Harping on Borders
Posted by Zach Wendling on 28 May 2006 | one response
Two months ago, the blogosphere piled on Borders bookstores for refusing to carry an issue of the small magazine Free Inquiry, which published the infamous cartoons of Mohammed.
At the time, Virginia Postrel wondered:
Borders is doing Free Inquiry a favor any month it stocks the dinky title. Tiny magazines aren’t exactly a profit center. (I’m skeptical of FI’s claim to sell 7,000 issues on the newsstand, especially if Borders only stocks 1,000.)
So the test case I’d like to see is this: What would Borders do if Vanity Fair, or some equally big title, published the cartoons? (emphasis added)
Now we have an answer: Prof. Volokh reports that Borders is carrying the latest issue of Harper’s Magazine, which also publishes the cartoons.
One could expound at length as to how Borders’ executive are hypocrites as well as cowards and so forth, but suffice it to say that they are simply a bunch of buttholes.
One Response to “Harping on Borders”
“For us, the safety and security of our customers and employees is a top priority, and we believe that carrying this issue could challenge that priority,” unless it infringes on our profit margins.
Just like “The Satanic Verses.”