Is Harper Collins squashing Seymour Hersh's book about Abu Ghraib?

[Alpharetta]

HarperCollins, publisher of Hersh's book, is a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, which also owns FOX News Channel.

I found the following at this weblog called www.NewsHounds.us

Seymour Hersh's New Book? You Won't Find It at Borders!

This morning at 10:30 AM Pacific Time (1:30 PM Eastern Time) I went to my local Borders store to pre-order a copy of Seymour Hersh's new book "Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib". The book, promoted by Mr. Hersh on this morning's "Meet the Press" with Tim Russert, has a publication date of Monday, September 13th. The clerk at Borders was shocked to discover that her store had ZERO coming in and ZERO on order.

She quickly checked the five other Bay Area stores and discovered the same thing. ....

A call placed to the Barnes & Noble store at Fisherman's Wharf ...

Quick calls to several local independently owned booksellers in San Francisco and Marin County revealed ...

Phone calls to Borders stores in Phoenix AZ, Boulder CO and Washington D.C. (18th & "L") confirmed ...

Several of the clerks informed me that the trouble with distribution lay, not with Borders, but with the publishing house, HarperCollins. One young man suggested that perhaps the books weren't ready yet. I told him that I used to work in the publishing business and no author would be scheduled on a national TV show to promote a book unless there were copies available. In the event there were production problems and the interview couldn't be postponed, the publishing house would have insisted that the new publication date be announced.

...(more at LINK)

False alarm, it appears.
Edited to add following explanation from Borders: See post #6 in this thread

[jumpstart33]

1. Get right on it. Scream it to all the media outlets. Picket Borders.

This is outrageous. Reveloution has to be brewing...we can't take this any longer.

[Alpharetta]

2. Borders isn't the problem

as the weblog said, NONE of the bookstores had it. Not Barnes & Noble. Not the independents.

They all said the publisher wasn't shipping.

[ima_sinnic]

3. it IS available at amazon

Chain of Command at amazon
says "ships within 24 hours"

[flyingfysh]

4. Borders has it

I saw it at Borders in downtown Boston yesterday.

[nyhuskyfan]

5. I thumbed through it at Borders yesterday on LI

I wanted to buy it, but I wanted to get Intelligence Matters (Bob Graham) first.

[Alpharetta]

6. Oops. An explanation from Borders.

I found this explanation from Borders in a different entry on his weblog:

http://www.newshounds.us/2004/09/14/borders_responds_re_hershs_book.php

"Copies of "Chain of Command" purchased by our merchandising staff were shipped directly from Harper Collins to arrive in our stores today. Unfortunately, our in-store systems do not register orders shipped directly to our stores from publishers, and therefore the clerks your reporter spoke with made the incorrect assumption that we would not have the title in stock. In fact, we communicated to all our Borders and Waldenbooks stores last week and reiterated today that the title would arrive directly from the publisher today and that copies of
"Chain of Command" should be placed immediately on the sales floor.
"

http://www.newshounds.us/2004/09/14/borders_responds_re_hershs_book.php

[Zensea]

7. They're paying for advertising

I saw a full page ad in the NYTimes a couple of days ago.
I doubt they'd be spending money on advertising if they didn't want to sell the book.

[luaneryder]

8. Just bought it at WaldenBooks yesterday n/t

[peacetalksforall]

9. Why not ask yourself why a reporter like Hersch would hook up with

Murdoch.

Hersch's publisher = Harper Collins
Harper Collins = owned by Murdoch

Harper Collins = a once reputable pubisher

[AngryAmish]

10. Squashing?

As in mashing it down?