Hi, my pet peeve is the fact that journalists routinely erase the work of ghost writers and pretend the rich and powerful are special geniuses who can easily write a book in a couple of months in their spare time. https://twitter.com/nytimesbooks/status/1319990801217343488
Since people always yell at me when I say this kind of thing: Yes, Pete Buttigieg could write a book. But there is *very* little chance he's dumb enough to publish a book he wrote in three months without any time for an editing process. That's horseshit.
Professional politicians hire ghostwriters for the same reason they hire speech writers. It isn't their field of expertise and amateurism could damage their reputation. NO ONE is advising any politician to publish a book he wrote alone in three months.
Is it conceivable that Buttigieg wrote this book? Just barely. Is it likely? It's about as likely as Buttigieg tailoring his own suits or doing the wiring in his house, and doing it in a fraction of the time a professional would budget for it.
I will *never* believe a politician wrote their own book unless the article about it mentions that it's freakishly rare and talks about the extreme concern on the part of the publishers and advisors who all warned the politician not to do this suicidal thing.
Many politicians acknowledge the writers they work with. Journalists typically ignore that and spin ridiculous lies like this. This practice erases workers and creates the myth of a meritocratically selected master race that deserves to rule us all.
I know politicians could insist that the ghost writer's role is highlighted in articles about their books, so they're largely to blame. But editors should also start refusing to play this game. Otherwise they're deliberately misinforming the public.
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