News Corp. holding Harper Collins censors, rewrites history
Reported by Chrish - November 19, 2005
Ostensibly to "mak(e) it healthy" for children, publisher Harper Collins has decided to digitally remove the cigarette from the fingers of "Good Night, Moon" illustrator Clement Hurd. The action has angered some purists who see it as tampering with a classic, none more than Pete Cowdin, co-owner of Kansas City's award-winning children's bookstore The Reading Reptile.
Pete has started a website, Goodnightreality.com, “solely for the sake of protesting the recent decision by HarperCollins Publishers to censor Goodnight Moon, one of America’s national literary treasures.” Harper Collins defends its position.
Comment: Fox is loudly trumpeting the Bush administration's charge of Democrats' "rewriting history" about the lead up to the Iraq invasion. Simultaneously another arm of Murdoch's empire is quietly disappearing an uncomfortable fact. What other facts are being surreptitiously removed while nobody is watching? After you re-read Good Night Moon to your kids or grandkids, re-read 1984, and think about it. Kudoes to Pete for catching the maneuver and for making a stink over it.
Full disclosure: I know Pete Cowdin socially, and if he had any friends I would be one of them.
