Former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson has been an outspoken critic of the global coronavirus lockdowns, using data and facts to make his points. But when he wrote a book on those “unreported truths,” Amazon initially refused to publish it.
Then Elon Musk stepped in.
What are the details?
Berenson has been sounding the alarm
for months over the devastating impact shutdowns have had on the U.S. economy, lambasting governors and other leaders for opting to destroy businesses and livelihoods while exposing the inaccuracy of the doomsday models used to justify draconian measures.
On Friday morning, Berenson
tweeted, “BTW: last night I submitted my first coronavirus booklet (‘Unreported Truths about COVID-19 and Lockdowns’) for sale to @amazon. Normally the review/publish process does not take long. Hopefully that will be the case this time and I won’t have to scream about censorship.”
Within ten minutes, the author
tweeted that his book had been censored, and provided an image of an email from Amazon notifying him: “Your book does not comply with our guidelines. As a result we are not offering your book for sale.” The company cited “the rapidly changing nature of information around the COVID-19 virus.”
Elon Musk noticed the post, and responded by calling out Amazon founder and fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos, writing, “This is insane, @JeffBezos.”
Musk added, “Time to break up Amazon. Monopolies are wrong!”
By the afternoon, Berenson received notice from Amazon’s customer relations department that his book would, indeed, be available for purchase within hours. Another former New York Times employee tweeted that Amazon claimed to have pulled the publication “in error.”
The book was soon reinstated, leading Berenson to proclaim, “IT’S LIVE! Again, thanks to @elonmusk and everyone who helped.”