Woah, that is some shady crap!

Every day more and more of this crap is making me want to switch to "Independent" rather than "Democrat". I started a blog so I could complain about this crap, actually. I should do a post on how funny this site is, even if you are a "right-wing" humor site... ;-) The funniest "W" impression ANYWHERE!

I bet this has already been done, but I emailed Fox News on this article. I'm thinking if a whole bunch of us do it, Fox might pick it up. I emailed the Drudge too. This needs to get out there, Amazon is engaging in censorship.

Amazon is an equal opportunity offender (or censor). The same thing happened to Michelle Malkin's "Unhinged" - a whole series of one star reviews were removed - then people complained and Amazon seemed to stop.

Sarasmom - Well, I don't know if I'd go so far as to call it censorship. It's a private company and the First Amendment doesn't apply. I think of it more as just clumsy editing.

What bugs me about it is that they post stuff, then make it disappear without saying a word. There's an *appearance* of being shady, regardless of the degree of *actual* shadiness.

From a business image standpoint, I think they'd be better off running their reviews through an approval process BEFORE publishing them. Sort of like how some blogs require comment approval to prevent spammers from publishing at will.

Here are Amazon's review guidelines on what's prohibited:

# Spoilers! Please don't reveal crucial plot elements.

# Time-sensitive material (i.e., promotional tours, seminars, lectures, etc.).

# Commenting on other reviews visible on the page. Other reviews and their position on the page are subject to change without notice.

# Profanity, obscenities, or spiteful remarks.

# Single-word reviews. We want to know why you liked or disliked the item.

# Phone numbers, mail addresses, URLs.

# Availability, price, or alternative ordering/shipping information.

# Solicitations for helpful votes.

Followed by the admonishment, "Any review in violation of these guidelines will not be posted."

So if they claim they removed a review because it violated their guidelines, it's quite fair to ask why they posted it in the first place.

WHo cares? this is pathetic the obsession over this lady. Dems and Repubs both need to get a life

D - I don't care about Cindy. I just want folks to know that Amazon is deleting negative reviews so that they can sell more books.

Which has a whiff of sleaze about it.

The left seems to have a problem with free speech, unless it's their own

OMG

sinister

"The left seems to have a problem with free speech, unless it's their own"

I just heard about this, and I don't know all of the facts (how many of the posters here do?), but I have a quick theory: Is it possible that Amazon has reason to believe that most (if not all) of these one-starred reviewers are not sincere? Rather than expressing an honest impression of the book, are they simply trashing her book because they are opposed to her politics? Is Amazon the appropriate place for this kind of "free speech?"

Steve

Steve... you mean, like the people who trashed Sheehan's book hadn't read it? That would be intellectually dishonest. None of the president's supporters would ever do that.

Bill O'Reilly might though. Did you read about how he spent the last month trashing stores and people who say 'Happy Holidays' instead of 'Merry Christmas' as anti-Christian... while selling 'Holiday Ornaments' for your 'holiday tree' on his website. So, obviously, Bill must be the one posting all the bogus 1-star evals on Amazon.

there is not a shred of evidence in this entry. all you have is people claiming that their posts were were non offensive and deleted. pathetic. and pure speculation at that. have people screenshot their comments and see if it's deleted. this is a non issue anyway.

90% of statistics are half bullshit

I am willing to bet that the excerpted gripes to Amazon from "reviewer Jed," "reviewer Kenneth," and "reviewer JR" all come from one person using a number of customer names.

Frankly, I think that Amazon should delete ALL 1-star rants and 5-star cheers for any politically charged book. Whether the reviewer is Republican or Democrat, those who give 1-star ratings tend to reveal themselves as morons who never read the book and are simply attacking its author.

Too lazy to do screenshots, myself. Mostly because Amazon pages scroll on forever. But if you want to start collecting them, go ahead.

Latest count as of 3pm 12-3-05:

11-29: 3
11-30: 1
12-1: 2
12-2: 11
12-3: 2

My only point is this: If Amazon is so worried about the content of the reviews, why do they post them first, then screen them later? Why not subject them to review BEFORE posting?

Their current method of quietly deleting reviews makes them look unprofessional.

Looks like I'm just going to boycott amazon now.

I think it might be a good idea to keep track of how many five-star reviews get deleted. I'm guessing none, based on the sheer number of them there and the fact that they date back to 11-17, while the earliest one-star review is dated 11-29.

Never mind my post; I see GOP & College has already pointed that out at his blog.