How Not to Talk to Reporters

Debbie's employer, Jossey-Bass, is the focus of an exposé appearing in the SF Weekly, concerning the awkward cancellation by the parent company (Wiley) of a book J-B had offered to buy. Allegedly, the reason for the cancellation was that the book contains a chapter that is sharply critical of Wal-Mart, and the Wiley sales representative who handled the Wal-Mart account was concerned that this would damage the relationship between Wiley and Wal-Mart. (Wal-Mart is notorious for the draconian way it deals with its suppliers.)

Matt Smith, the reporter for the SF Weekly, did his homework, and made inquiries with Wiley management about the episode.

Curious about the sales end of this "collaboration," I phoned Wiley Vice President for Sales Dean Karrel and asked him to discuss any concerns he might or might not have had about the Wal-Mart problem.

"What you have received is highly confidential information regarding the business decisions of our company," an apparently rattled Karrel said, before changing tack a little. "You don't have any information, do you Matt? Someone is actually lying, and I don't appreciate it. You'll be contacted by our attorneys. You haven't done any research about the value that we place on authors, have you Matt? That's certainly not public information. It's sad you would want to embarrass one of our authors. And I'm sorry somebody gave you the wrong information."

Wouldn't "No comment" have been more appropriate?

(Matt Smith did get one important detail wrong: in the title of a book in the lucrative "For Dummies" series, the word "For" is capitalized, e.g., Intensively Recomplicated Insurance Forms For Dummies.)