“Facts” Can Be Nasty Things
…when someone actually “checks” them.
A ‘Fact Checking Error’? Dystel & Goderich Ask Writers to Submit Their Own Bios
Submission guidelines at the Dystel & Goderich website (original emphasis): “[Y]ou should describe in two or three sentences—no more—what the book will be about. This is followed by another brief paragraph on why it is being written and then another on why you are qualified to write it….Finally, there should be a more formal narrative Bio of the author.”
…I can speak of what she was like to work with and how she generated material. In my dealings with Dystel, I found her exceptionally thorough and very professional. She had a template she wanted non-fiction writers to follow, and my writing partner and I followed her template closely. She was rather fastidious, going so far as to mail a personal “Season’s Greetings” card in December.
All material she used in our proposals came directly from me and my writing partner. She edited our rough-draft proposals and gave us feedback, but the final versions were all ours. Our final versions, bio included, were then simply photo-copied, by us, and distributed to potential publishers. This was back in the pre-Google days, recall.
I was asked to write the bio in the third person.
Born in Honolulu, moved to Land of Hutu.
He’s a kinda loner, but we know he was a stoner.
King Putz!
Makes Ya Barf, Media, Morality, Nanny State, People, Politics | tree hugging sister | 
May 18, 2012 10:46 am
Subscribe
First of all, fact checkers do not write material, they simply verify the data within. So, the question remains, who wrote this bio? Personally, I’m betting it was Obama’s composite girfriend.
Secondly, keeping in mind this was 1991, where the hell would Kenya have come from if not from Obama. Why not Canada, well except for the fact that in 1991, there were no black people in Canada?
Obama either lied in 1991, or he’s lying now. Either way, he’s a liar.
Which I already knew, but it’s nice to have confirmation.
My take-away: Bobo has been a lying, self-promoting weasel his entire life.
Kenya is the name of one of the smaller islands, right? We’re lucky that he didn’t claim to be born in Persis Khembatta… that sounds exotic and foreigny, right?
I find it quite entertaining to read some of the lefty responses to this story on the usual lefty sites,as they work overtime to downplay the subject and ridicule anyone with an inquisitive mind. To recap, fake memos about Bush in the National Guard – proves he’s unqualified to be President. Real documents about Obama faking his past – never mind.
Mojo, you insult self-promoting weasels everywhere. But I lack a suitable replacement stereotype, so we’ll just go with that.
If we were to believe everything Obama has said about himself, I think the natural conclusion we would come to is that he was actually born in Bethlehem.
Oh yeah, a fact checking error – that persisted until 2007. Right.
JeffS, he’s not ‘lying’, he’s ‘evolving’.
Simply put, none of this changes the fact that even were he born in Kenya, he is by US Code a natural born citizen.
What Ebola said. Unfortunately.