Penguin Random House cancels Scott Adams’ book
Penguin Random House has decided not to publish the book “Reframe Your Brain” by “Dilbert” creator Scott Adams, previously scheduled for release in September.
Many newspapers removed Adams’ “Dilbert” comic strip after he referred to Black Americans online as a “hate group” last week.
A spokesman for Portfolio, Penguin Random House’s business imprint that was to publish Adams’s book, declined to comment further. Adams declined to comment via text, but confirmed that Portfolio won’t be publishing “Reframe Your Brain”.
Mr. Adams, in one of his regular talks he records and posts online, said, among other things, that white people should stay away from Black Americans.
“If nearly half of all Blacks are not OK with white people…that’s a hate group,” Mr. Adams said at one point in the video. “I don’t want to have anything to do with them. And I would say, based on the current way things are going, the best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from Black people…because there is no fixing this”.
Soon after, newspapers began announcing they were dropping “Dilbert,” a comic strip that has poked fun at corporate drudgery for decades.
The USA Today Network, which includes hundreds of newspapers, Cleveland’s Plain Dealer, the San Antonio Express-News, the Washington Post and other publications all said they would stop publishing “Dilbert”.
Andrews McMeel Universal, which syndicated the “Dilbert” comic strip and published some of Mr. Adams’s books, also cut ties with the author. “The process of this termination will extend to all areas of our business with Adams and the Dilbert comic strip,” the company’s Chairman Hugh Andrews and Chief Executive Andy Sareyan said.
“Recent comments by Scott Adams regarding race and race relations do not align with our core values as a company,” the statement said.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
