OOPS! Indigo says mag ban was a mistake

Indigo Books and Music has told the publishers of a small, U.S.-based magazine that it was a mistake to remove its copies from store shelves, according to a story by James Adams in the Globe and Mail.

"Canada's largest retail bookseller says it accidentally blocked the distribution of a small U.S. current affairs magazine from its 260 stores and plans to start selling the magazine's June-July issue as soon as possible," said the story. "Joel Silver, senior vice-president of print procurement for Toronto-based Indigo Books and Music, telephoned Tom Flynn, the editor of Free Inquiry, with the news late yesterday afternoon.

"According to Mr. Flynn, the Indigo executive 'gave me a sort of a stammering apology, said that the June-July issue was blocked by accident, and that they have contacted [Ajax, Ont.-based Disticor Magazine Distribution Services] to send it through again.' "

Free Inquiry, a relatively small circulation magazine from upstate New York, sent a letter last week to Indigo founder and CEO Heather Reisman saying after it learned from its distributor that Ms. Reisman's company had declined to stock the June-July Free Inquiry without giving a reason, and that future issues would be "inspected in advance on an issue-by-issue basis to determine [their] suitability" for Indigo and its Chapters, Coles and SmithBooks subsidiaries. Mr. Flynn speculated it was some elliptical sort of retaliation because in the previous issue, the magazine had published the so-called "Danish cartoons" (including a prominent coverline about it), but that Indigo hadn't intercepted that issue (despite pulling Harper's and the Western Standard for the same apparent 'offence'.)

Paradoxically, Mr. Flynn said in the Globe story that he also speculated Indigo's apparent ban may have been prompted by an editorial in the current issue by the Princeton bioethicist and animal-rights activist Peter Singer titled "The Freedom to Ridicule Religion -- and Deny the Holocaust." The editorial touched on the question of publishing the cartoons and said "in hindsight, it would have been wiser" for the Danes not to have published them given the bloody riots and protests that followed. "The benefits were not worth the costs." At the same time, "we should forcefully defend the right of newspaper editors to publish such cartoons, if they choose to do so."

[As we said in our earlier post, this entire process makes Indigo look somewhat foolish. Either it has a policy or it does not (no matter how wrongheaded). Clearly we think that free expression suggests it should not, but if it does, it should be consistent. Apologizing to Free Inquiry would seem to indicate that an apology should be forthcoming to both Harper's and the Western Standard. But we're not holding our breath.]