One of the unfortunate constants in
America seems to be that when you
are a right-winger, you're involved
in some sort of needless tragedy or
death, there's gotta be some way to
monetize it.
We just got done talking about
crowdfunding.
Well, there's other ways,
including book deals.
And one of the cops who was
involved in the no-knock raid that
resulted in Briana Taylor's death,
apparently had a memoir
ready to go.
Post Hill Press had agreed to
publish Sergeant Jonathan Mattingly
s The Fight For Truth,
The Inside Story Behind
the Breonna Taylor Tragedy.
It was to be distributed by
Simon Schuster, which had said in
a statement earlier Thursday that
it had no editorial control over
book releases by smaller publishing
houses for which it
provided third party distribution.
A spokesperson for that press said,
in the case of Sergeant Mattingly,
the mainstream media narrative has
been entirely one-sided related to
this story and we feel that he
deserves to have his account of
the tragic events heard publicly,
as well.
Post Hill Press is standing behind
our decision to publish his story.
A lot of people obviously had
an issue with that, many tweets.
We're going to show you one from
Attica Scott who says,
stay focused y'all.
People love to profit off of Black
pain and tragedy.
It sells.
And it looked like that was all
that there was going to be.
But eventually, because of
the pressure potentially, Simon and
Schuster put out
a statement saying,
like much of the American public,
earlier today Simon and Schuster
learned of plans by distribution
client Post Hill Press to publish
a book by Jonathan Mattingly.
We have subsequently
decided not to be involved
in the distribution of this book.
Despite earlier saying that they
have no power to influence that,
they apparently found it deep
within, and they will not be
involved in distributing it.
>> Yeah, I have a really hard time
believing that statement from Simon
and Schuster.
That's almost exactly what they
said when there was a big
controversy about them publishing
Josh Hawley's book, though I just
am very skeptical that that's
actually what's going on.
And I'm so happy that they
eventually said that they were not
going to have a role in
the distribution deal of this book.
But I really think this is one of
those stories where you really have
to stick with it and
ask a lot of probing questions.
Because Simon and
Schuster is a huge company,
they have so
many different subsidiaries.
And so my question is,
is one of their subsidiaries going
to be involved in
this distribution relationship?
Will they actually have no part of
it or will it be something else?
And so, I just have a really
hard time taking Simon and Schuster
at their word that they found out
about this when the public did.
They seemed in their statement to
almost say that they found
out about this book publishing deal
on Twitter, which, again,
I guess that's what they're saying.
But I have a really,
really difficult time believing
that that's actually how one of
the biggest book publishers in
the world is doing business.
So, I really want to make sure that
is clear.
Even though they say that they
are not going to have a part in it,
I want to make sure that that is
actually what happens.
But it's not just, well, Simon and
Schuster will not be involved in
the distribution of this book, but
our other subsidiary, well,
maybe >> Yeah,
I don't know how many other presses
they do the distribution for.
I mean that would be a very
interesting additional story,
I don't know.
Considering the public
conversation, it seemed a bit late
in the game to be saying they're
just finding out about it.
So, but I don't know for
sure, Cenk.
>> Yeah, there
is one possibility, guys,
that it could be that this is more
of a contractual competitive thing.
And so, I don't know their
relationship with Post Hill Press
at all, but the way that they
mentioned them, it sounded like,
hey, we're finding out he had
a secret deal with someone else.
And so we're less mad about
the social context of it and
more mad about the contractual
context of it.
So, that could be it too.
So they could genuinely be mad but
perhaps for the wrong reason.
So, but I don't know, I don't have
enough information about that.
The comment that I found
interesting is the word deserves in
the quote that
John read you, right?
He deserves to have
his voice heard.
The [LAUGH] way I read it was,
he deserves
to make money off this too.
And so he's also suing
Breonna Taylor's boyfriend.
Breonna Taylor is suing
because he was shot at and
he had done nothing wrong and
his girlfriend was murdered right
in front of his eyes.
She had done nothing wrong and they
barged into their house and etc.
Mattingly got hit by Walker in
the exchange of gunfire because
they didn't announce
themselves apparently, and Walker
thought they were real intruders.
And so Mattingly is saying, yeah,
I want to get paid off that too
because it hit my leg.
So, I don't care that we were wrong
in busting in, I don't care
that we had the wrong people.
I deserve to get paid.
So I'm going to sue the guy who's
suing, because I think he's
going to get a lot of money because
it's obvious we were wrong.
And then I want to take a piece of
his money that he gets for
how wrong I was, and then I want to
write a book about it and get money
on that because I deserve it.
And by the way, guys, he probably
genuinely feels that way.
He probably feels like I am
a beloved cop, I busted into
the wrong Black house, so what?
We do it all the time,
and they probably did something
wrong anyway.
That's what Trump said about
the Central Park five after they
were found to be innocent, right?
>> Yeah. >> And then I got shot in
the line of duty just because we
were in the wrong house and
murdered the wrong people,
big deal.
I deserve money.
And he probably deeply believes it,
and by the way,
he will probably get it.
A lot of right wingers would be
like, yes, tell me that
book about how you're the victim.
>> Yeah, I completely agree.
I think it's interesting that one
of the things he's suing Breonna
Taylor's boyfriend for is emotional
distress, as if having a horde of
police officers coming to your home
while you're asleep with guns out
is not emotionally distressing, as
if seeing your partner lying dead
is not emotionally distressing.
And I completely agree with that
tweet that you read that this is
an attempt to further capitalize on
and profit on Black death.
I think it's really disgusting.
I agree with you also, Cenk, that I
think that he probably deeply,
deeply believes that he should be
compensated for what happened.
I think that after Breonna Taylor's
death, he put out a statement that
was like, we did nothing wrong.
We did the ethical thing
this night.
I don't think it's occurred to him
that he did anything wrong.
I don't think it's occurred to him
that he should not be making a
quick buck off of the woman that he
murdered as she laid in her home.
>> Yeah. >> But again,
to be fair to him,
not on a moral sense at all,
but financially,
it's probably the correct decision.
There's tons and
tons of racists in this
country who will eat that book up.
You went and
killed the wrong Black person?
Tell me more.
>> Yeah, there's definitely tons
of racists and
there's definitely tons of money.
I mean, clearly the last story
about the crowdfunding proves that.
And I get that,
I apparently have a terrible read
on what America wants to read.
I mean, in the break,
I told you what I'm writing.
Clearly I don't know what
I'm talking about.
But do they want to read the book,
people want to read what this
sergeant has to say?
They're going to sit down
in a chair with this book and
they're going to read it?
I'm not even joking, seriously,
I don't think that that exists.
I don't think many of these are
actually published with the intent
that they're going to be read.
I could be wrong,
maybe I'm in a bubble.
But I just read
about the massive huge advance that
Mike Pence is getting.
Who's reading that book?
I get that those books will sell.
We've done a number of stories
about the think tanks and all that
that do massive buys of books and
then supposedly send them out to
people who are not going to read
them, but somebody sitting down and
reading Mike Pence's book,
cover to cover, real page turner.
He's at least famous,
who is this cop?
Who cares about his perspective?
I really don't think anyone
was going to read this.
Now that doesn't mean that they
were under some obligation not
to publish it.
It's all down to the company.
And I feel like people could put
pressure on them one way or
the other if they want to.
But, I just don't think that the
country is filled with people who
are desperate to read this stuff.
>> Yeah, that's a really good
question. I mean, think about this,
that after George Zimmerman killed
Trayvon Martin,
he became kind of a minor celebrity
in some conservative pocket.
For a while he was selling
his paintings.
People were paying thousands of
dollars for George Zimmerman's
original artwork.
So, I agree with you.
I don't think anybody is really
sitting down, and I don't
think anybody has the desire
to really sit down and thumb
through this guy's life story.
I think just like when we were
talking about
with the crowdfunding,
I think there are some people out
there that want to make their
support known by throwing money at
people who target Black folks.
I really think that's it.
I think they want to use their
dollar to say we endorse this.
>> Yeah, I mean, see if you could
find a pattern, right?
George Zimmerman kills
Trayvon Martin for no good
reason and makes a ton of money.
Kyle Rittenhouse kills two left
wing protesters, going in armed to
go after Black protesters, etc.,
crowd raises a ton of money for
his legal defense.
Trump targets Black people all
the time, raises a ton of money.
Now that's a little bit different
because it's political, and
they raise a lot of money anyway.
But if you kill left wing
protesters or Black folks in this
country and you write a book about
it, your chance of making a lot of
money is, unfortunately,
quite significant, whether they
actually read the book or not.
It's just kind of like moral
support, like, you
killed someone based on their race.
Just want to send you a shout out.
So, here's 25 bucks, take it.
>> Totally.
>> So, and John,
the other thing is real quick,
John makes a great point.
Right wing think tanks buy books in
bulk.
So, the publishers like Simon and
Schuster, they're deeply
incentivized to print right wing
books because it's
guaranteed book sales.
The think tanks are funded by
billionaires who want to push out
propaganda.
They buy books to make them number
one bestsellers, which then gets
them in the media and
then the author goes on all
the television stations.
And no one actually reads the book,
but the author being on all
those media, because he's on
the bestseller list,
gets out their propaganda.
So for them, that little piece of
marketing is well worth it because
they're going to get giant tax cuts
and all the other things that they
want, right?
On the left wing,
there is no such apparatus.
So that's why you'll see a lot more
right wing books and
less progressive books because of
that perverse financial incentives.
>> Yeah, it's a perverse money
machine.
That's such a good point.
We don't have anything like that on
the left really where we're fueling
that kind of money in that kind
of system.
I think you're right,
I don't think we really have that
kind of infrastructure.
>> Yeah, so, it's fortunately or
unfortunately, up to you guys to
buy justiceiscomingbook.com.
That's my book.
I don't know, did I just
make a plug for it?
I guess.
But it's actually for justice.
So justiceiscomingbook.com,
you could pre order.
I'm not saying anything except
the words I've spoken.