Get Your Freak On

By Margaret Hicks in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 13, 2006 2:31PM

Well, we were all ready to sit down and get started on our new book. We had our pens and paper, character studies, research all done, we even picked out special “book writing music”, and then we thought, eh … no, we might get sued.

Seems like the publishing world has moved on from condemning people for writing false memoirs, to suing other people for what they wrote.

Not only is Dan Brown being sued again for plagiarism, now Chicago’s own Steven Levitt, author of “Freakonomics” is being sued for defamation. John Lott, a Yale researcher who is discussed in Levitt’s book, is suing Levitt for basically making him look like an f-ing a-hole. Levitt said in “Freakonomics” that other people haven’t been able to replicate Lott's research linking lower crime rates with the right to carry guns, possibly insinuating that Lott fudged his results. Lott is asking for a halt in sales (“Freakonomics” has been on the New York Times best seller list for 51 weeks already), and a retraction in the next printing of the book.

We suppose if you’re a Yale researcher (changed to reflect commentors posts!) and a best selling author kinda tells you you’re full of it, it could be damaging to your career, but we can’t help thinking that this is just another phase. Dr. Seuss better watch out, we once made green eggs and ham, long before he ever did.