So Rush Limbaugh has written a children’s book. Wow. Who knew? Not me! And I’m usually up on this stuff. Furthermore, it’s a time travel book and I collect time travel books. But I digress. This fool has not only written a children’s book?–he has actually won a children’s book award.
On Wednesday, Limbaugh was awarded “author of the year” in the?prestigious Children’s Choice Book Award.?He beat out such worthy competitors as Veronica Roth, Rick Riordan, and “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” author Jeff Kinney. The book,?Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims, was nominated by the “most objective method possible” — sales. But to win, “kids” have to actually vote.
The book is terrifying in that the hero features Rush’s head in a very bad Photoshopping job. Here is the cover:
The nomination was announced in March. Not sure how I missed this, but alas, the story is better now that he WON. Unbelievable. But check this out, from Boston Herald’s “The Edge”:
Nominees are selected by the most objective method possible, sales, while the winners are supposedly picked by kids, who vote online. But executive director Robin Adelson of the Children’s Book Council and Every Child a Reader, nonprofit organizations that co-founded the awards seven years ago, acknowledged Thursday that adults could easily vote and vote multiple times, a problem not uncommon for Internet competitions.
“Every one of our finalists gets fake votes every year,” Adelson told The Associated Press. “We like to think that’s the enthusiasm of adults who love children’s books.”
People can vote one of three ways:
- a widget that can be embedded in kids’ websites
- a link on the awards website
- a link on the awards site that allows teachers, librarians, and other to submit bulk votes on behalf of their institution
An individual voter can vote multiple times, easily, and doesn’t even need to provide a verifiable email address or proof of age. Bulk voters have to submit a verifiable email address or proof of age.
The competition this year became “fair and close” towards the end. Limbaugh touted his nomination on his show and on his website, which likely gave him an edge. I’d not be at all surprised if he bought this award somehow via paying someone to bulk vote or whatever. But who cares? He won.
What is really pathetic about this is that we all know that Rush didn’t really write this book by himself, if he had any input at all. There are truly talented, hard-working, creative children’s book authors who truly deserved recognition. Unbelievable.
It will give me much pleasure to buy it for my time travel book collection. Used. At a yard sale. Authors hate that. It seems that you can actually read the entire thing on Amazon without even buying it. Let’s do that. You can read more at The Edge.
h/t Jezebel