Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Other customers reviewing Cult of the Mouse here have written that it's excellent and wise; a fresh, important inside look at the ossification of an iconic American corporation -- Disney -- due to its managerial snuffing of the very innovation and creativity that made it great. I agree and recommend the book to you without reservation.
What I need to comment on is Publisher's Weekly hatchet job "review," which fails to disclose a key fact necessary for any reader to judge that review's credibility: The publisher of Publisher's Weekly, Reed Business Information, is also the publisher of several entertainment industry trade publications such as Variety, Daily Variety, Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel News, etc. etc. As any subscriber to these publications can see on a daily basis (and I am such a subscriber), Disney is one of Reed Business Information's larger advertisers and customers. Shouldn't a credible journalist or reviewer reveal such an important business relationship to the reader? Shouldn't the reader who comes to Amazon for information about a book be informed that the "Editorial Review" is not written, as most customers would assume, by an impartial reviewer, but by a reviewer in business with the company that is the highly displeased subject of the book? Isn't that usually the way journalists and reviewers behave -- disclose their conflicts of interest, rather than hide them?
Caroselli describes artfully within Disney the "don't tell the truth, just tell the toppers what they want to hear" type of communication that is so antithetical to the innovation and creativity that was once Disney's hallmark. Is Publishers Weekly and its parent, Reed Business, guilty of the same in its "review?" Hard to say for sure. But it's easy to say that ANY reviewer worthy of that name should disclose its conflicts. The failure to do so here illustrates just how important Caroselli's message is for corporate America.
So let me make my own disclosure: I met the author once, at a conference I organized about the harmful effects media consolidation and concentration have on creative artists. He asked me to read his manuscript and I was so impressed that I was honored when he asked me to write a jacket blurb. Now, that disclosure wasn't so painful or difficult, was it, Publishers Weekly?
Read the book. Decide for yourself. You won't regret it.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Cult of the Mouse: Can We Stop Corporate Greed from Killing Innovation in America
0 comments:
Post a Comment