Amateur hour in publishing as Anna Nicole Smith’s life becomes a circus, again

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Cosby is a journalist, which makes this foray a bit of a surprise. This is a risk level few would consider healthy. The new book about Anna Nicole Smith’s death has done everything, and done it wrong. So far it’s been called defamation, libel, slander, you name it.

The book fires a series of allegations at Smith’s partners, Howard Stern and Larry Birkhead. It alleges a sexual encounter between the two, which some might think largely irrelevant, others might think a method of selling more books. Both deny the encounter, and intend to sue regarding the allegations of manipulation and collusion concerning Smith’s estate.

Naturally, in the course of all these revelations, most of the coverage has been about the supposed encounter as the headline. Any incidental information regarding the allegations tends to show up about half way down the articles. This Sydney Morning Herald article is a bit milder than others.

In the Daily Telegraph article covering the book Smith is said to have feared that Stern was involved in the death of her son, Daniel. The book additionally alleges a deal between Stern and Birkhead related to the custody of Anna Nicole’s daughter Dannielynn. The book also contains some information regarding her son’s death and its sequel.

The level of detail is interesting, because in each article I’ve read so far, “employees” are reported to verify the information. These employees have been noticeably silent, everywhere on Earth but this book, as far as I can tell. That’s extremely unusual, because generally when someone famous dies, anyone with any information, particularly saleable information, emerges from the sewers. They're normally impossible to shut up.

Given the content, lawsuits are hardly surprising. You’d need a court just to examine each allegation, including one allegation of Stern tampering with evidence. What’s staggering is that any publisher in their right minds, or even their right toenails, put this thing out. Accusing anyone of a criminal act is just plain defamatory, on a prima facie basis. It takes a court to judge whether the allegations have any basis in fact.

Writers and journalists aren’t prosecutors, and unless this thing is a lot more accurate and has a lot more evidence than it seems, this is why. If there are any claims to fame in it, the main one will be How Not To Publish A Book.

Ironically, for all Cosby's claims of rectitude, if you wanted to destroy any credibility in allegations of this sort, this would be how to do it. If the book is discredited, the allegations are trashed with it. You'd think a journalist would know that.