translated into action on the part of the greatest
superpower to have ever existed. Thus it is that one of the most
influential institutions in the world - the institution of the American
punditocracy - is the least accountable. Once a pundit is made, he is
rarely unmade.
Thomas Friedman is one of the most influential individuals to work in the
most influential of industries, having written a popular New York Times
column for well over a decade, having graced the various network news and
cable networks for a similar period of time, and having written several
bestsellers which are themselves read and respected by a large swath of the
nations decision makers right on up to the current United States
president. That Thomas Friedman has made a large number of terrible
predictions while not elsewhere having made any particularly astute
predictions, that his assertions sometimes directly and hilariously
contradict assertions he mas made elsewhere, and that other columnists and
even bloggers of far lesser influence have exhibited a far superior track
record without having won any comparable acclaim is among the most obvious
of indications that the United States is incapable of managing and
distributing the information it requires to perform its role as a global
superpower with reasonable regard for the consequences. It does not help
matters that he is famously read by the current U.S. president.
To the extent that we actually examine the output of the most influential
and widely-read of what a hippie or Nixon might term to be the
"establishment" pundits, we find the same extraordinary rhetorical and
informational failures perpetrated by the majority of them. Charles
Krauthammer has managed to get entirely and profoundly wrong every U.S.
military conflict of the past twelve years along with a smattering of
foreign engagements for good measure. Having opposed the surge before a
year later supporting it and attacking those who opposed it, Krauthammer
even missed out on the conservative consolation prize. Despite such
predictive failures along with dozens of easily-discovered
self-contradictions and errors of fact, the columnist has grown only more
influential over this period and is now commonly counted as being among the
finest of commentators.
The picture remains grim or hilarious - depending on ones sense of humor -
even as we expand our view of it. Richard Cohen remains a respected staple
of The Washington Post despite mounting evidence that he is unqualified for
such a role by intellect and temperament. William Bennetts mediocre
partisanship and routine delivery of demonstrably incorrect information on
topics ranging from Prohibition to the present day have not prevented CNN
from drawing on his talents for the benefit of historical election-night
coverage that one might prefer consist largely of the competent. Martin
Peretz continues to do his part in making anti-Arab bigotry acceptable by
way of his purchased stewardship of The New Republic even as he earns
further contempt from many of his own writers and others who share his
views but can't help but notice the bizarre manner in which he seeks to
advance them. And then, there are those less respectable pundits with whom
we need not bother to criticize but with whom we nonetheless ought to
concern ourselves in the literal sense of the term.
There are two bits of silver lining to a situation that is all the more
serious by virtue of not being widely acknowledged. For one thing, the
communications age has barely begun to make its presence felt in comparison
to the new solutions it will soon bring thanks to those who have decided to
take advantage of them. Secondly, the pundits who have caused all the
aforementioned trouble are largely douchebags whose profitable forays into
douchebaggery are just as profitably outlined, as the author has discovered
over the past few years. This second piece of good news is, of course, a
subtle hint.
Marketing
I have a number of methods by which to market the book from my end, some
more conventional than others. My first book, Flock of Dodos: Behind Modern
Creationism, Intelligent Design, and the Easter Bunny, was blurbed by Alan
Dershowitz (Flock of Dodos is in the great tradition of debunkers with a
sense of humor, from Thomas Paine to Mark Twain.), Matt Taibbi ("Here's
the problem with America's born-again wackos: only a gifted comic is
capable of describing them, but no one with a sense of humor can stomach
being around them. That's why there are so few books like Flock of
Dodos.), Cenk Uyger, (Jesus Christ and lesbian monkeys in the same book.
Brilliant. `Smart' and `funny' in the same book. Genius.), and others
while also receiving universally positive reviews (except from those
attacked in the book, who seemed not to have enjoyed it).
The book in question, meanwhile, has received advance blurbs from author
and war correspondent Michael Hastings ("A hilarious, brilliantly crafted,
full-on verbal assault on America's pundit class. Brown shows us just how
lazy, stupid, and corrupt almost of all our nation's most beloved
columnists have become. I'm now fully convinced that this entire generation
of over-published bullshit artists deserve to be tasered in the face, one
at a time, preferably on live television.), a former Newsweek contributor
who is best known for his Rolling Stone article which in turn led to the
immediate resignation of General Stanley McChrystal in 2010. Hastings is a
longtime colleague and a founding member of my distributed think-tank
Project PM. The manuscript has also been championed by bestselling author
and former covert CIA analyst Barry Eisler, who will be citing an argument
about Russia made therein in his next thriller novel in addition to serving
as an informal advisor to myself and PM. Producer Robert Green, a former
fact checker for Christoper Hitchens, is also working with me to ensure
that the book and the ideas therein take hold; we are also producing videos
for Will Farrels production company as well as a feature film based on a
treatment Ive been asked to write.
Im a contributor to Vanity Fair, The Huffington Post, The Guardian,
Skeptical Inquirer, and D Magazine, and my work has also appeared in
Skeptic, The Onion, New York Press, Nerve, National Lampoon, American
Atheist, and dozens of other outlets. My work has been linked to by Andrew
Sullivan, Glenn Greenwald, John Cole, Allison Kilkenny, and other prominent
and not-so-prominent bloggers and journalists.
Project PM, which I founded in summer of 2010, is made up of about 150
scientists, journalists, authors, and other media figures who are intent on
taking a more active and technology-driven stance against the media
structure described above while also developing similarly information-based
methods by which to solve a variety of other problems. Upon formal launch
in early 2011, PM will consist largely of two different networks - a
blogger network and a citizen network - both of which operate under the
same fundamental schematic that I've designed for the purpose. More
information can be provided on request; suffice to say that the manuscript
has been instrumental in bringing together many of our participants and
will benefit from serving as the central manifesto around which this group
is organized.
Aside from whatever useful bits of notierety I've gained through my early
support for Wikileaks and my work with key figures in the Anonymous
movement, I have also appeared on a number of media including Fox News and
Russia Today, recently served as an advisor to Virginia Democratic Senate
candidate Wynne LeGrow, have long acted as director of communications for
the Godless Political Action Committee, and have otherwise been involved in
a variety of efforts that will be useful in bringing attention to my work
in general in and this book in particular.
On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 2:46 PM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>
wrote:
Thanks, Ted; I'll get back to you with the two-pager this weekend or
thereabouts.
On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 2:44 PM, Ted Weinstein <tw@twliterary.com> wrote:
Hi Barrett -
Good talking with you. A few sample proposals attached.
/Ted
Ted Weinstein
TED WEINSTEIN LITERARY MANAGEMENT
35 Stillman Street, Suite 203
San Francisco, CA 94107
+1 415.546.7200
tw@twliterary.com
www.twliterary.com
From: Barrett Brown [mailto:barriticus@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2010 4:52 PM
To: tw@twliterary.com
Subject: Barry Eisler, book
Hi, Ted-
This is Barrett Brown; I believe Barry Eisler talked to you about my book,
which I've take back the rights to and for which I'm now seeking
representation. Im a contributor to Vanity Fair and Skeptical Inquirer as
well as other random outlets, and the author of one book on intelligent
design. Ive written for The Onion, New York Press, National Lampoon,
Huffington Post, Skeptic, McSweeneys, Nerve.com, a bunch of policy
journals in the U.S., and some newspapers in Texas and Mexico. Im also
doing some sketch writing for Will Ferrell and Adam McKays website Funny
or Die with a producer for whom Im also writing a film treatment. As of
two weeks ago Im an advisor to Wynne LeGrow, the Democratic candidate for
Virginias 4th congressional district. Ive served as director of
communications for the pro-secular PAC Enlighten the Vote for a couple of
years, and Im the founder of the distributed think-tank Project PM, on
which I now spend most of my time.
The book itself is divided into chapters which mostly revolve around a
particular pundit, but which sometimes also explore contiguous issues.
I've attached the first chapter (which follows a longish prologue chapter)
here; let me know if you'd like to see the rest.
--
Regards,
Barrett Brown
512-560-2302
--
Regards,
Barrett Brown
512-560-2302
--
Regards,
Barrett Brown
512-560-2302