Money Ball the movie

He is responsible for painting a complete picture and his editors share that responsibility. This is a work of non-fiction.

The Zito/Hudson/Mulder omission was grave and should have been pointed out to him during the editing process.

 

Going tonight. Not on pins and needles about it, but am curious.

 

Whether Lewis had a moral obligation to do so is arguable. But I think it's fair to say there aren't a lot of "Hey, let's punch up the journalism here" discussions between authors and book editors. It's on Lewis, not the editor. It's just how the industry works. As Dick said, there is absolutely no way any person at W.W. Norton & Company Inc. has ever lost a minute of sleep wondering if they should have forced Lewis to include more stuff about Mulder, Zito and Hudson. Their job was to publish a readable book that would sell. And they succeeded beyond anyone's wildest dreams. It was Lewis' job -- as a journalist -- to tell the story fairly and accurately. Apologies for saying this, because I can't without coming across as a dick, but to assume otherwise is to not really grasp how the book industry works.

 

Precisely.

 

Agree entirely.

It also may be the editors knew dick about baseball.

There's also the fact that the editing process in book publishing, as knew it fifteen or twenty years ago, doesn't exist in a lot of houses any more.

 

My experience is in another subfield of publishing, so I admit I don't "grasp" how an omission of reality works in the mainstream book industry that you find useful.

 

By using the word "useful," you're mistaking information for endorsement, it seems.

 

He was not writing a comprehensive report on the Oakland A's organization. He was constructing an argument. He succeeded wildly.

 

Easy to win an argument when you set up one side to be a mix of incompetent twits and people lacking creative capacity.

 

Which is, I agree, what he did. But he did it in an incredibly well-written way. That's what Michael Lewis does. I don't really believe that Icelanders are simpleton fishermen or that all German's have poop fetishes, either.

 

That's how he framed it. He didn't lie. He framed facts to paint the picture he wanted you to see.

 

Then don't call it a truthful piece of work. It lacks honesty.