[Originally published in ‘AM New York’]
ANOTHER POPE IS FINALLY CHOSEN, and so ends another historic episode of ritual, mystique and secrecy – more suited to the novelist’s craft than the journalist’s.
And publishers are redoubling their efforts to find another ”Da Vinci Code” – Doubleday‘s canny exploitation of public hunger for arcane information about religion and history, mixed in with dizzying conspiracy theories.
As the summer season approaches, watch for a rash of new titles hoping to emulate author Dan Brown‘s phenomenal success. In two years his suspense tale combined with speculation on Jesus Christ’s bloodline has hooked 18 million buyers. (Not all of them enjoyed the experience, however. After reading the Code, my wife and a friend each reported they felt their IQ had slumped at least 60 points.)
Little, Brown & Co paid a rumored $2 million in a feverish auction for Elizabeth Kostova‘s first novel, “The Historian“, due out in a few weeks.
Vice-President Sophie Cottrell said: “Given the success of ‘The Da Vinci Code’, everybody around town knows how popular the combination of ‘thriller and history can be. It’s exciting for us to tap into this new avid audience.” “The Historian” follows a young girl’s discoveries about her father – a secret trail involving old Europe’s murky traditions of vampirism.
Hyperion are hyping (what else?) ”The Third Translation” from another newcomer, Matt Bondurant. It features an Egyptologist racing to decipher an ancient funerary stone’s mysterious hieroglyphics..
Scribners, too, are betting on Egyptology – with Brad Geagley‘s murder mystery “The Year of the Hyenas“. I believe that’s the year 1153 B.C. as labeled in Egypt’s mythological bestiary – and has nothing to do with hungry publishing executives.
THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISION is again bothering the National Association of Broadcasters, as the industry’s operatives gather today at their Las Vegas convention. Their concern centers on the FCC’s hard-to-define policy of cracking down on “indecency.”
But there’s also a less expected drive from the FCC – ferreting out phony news items produced by the government and carried by private broadcasters as if they were independent reporting.
Since commentator Armstrong Williams was exposed getting a quarter-million dollars to promote President Bush’s education legislation, it’s become clear that federal agencies have produced hundreds of unsourced TV and radio promotions during the current administration.
It’s ironic (and perhaps wasteful) that a government-appointed body should work at uncovering this propaganda’s origins. The FCC blames broadcasters for not revealing the source – but the problem wouldn’t arise if the government labeled its own items clearly in the first place.
A DECADE AGO this week, I was over 5,000 miles away among Middle East intelligence workers and their journalistic counterparts. We were horrified to see the Oklahoma City bomb live on TY. And to see it instantly blamed in knee-jerk fashion on “Arab terrorists” by ‘analysts’ appearing widely in America’s media.
Oklahoma’s grim anniversary is a reminder that, for all of Homeland Security‘s understandable concentration on Al Qaeda‘s threat, homegrown terrorists require our full attention too.
Ay reporter or editor who thinks Eric Rudolph is – any more than Timothy McVeigh was – an isolated wacko simply isn’t doing their job.
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