USAToday wrote:Behind the robes, Stewart finds controversy
By Bob Minzesheimer, USA TODAY
Page 99 of the best-selling satire America (The Book) by Jon Stewart and the writers of The Daily Show shows the justices of the Supreme Court as they have never been seen before: naked, as in full-frontal, sagging nudity.
The photos are obviously doctored. The heads belong to the seven men and two women on the court, but the bodies are from ClothesFree.com, a nudist Web site.
The book also has cutouts of the justices' robes and urges readers to "restore their dignity by matching each justice with his or her respective robe."
Stewart's sendup of a high school textbook is No. 1 on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list for the second week. (The list is published Thursdays.) But Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, isn't laughing.
Warner Books publisher Jamie Raab says Wal-Mart canceled its order after seeing the photos because the book "didn't meet their criteria" on potentially offensive material.
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Karen Burk says: "We felt a majority of our customers would not be comfortable with the image" of the naked justices.
Walmart.com continues to sell the book. "There's a different audience in the stores and online," she says.
Daily Show executive producer Ben Karlin says he's disappointed. "We were hoping to be banned by a lot of mom-and-pop bookstores, but they keep selling the book."
Stewart's show on Comedy Central might mention Wal-Mart's decision Wednesday or Thursday, Karlin says, in a story "about an exciting new store Wal-Mart is planning in the shadow of Mexico's oldest and most revered ruins."
Raab says of Wal-Mart: "They're within their rights, but I think it's best to let the customer decide."
The chain doesn't sell products it deems offensive, including magazines such as Maxim and albums with sexually explicit or violent lyrics. In 2002, it pulled from its shelves a pregnant doll. In 1996, it dropped Sheryl Crow's self-titled album because of a song suggesting that Wal-Mart sells guns to children.
Wal-Mart can account for as much as 20% of sales of popular books. But Raab says that's truer for commercial fiction by well-known novelists such as Nicholas Sparks than for political titles.
She says Wal-Mart ordered a modest number of copies "sight unseen," then canceled the order. Raab doesn't expect that to significantly hurt sales. The book, promoted on Stewart's show, is "selling itself," she says. "And I'm always happy to have people writing about a book."
But she says Warner didn't seek publicity about Wal-Mart; it merely confirmed the news to Publishers Weekly.
Stewart, who calls his show "the most trusted name in fake news," already is getting extra publicity over his confrontation last week with Tucker Carlson on CNN's Crossfire, which Stewart called "partisan hackery."
As for the photos themselves, Raab says, "I thought they were funny. ... One reviewer called it 'the most profound part of the book.' I don't know about that, but it makes some kind of comment: Who are these justices when they're stripped of their robes? They're just like all these other saggy people. ... A robe doesn't the man make — or the woman."
