Today’s Daily News is teasing its readers with a glimpse at this week’s New York story on the Judith Regan firing, and in the process demonstrates itself to be a ninja master of the obvious: “O.J. Simpson’s kill-and-tell book sickened America, but it was the crass sullying of New York hero Mickey Mantle that finally toppled publisher Judith Regan.” Just in case you forgot, staff writer Adam Nichols describes the book in question as “a fictional account of Mantle’s past filled with pornography, foul jokes and a seamy affair with Marilyn Monroe, which led to her downfall after the Daily News splashed it on page one.”
I’m almost nostalgic for the days when the Daily News tried to pin the blame on me, before the Times and the Journal informed their readers that, yes, the remarks that set this whole ball rolling came during a discussion about the Mantle book. And I love how one unnamed executive says of Peter Golenbock‘s work, “Mickey Mantle felt like another major blunder… It just reinforced the sense that [Regan was] an irresponsible editor.” Funny; HarperCollins VP Michael Morrison is on record saying he liked the book and considered its treatment by the media (by which he pretty much meant the Daily News, although there was also the PW Daily story) “unfair.” That doesn’t make acquiring the book sound like an irresponsible blunder to me.