The Wayback machine has shown that there is a scintilla of truth to Aaronovitch’ claim, in that one single one star review was posted before his procured five star reviews arrived. But it also shows that four one star reviews, which arrived no earlier than a larger number of five star reviews and appear equally genuine, were deleted by Amazon. No five star reviews were deleted.
I therefore contacted Amazon’s press office to ask for their reaction to Aaronovitch’s admission of posting fake reviews, and asked who initiated the deletion of his poor reviews. They asked me to put my questions in writing by email. This I have done. Answer came there none.
Re: Voodoo Histories
“Something like half of all book sales are now made through Amazon, and when you find a book on Amazon it is accompanied by reviews from “readers” who give it a 1 (lowest) to 5 star rating. So, almost before my book was published, the first 1-star reviews started to appear, from people who had never read it. After a week, even I wouldn’t have bought it.
There is only one thing you can do in this situation. You ask every friend and family member to go onsite PDQ and 5-star your baby. You get your frauds to balance off their frauds. Ce n’est pas magnifique, mais (grâce à Amazon) c’est la guerre.”
These are my questions:
1) Do you agree it is a reasonable practice for authors to persuade friends and family to post favorable reviews on Amazon? Do you agree with Mr Aaronovitch’s implication that Amazon’s policy forces authors to do this?
2) A wayback archive search shows that in fact a number of poor reviews of Voodoo Histories were deleted by Amazon. Did Mr Aaronovitch contact Amazon to initiate these deletions?
3) In fact, the poor reviews deleted were not, with a single exception, posted any earlier than similar quantities of five star reviews. Why was it decided to delete several one star reviews and no five star reviews? Who took this decision? Was it in any way motivated by Amazon’s own political sympathies? Was it motivated by a desire to boost sales?
4) Now Amazon has been informed by Mr Aaronovitch that the five star reviews were procured, will it be taking action to delete these early five star reviews, particularly those posted on the very day of publication?
5) Do you agree that Mr Aaronovitch’s boasting in the Times of his action in procuring false reviews for Voodoo Histories may, if Amazon will not decry it, encourage other authors to do the same?
I would point out to you that Mr Aaronvitch has himself put these matters into the public domain by publishing his actions in The Times. It therefore makes no sense for Amazon to refuse to answer any of these questions on the grounds of Mr Aaronovitch’s privacy.
Craig Murray
I hope you get a good explanation from amazon, one way or the other. My guess is that if five 1-star reviews all said “This book is nonsense” with no further elaboration, amazon might take the view that they said substantially the same thing, and delete the ones considered to be redundant.
Thanks, Abe Rene, but I am not going to devote my tome to stopping Aaronovitch – what I am sure would bring this response from it: what one would expect from a self-proclaimed conspiracy theorist!
Regarding the apparent sabotaging of the South Korean ferry, wonder where the special attack submarine USS Jimmy Carter and its submersibles were just before it set sail?
Trowbridge
“Regarding the apparent sabotaging of the South Korean ferry, wonder where the special attack submarine USS Jimmy Carter and its submersibles were just before it set sail?”
_____________
Up your backside, perhaps?
I had a look at the paperback version in a Waterstones this morning Priced at £8.99 and placed in the politics section rather than the fiction section. 🙂
It has a lurid yellow cover with circular cutouts to a black card revealing thumbnail photos of Marilyn Monroe, JFK and the Twin Towers. A sort of peep show. Tacky and common. Not even worth a fiver.
Aa should know that in nature, yellow and black signify danger or something distasteful. A songbird for instance will avoid eating a yellow and black caterpillar like that of the cinnabar moth which feeds on ragwort before it pupates. Ragwort is poisonous to cattle and horses.
A reminder that saboteurs placed BLiar’s A Journey in the travel sections of bookshops.
You should’ve bought the hardback Mary, the dust jacket was a much more restrained blue-grey colour. I picked my copy up at a second hand book shop for £2. Got a bargain on a book I wanted and helped a small business.
Trowbridge, ships should be able to handle sudden turns. Supposing one had to be made in an emergency to avoid a collision? Reports also claim the ferry was overloaded or was that the work of the CIA too?
Mary
“It has a lurid yellow cover with circular cutouts to a black card revealing thumbnail photos of Marilyn Monroe, JFK and the Twin Towers. A sort of peep show. Tacky and common. Not even worth a fiver.”
________________-
Have you ever been to a peep-show, Mary?
Perhaps not, so I’ll contribute to your general education.
The cover displays the subjects of three of the most popular conspiracy theories (the Monroe one is about her having been murdered at the behest of the Kennedys). The lurid colours perhaps symbolise the lurid nature of many conspiracy theories
Peep shows, on the other hand, usually feature naked women writhing on a revolving platform as they simulate pleasuring themselves. Sometimes they featue couples fucking.
All clear now?
Kempe, ships with sabotaged steering gear cannot make turns, and the USS Jimmy Carter belongs to the Pentagon, not he CIA.
You sound like David Aaronovitch, dealing with his critics..
I did not buy the book for goodness’ sake.
If the t—l thinks he is shocking everyone, he is failing. Suggest he washes his mouth out. Getting as smutty as Aaronovitch.
” a witness of the South Korean ferry sinking has claimed that its sterling gear went out of control when it was directed to change course by 5 degrees, doing 45 degrees instead, ”
” ships with sabotaged steering gear cannot make turns, ”
Make your mind up, please.
Stop cutting and pasting to make it look like I have changed my mind when I just think that the steering gear became uncontrollable, once it was directed to turn 5 degrees in some direction.
While I reserve opinion I have noticed certain things about the sunk South Korean ferry.
1. It went down very fast.
2. The BBC and other channels keep referring to the island where it was heading as Jindo island. Newspaper reports too.
3. Alternatively it is occasionally referred to as Jeju island.
4. Jeju island is where the US is land-grabbing to build one of its latest naval bases to the chagrin of local inhabitants.
Like I say, I reserve opinion. But I’m watching because I do not trust the Yanks.
John Goss
Yes it must have hit the wreck of the Malaysian airlines flight which the US hid down there.
I think I shall blame the US for my lottery number not coming up.
Lady Dorking
Any others books that you’d like to condemn – I’m looking for something to read. Clearly we should judge a book by its cover.
“A reminder that saboteurs placed BLiar’s A Journey in the travel sections of bookshops.”
And in the process just made work for underpaid shop assistants – and possibly increased the sales of the book by bringing its attention to a different (and I daresay bigger) audience other than those who frequent the politics/biography sections.
You have already been told off for taking your coffee at the wrong place!
At the risk of scotching Mr Goss’s latest conspiracy theory in its infancy – might I suggest that he looks up Jindo and Jejo Islands on Google Maps – they are two separate islands over a 100km apart. The ferry was on its way to Jeju but sank when it was near to Jindo as even the most basic of research would reveal – but hey lets start a conspiracy theory blaming the US without any evidence whatsoever.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@34.0752364,127.4885826,8z
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/24/south-korea-ferry-accident_n_5203673.html
RD, 100k is nothing to the US Navy.
I said I reserve my opinion. Which I still do despite you trying to make out I already have a ‘conspiracy theory’ the phrase of the unenlightened non-inquiring mind.
By the way RD I suspect that the plane is on Diego Garcia, the passengers are in its prison, or worse, and we will see it with a new coat of paint in some attempt to discredit Muslims, the Viet Cong, or whoever the latest imaginary enemy is, or whoever they want to try their latest weapons on, attacking a building containing irreplaceable records of shady government dealings, and everybody will be happy except those who have lost loved ones, and those of us sympathetic.
“By the way RD I suspect that the plane is on Diego Garcia, the passengers are in its prison, or worse, and we will see it with a new coat of paint in some attempt to discredit Muslims, the Viet Cong,….”
__________________
I do love the reference to the Viet Cong. Quite revealing of where Comrade Goss’s mind has been stuck for all these years.
Wake up, Rip Van Winkel!
From the one with the two degrees:
“I said I reserve my opinion. Which I still do despite you trying to make out I already have a ‘conspiracy theory’ the phrase of the unenlightened non-inquiring mind.”
____________________
So anyone who does not believe that Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe were the victims of a conspiracy, or does not believe that 9/11 was a conspiracy, is “unenlightened” and lacks an “enquiring mind”.
***********************
Gegen die Dummheit kaempfen selbst die Goetter umsonst.
John Goss
More bluster – you are dissembling, you thought the two islands were the same and were trying to use them to insinuate a link to the US.
Aaronovich has a para in his book about this type of technique which is commonly employed by you and your fellow conspiracists. I sure he won’t mind me quoting:
“3 Just asking questions
… A primary technique employed has been the advocation of the ‘it’s not a theory’ theory. The theorist is just asking certain disturbing questions because of a desire to seek out the truth, and the reader is supposedly left to make up his or her mind. The question asked of course, only makes sense if the questioner really believes that there is indeed a secret conspiracy.”
Sounds familiar Mr Goss? Perhaps you should read Mr Aaronovich’s book before playing your games, you might not be so obvious.
Thanks for that heads up, Resident Dissident.
I’m beginning to see why certain Eminences have got their peckers out to piss all over Aaronovicz’s book.
I shall buy a copy tomorrow, 5 star reviews notwithstanding.
“… A primary technique employed has been the advocation of the ‘it’s not a theory’ theory. The theorist is just asking certain disturbing questions because of a desire to seek out the truth, and the reader is supposedly left to make up his or her mind. The question asked of course, only makes sense if the questioner really believes that there is indeed a secret conspiracy.””
In this Jeju, Jindo case, yes, I was testing the water to see if MSM had another case to answer. I did not look at any maps beforehand because I thought it more conceivable that that there was a linguistic mistake or misinterpretation, as with Beijing and Peking. Thank you for pointing out my mistake with the two islands.
By the way, RD, Aaronovitch is one of the biggest liars in the journalistic world, as pointed out by Craig on this feed, but evidenced by me. No wonder he supports that even bigger liar, Tony Blair. You are welcome to buy his book. But it will only add to the misinformation you already present as fact.
Aaronovitch is one of the biggest liars in the journalistic world,as pointed out by Craig on this feed, but evidenced by me.
Hardly – he admitted what he was doing on Amazon. As for your evidence where is it?
I’m afraid you are again confusing disagreeing with your rather idiosyncratic political views with dishonesty.
“As for your evidence where is it?”
I’m not going searching for it. Some time back Mary posted a link to an Aaronovitch interview on Craig’s blog to which I listened and caught him talking about how he had opinions at college which were in line with his current opinions in support of Tony Blair’s wars in Iraq and elsewhere. But in those days, the days of his youth, he was left-wing. You need to find it yourself. I left a comment. But relying on memory nowadays is not good for my credibility. It’s there.
Habbakuk and Resident Dissident,
You’re both so far up each others troll arses you ought get married.
Pathetic tag-team trolling these last few threads.
Do give over yeah?
” But in those days, the days of his youth, he was left-wing.”
My memory of Aaronovitch in his youth when he was NUS President is that although notionally a Communist he was seen as being anything but on the left – there were a number of occasions where he openly supported Conservative positions much to the chargin of the Trots, many of whom if they are still around (rather than sold their souls to the devil and taken well paid jobs in the media) would I suspect undoubtedly believe that there has been little change in Aaronovitch’s overall political stance.
Anyway since when does someone changing their political stance make someone a liar – as always your claim is unsupported.
When I was looking around for Aa’s book, I came across one written by this author, Dr Kent Kiehl. Most interesting.
Psychopaths: Born evil or with a diseased brain?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15386740
The book:The Psychopath Whisperer: Inside the Minds of Those Without a Conscience [Paperback] Kent Kiehl
A chilling and provocative scientific dissection of the psychopath’s brain
Fact: A psychopath is 6 times more likely to commit a new crime after release from prison.
Fact: Some forms of group therapy make psychopaths more likely to commit a new crime compared to no treatment at all.
Fact: A psychopath is born every 47 seconds.
Kent Kiehl is the Psychopath Whisperer , a neuroscientist who has dedicated his career to understanding what makes a mind turn criminal. Are psychopaths evil and untreatable, or do they suffer from a mental illness comparable to schizophrenia or epilepsy? Do they have free will? Based on breathtaking research, including personality surveys and brain imaging scans of thousands of criminals, Kiehl pinpoints the biological machinery of psychopathy and offers a radical new perspective on identifying & treating the psychopaths in our midst.
The tr—s leave such silly trails of nonsense combined with personal insults enabling other readers who visit here to see them for what they are. Perhaps too much alcohol is being consumed as the witching hour approaches.
The John Goss list of pathetic “excuses” grows:
“I was only joking”
and now
“In this Jeju, Jindo case, yes, I was testing the water”
When oh when will Goss have the balls to own up and say “yes, I was wrong”?
Old-style Soviet thinking is indeed difficult to root out.