Mary Matalin reportedly contradicts herself on role in publishing Obama smear book

Republican strategist Mary Matalin, head of Threshold Editions, which published Jerome Corsi's falsehood-laden book The Obama Nation, reportedly wrote in an email to Slate.com's Timothy Noah that her role at Threshold is “more akin to a consultant relative to the issue of potential interest among political readers.” But according to her own website, Matalin "runs Threshold, a new conservative publishing imprint at Simon & Schuster" [emphasis added].

According to an August 15 update to an article by Slate.com's Timothy Noah about Republican strategist Mary Matalin's involvement in Jerome Corsi's falsehood-laden book The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality (Threshold Editions), Matalin wrote in an email to Noah that she does not “deal with any mechanics (like print runs, reprints, financial relationship with authors), or for that matter, editing of the Threshold books,” and added that her role at Threshold is “more akin to a consultant relative to the issue of potential interest among political readers.” But contrary to her reported claim to having more of “a consultant” role at Threshold, according to her own website, Matalin "runs Threshold, a new conservative publishing imprint at Simon & Schuster" [emphasis added]. And, while she reportedly told Noah that she advises Threshold on “the issue of potential interest among political readers,” according to an August 12 New York Times article, Matalin said that Obama Nation “was not designed to be, and does not set out to be, a political book.” Rather than being a “political book,” Matalin reportedly told the Times that Obama Nation, which has been widely discredited by many media figures, is “a piece of scholarship, and a good one at that.”

From Matalin's email to Noah, published in an August 15 update to Noah's August 13 article on Slate.com:

Appreciate your taking the time to talk about Obama Nation in your column. I sent your inquiry regarding future printings to Simon & Schuster because such issues are not mine to decide. I am sorry you did not receive a response. My title is somewhat misleading, but it is the one the publishing industry uses. I do not deal with any mechanics (like print runs, reprints, financial relationship with authors), or for that matter, editing of the Threshold books. I am more akin to a consultant relative to the issue of potential interest among political readers.

From the August 12 New York Times article:

Mr. Corsi, who has over the years also written critically about Senator John McCain, Mr. Obama's probable Republican opponent, said he supported the Constitution Party presidential nominee, Chuck Baldwin, and had not been in touch with McCain aides. He called his reporting on Mr. Obama, which he stands by, “investigative,” not prosecutorial.

Ms. Matalin said in an interview that the book “was not designed to be, and does not set out to be, a political book,” calling it, rather, “a piece of scholarship, and a good one at that.” She said she was unaware of efforts to link it to any anti-Obama advertising.