VB: They don't want me on.
MC: How many best sellers have you had? Three or four, right?
VB: Oh, well, I've had three that got up to number one on The New York Times. No American true crime author has had more than one. I've had three, and then I've had other best sellers. "Till Death Do Us Part" was a best seller. "Reclaiming History' for one week was a best seller. That was a book that, you know, weighed seven and a half pounds and cost $57.
MC: What do they say? Do they have an explanation, or is it just --
VB: Well, I can tell you what my publicist said that -- before the book came out they start booking you, and they would call these people and say, you know, "We're representing Vince Bugliosi," and right away, "Oh, yeah, I know Vince. We've had him on the show. He's a good guest. What's the new book?" The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder. And you can -- they kind of indicated to me that they could just sense the shriveling on the other end of the line. And they said, "Well, let me get back to you on this. This may be a little difficult," or, "I'll have to get back to you on this." And then, of course, they just stopped responding to emails and everything, and that was absolutely across the board. They would not have me on. It got so bad -- it got so bad that ABC Radio refused to take money from my publisher to take out a radio spot.
MC: Oh, you're not allowed to advertise either?
VB: Yeah, on ABC Radio they would not take the money.
MC: That's a first.
VB: Which is, I think, kind of mind boggling. I don't know. It just seems to me that it's mind boggling. And then, of course, as you know, I had a very difficult time getting the book published. I never had trouble before. I had to fly back to New York City, knock on doors, and it was obvious that the publishers I met with thought the book was very marketable, and they seemed to be sympathetic with what I was saying, but it was equally obvious that they were frightened. They would say things like this to me: "Mr. Bugliosi, are you sure you want to publish this book?" And one of them put it in black and white, typed it, or maybe an email, "Too hot too handle."
MC: Has anybody bothered you since it was published?
VB: No. No, there hasn't been anyone that's bothered me. But, in any event, I finally found a courageous publisher over at Vanguard Press. And then we get down to the audio level. That's something I never gave a thought to, ever. It was automatic. Reclaiming History was Simon & Schuster. This time, Peter Miller, my agent, called me and said, "Vince, I can't find any audio company in America that will do the audio on the book." We finally got the BBC to do it, thank God. That's the one -- that tape is the one that that congressman from the South heard driving back to the South from Washington, D.C. (see Part 1). There's a documentary on my book being produced at the present time for the big screen. The producers couldn't raise one penny in America for the book.
MC: Not a cent?
VB: The money came in from Canada. So it may sound presumptuous of me to say this, but this, I think, is an important story, because it is a snapshot glimpse of a nation, I think, in serious decline, with freedom of speech and expression supposedly being our most cherished constitutional right, and we say we're, what, the land of the free and the home of the brave? What has happened with my book, I think, throws into question the present vitality of both of these assumptions.
Three people independently of me told me essentially the same story, and it's something I hadn't thought about, and what they said is, "Mr. Bugliosi, the reason they're not having you on television is because of who you are." And I said, "What do you mean by that?" And they said, "Well" -- three people independently at separate times and essentially the same words. Obviously they didn't use the same words, but essentially the same words. They said, "If some nut wrote a book with a title like this, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, (we) would probably have him on because it's colorful, it's entertaining, it doesn't mean anything, it doesn't go anywhere. But you're a very serious person, and you write very serious books." And in all of my true crime books -- and I wrote about the biggest crimes of the twentieth century, the Manson case, the Simpson case, the Kennedy assassination -- I prove my case beyond a reasonable doubt.
So the right wing certainly does not want me on their shows talking about prosecuting the guy they love so much for first degree murder, where he may end up on death row. And even if they haven't read the book, they know my reputation in the area of criminal law, and they know what I do in my other books. They probably feel it's the same type of book. He's proving his case beyond a reasonable doubt, so they don't want to give voice -- they don't want to help me give voice to my message. And these three may be right.
The reality is that if you're unknown and less effective, you can get published and heard. If you're well known and highly effective, you're not allowed to disagree.
