Benzinga | Jan 18, 2021 07:52PM EST

Salem Media Group Announced Josh Hawley Signs with Regnery after Simon & Schuster Cancels Book

Salem Media Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:SALM) announced today that Regnery Publishing, a Salem Media Group company, has picked up Senator Josh Hawley's The Tyranny of Big Tech after its cancelation last week by Simon & Schuster. Accusing Hawley of complicity in the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, the New Yorkbased publishing conglomerate made the Missouri Republican one of the highest-profile victims of the "cancel culture." Regnery will publish the senator's book in the summer of 2021.

Despite Senator Hawley's immediate and forceful condemnation of the violent incursion, social media teemed with calls for retribution for his objection to the certification of the electoral vote. The next day, citing his purported "role in what became a dangerous threat to our democracy and freedom," Simon & Schuster announced that it was dropping Hawley's book, scheduled for publication in June. Responding to the impulsive decision, Hawley stated on Twitter, "Simon & Schuster is canceling my contract because I was representing my constituents, leading a debate on the Senate floor on voter integrity, which they have now decided to redefine as sedition."

Regnery's president and publisher, Thomas Spence, observes that the relentless consolidation of the New York publishing housesthe "Big Five" will soon become the "Big Four" when Penguin Random House acquires Simon & Schusterhas not stiffened their editorial spine. "It's discouraging to see them cower before the woke mob,' as Senator Hawley correctly calls it. Regnery is proud to stand in the breach with him. And the warning in his book about censorship obviously couldn't be more urgent."

Senator Hawley is an authority on the legal and constitutional implications of Big Tech's growing power. While the attorney general of Missouri, he investigated how the most powerful company in the worldGoogleuses citizens' private information. In The Tyranny of Big Tech, he shows how Facebook, Amazon, Google, Twitter, and other digital giants have abused their enormous market power and political influence, silencing their competition. Explaining why current policies fail us, he identifies alternatives that will break Big Tech's control over our liberties.

A graduate of Stanford University and Yale Law School, Josh Hawley clerked for the chief justice of the United States and served as attorney general of Missouri. In 2018 he was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he has devoted himself to fearlessly protecting workers and families.