Yesterday we had the chance to view Katie Pavlich’s interview with Sean Spicer, including some discussion of his new book. That went really well, but an upcoming stop on Spicer’s book tour has run into significantly more problems. Sean was supposed to be at a BJ’s Wholesale Club in Massachusetts for a book reading and signing event, but the publisher has received conflicting notices about the event being canceled due to concerns over the “political climate.” (Fox News)
A scheduled stop on Sean Spicer’s book tour at a Massachusetts BJ’s Wholesale Club has been canceled over apparent concerns about the “political climate.”
“We got word last Friday the store was canceling ‘due to the political climate,’’’ a spokesperson for Regnery Publishing told Fox News. “Of course, we were very disappointed, but also surprised since we have had such a terrific response to all of the other events we have scheduled around the country.”
Saturday’s book signing at the BJ’s in Seekonk was to be one of more than two dozen promotional events for the former White House press secretary’s book, “The Briefing,” between now and the end of September.
By way of full disclosure, Regnery Publishing is a subsidiary of Hot Air’s parent company, Salem Media Group.
The strange part of this story is that it appears to be a case of a local manager making decisions without consulting the national chain. When asked about the reason for the cancellation, the corporate office said that they still wanted to “proceed as originally planned.” But when reporters called the store an employee told them that the event was canceled and if they wanted a reason they would need to call the corporate office. (That would be the same office who said they wanted the event to proceed.)
We’re talking about Massachusetts here, so it’s not difficult to imagine that a local manager who is unhappy with President Trump would try to “strike a blow” for the #RESIST movement by messing up this event, but is that in keeping with corporate policy? It’s tough enough to sell books these days and if you’ve got a high-profile author showing up, no matter how controversial they might be considered by the locals, wouldn’t you want to drive more people to your store?
Sounds to me like someone who has worked their way up the ladder to being a local store manager decided to go rogue and shut down Spicer’s event. Of course, the only result he or she is actually producing is more media coverage of the book tour. This will probably wind up being a major backfire.
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