Indigestion at the Digest

The advertising industry has been attacked so often that it might scarcely have noticed one more critical book, but the Reader's Digest was not so sure. At the very last moment, it stopped publication of The Permissible Lie, by Samm Baker, on the grounds, as Digest President Hobart Lewis put it, that "advertising is good for business and business is good for the country."

The book was scheduled to appear last week, and 5,000 copies had already been printed. But the Digest was adamant. "Reader's Digest has a point of view," declares Lewis, "and, it seems to me, has a right to its point of view. Funk & Wagnalls is not an independent publishing house but is our subsidiary." To which Baker, among others, retorted that this is precisely the danger facing book-publishing houses when they are taken over by large corporations, as Funk & Wagnalls was 2 1/2years ago.

Editors at Funk & Wagnalls say they are at a loss to understand why the Digest felt so strongly about the book. It does not enumerate many more vices than are already known nor does it propose any startling reforms. "The thesis of this book is that advertising should be cleaned up from the inside," says a Funk & Wagnalls editor, "lest it be regulated from the outside. What could be more harmless?" Says Author Baker, who was in the advertising business for 30 years before he retired five years ago: "I, too, think advertising is good for business and business is good for the country."

To avoid accusations of censorship, the Digest gave Baker the 5,000 copies of his book and turned over the printing plates to him free of charge. He plans to sign a contract with another publisher this week; sales, prodded by the controversy, promise to be brisk. The Digest, meanwhile, plans to watch Funk & Wagnalls products more closely than before. "We will begin reviewing all manuscripts," says Lewis. "Reader's Digest will exert tighter quality control over Funk & Wagnalls."

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