Why was Gunny Bob’s new book cancelled?
You have to wonder what Cumberland Press was thinking when it agreed to publish a book by KOA talk show host Gunny Bob.
You wouldn’t expect much brilliance or originality. You wouldn’t anticipate humor or subtlety. Your expectations, honestly, would have to be pretty low.
In fact, based on, if anything, too much evidence meticulously provided by Colorado Media Matters here, you’d have to be prepared to receive a manuscript full of falsehoods and ugly insults.
So why in the world did Cumberland reject Gunny’s manuscript, as reported by Colorado Media Matters?
What could possibly have made Cumberland change its mind?
I called Cumberland Press Friday, but the Publisher didn’t have five minutes to tell me what happened between him and Gunny. But he did discuss the issue with his underling, who sent me a written statement by Publisher Ronald Pitkin:
“Cumberland decided to cancel Bob Newman’s War in America this year because in our judgment the manuscript we received varied significantly from the thrust of the proposal upon which the contract we offered was based. We didn’t think the manuscript offered enough new insights to make it a saleable book, and so we decided to cancel it.”
This position is very strange given that Gunny’s book was already listed in Cumberland’s promotional materials. And, you have to wonder, again, what Cumberland could possibly have been expecting to receive from Gunny in the way of “new insights.”
Did Cumberland’s rejection of Gunny have anything to do with the fact that Gunny was discussing his new book when he stated that “every Muslim immigrant to America who holds a green card, a visa, or who is a naturalized citizen [should] be required by law to wear a GPS tracking bracelet at all times.”
Did it have anything to do with the falsehoods and distortions that Colorado Media Matters is constantly finding in his radio show–and the ones it found in his previous book?
Did the cancellation have anything to do with the campaign by Denver activist groups to pressure businesses to pull ads from Gunny’s radio show?
I’m still trying to reach Gunny and Cumberland to ask these questions.