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Apr 16 2008 5:15PM EDT

Lee Siegel Still Doesn't Take Criticism Well

Remember Lee Siegel? He's the New Republic writer who was suspended from his job after he got caught defending himself in online discussion forums using a fake identity and an outrageously inflated sense of self-worth.

Well, his skin hasn't gotten any thicker since then.

Earlier this week, I arranged to interview Siegel for a story I'm working on whose topic intersects with the thesis of his book Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob. It was to be a standard case of mutual back-scratchery: He'd get his book plugged to readers likely to have an interest in it, while I'd get a talking head to pad out my word count. His publicist at Spiegel & Grau evidently agreed, and set up a time for us to talk.

But yesterday morning, I received this email:

Hi Jeff,

I'm afraid I need to cancel this interview. I didn't realize that you had written negatively about Lee on your Portfolio blog.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Lucy

Color me surprised. I have, indeed, written about Siegel, although not, in my view, negatively. To wit, I pointed out how odd it was that Jon Stewart interviewed Siegel about Against The Machine on The Daily Show without pointing out that one of anonymous comments that earned Siegel his suspension was an unflattering remark about Stewart. For Stewart to pass up a comic opportunity like that is out of character, and I wondered if he had agreed in advance not to mention the "Sprezzatura" episode. That was idle speculation, but it doesn't seem quite so idle now, does it?

Of course, Siegel has the right to decline interviews with writers he considers insufficiently reverential, even if it seems a tad hypocritical in a critic whose ad copy proudly describes him as "acid-tongued." And if Jon Stewart's endorsement didn't do the job for for Against the Machine's lackluster sales (3,038 so far, according to BookScan, although probably closer to 4,000 when you account for the outlets BookScan doesn't monitor), it's not as if my plug would have made much difference.

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