a shameful performance from publishers in 2007

Janet Maslin launched a broadside against publishers the other day.

As it becomes possible to rush books into print ever more hastily, editing ain’t what it used to be.

Though there are many candidates for the honor of Year’s Sloppiest Book, the wall-to-wall bloopers in “Pearl Harbor,” a novel by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forschten, warrant special “wretching noises” from us all. The books that follow, in alphabetical order by author, were, in the “Pearl Harbor” vernacular, “all ladened with” better things.

Too bad the Times buried Maslin’s criticism where it will easily go unnoticed.

Bottom line: As long as there are no consequences in the marketplace, publishers will continue to put out books that are full of errors.