Bruce Bartlett and the Fox Treatment

When Bruce Bartlett said that Fox had boycotted him upon publication of his book about the Bush record, Imposter, he was speaking the literal truth. I know Nicole Dewey, the source quoted by Greg Sargent in the piece linked, and she is indeed one of the best of the best in the business.

Bartlett’s publicist at the time was Nicole Dewey, who was then at Doubleday. She is now the executive director of publicity at Little, Brown and Company, and in a telephone interview this morning, she confirmed Bartlett’s recollections. She said she’d tried extensively to get him booked on Fox to discuss the book — to no avail.

“It was surprising to me that no one would book him,” Dewey told me. ”He had been a regular on Fox News prior to that. He had been interviewed on any number of Fox News shows before that.”

Once Bartlett published the book, Dewey confirms, “I was pitching him directly to probably most of the shows that were on Fox at that point. No one would book him.” A Fox spokesperson didn’t immediately return an email for comment.

But maybe Bruce should consider himself fortunate. Totally ignoring untoward events is only Step 1 of the Fox method. Step 2 would have been to invite people to revile Bruce on air, without any opportunity for him to respond or defend himself.

Oh well. At least they didn't hack his phone.