Source: The Federalist
Sen. Josh Hawley’s highly anticipated book “The Tyranny of Big Tech” will be published after all. Washington-based Regnery Publishing has picked up the book and will publish it this spring.
Simon and Schuster canceled the book Jan. 7, quickly caving to a pressure campaign organized by leftist activists and making the Missouri Republican one of the highest-profile victims of cancel culture. The New York-based publishing conglomerate claimed, without evidence, that Hawley was complicit in the storming of the U.S. Capitol the day prior because of his leadership role in debating questions of election integrity in the 2020 election.
Hawley immediately and unreservedly condemned the incursion, which has since been reported to be the result of organized planning rather than impromptu incitement, as media and leftist activists had initially claimed.
Simon and Schuster had not previously indicated to Hawley they would cancel him for objecting to the failure of some states to “follow their own election laws.” When various Democrats up to and including Sen. Barbara Boxer objected to previous Electoral College votes in 2004 and 2016, they were not the victim of cancel mobs. In fact, they were praised by the media and Democratic Party leaders.
When Hawley announced his plans to object in late December, he said he would also raise awareness of “the unprecedented effort of mega corporations, including Facebook and Twitter, to interfere in this election, in support of Joe Biden.” Those social media companies banned the distribution of completely accurate news about the Biden family’s business with Communist China. A study showed that the censorship was so effective, it may have swung the election for Biden.
The day after the attack on the Capitol, Simon and Schuster announced it was dropping Hawley’s book, which had been scheduled for a June publication date. The day before the attack, Hawley’s wife and child had been threatened at their home by a leftist mob trying to pressure him away from making objections.
In recent days, the Democrat chair of the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security said he wants Hawley and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, put on the federal “No Fly” list due to the “actions they participated in” when the U.S. Capitol was attacked by Trump supporters on Jan. 6. (Neither Cruz nor Hawley participated in the attack and both strongly condemned it.) President-elect Joe Biden, who has said themes for his inauguration revolve around unity and healing, called the two senators Nazis.
“Simon and Schuster is canceling my contract because I was representing my constituents, leading a debate on the Senate floor on voter integrity, which they have now decided to redefine as sedition,” Hawley said in response.
Regnery’s president and publisher Thomas Spence quickly moved to acquire the book, and expressed concern about the lack of editorial courage exhibited by some New York publishing houses.
“It’s discouraging to see them cower before the ‘woke mob,’ as Senator Hawley correctly calls it. Regnery is proud to stand in the breach with him. And the warning in his book about censorship obviously couldn’t be more urgent,” Spence said.
Since his election to the U.S. Senate in 2018, Hawley has sounded the alarm on the legal and constitutional implications of Big Tech’s increasing power. He previously served as attorney general of Missouri, where he investigated Google’s use of citizens’ private information. “The Tyranny of Big Tech” will show how Facebook, Amazon, Google, Twitter, and other digital giants have abused their enormous market power and political influence and how to break their control over citizens’ liberties.
A graduate of Stanford University and Yale Law School, Hawley clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts on the Supreme Court.
Note: Regnery published the best-selling “Justice On Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court,” by this author and Carrie Severino.
