Speaking of Amazon, as I seem to be doing often lately, one of the sillier spectator sports on the Internet involves their pages selling political books, specifically the "Reader Reviews" sections. Reader Reviews are often interesting and helpful when those folks are reporting on electronics products they purchased, and occasionally on non-political books. But when the product or its author is the least bit controversial, the "reviews" are about as honest as those e-mails we all receive about Guaranteed Penis Enlargement. (Uh, I'm not the only one who gets those e-mails, am I?)
It's clear that 90+% of the reviewers haven't read the book. They're lying. They see some author on Crossfire or The O'Reilly Factor or wherever and hate him and all that he stands for. Needing some way to express that hatred and thinking they'll do the despised one some small amount of damage, they rush to Amazon, pretend they purchased his book and announce that they found it poorly-written, filled with lies and errors, and perhaps even printed with inks which, when inhaled, cause untreatable diseases. Up until a few months ago, you sometimes saw these "I read this and hated it" reviews on books that wouldn't be out for a few months, but Amazon seems to have modified their software so reviews can't be posted of a book until it's actually been released. (Of course, they have trouble figuring out when a book's actually been released, but that's another story…)
The attackers sometimes pretend to be what they're not, claiming to be on the political side of the work they're lambasting, insisting that they found it a waste of money, despite this. Once in a while, trying to seem non-hysterical, they'll give it a 2-star rating (next to lowest) instead of 1 star. But they never cite one example that makes you think they ever cracked a copy. Nor do their opponents, who post raves of books they also haven't seen, hoping to endorse those authors' viewpoints or counter the detractors. (Not too much with the political books but many of the positive "Reader Reviews" on Amazon appear to be the work of the author posting anonymously, or of the author's friends.)
Amazon also lets you rate the reviews, asking you to vote, "Did you find this review helpful?" Since almost none of the reviews, pro or con, are the least bit helpful, this referendum allows those who don't have time to post phony reviews to have a say. If you hate the author and/or his/her thesis, you vote that you found the negative reviews "helpful," and vice-versa. And of course, this is also done by people who didn't read the book and, if they're negative, probably won't.
If you want to see some examples of this, look at the Reader Reviews for Eric Alterman, Paul Begala, Ann Coulter, William J. Bennett, Michael Moore, or just about anyone who turns up on the political talk shows. I'm sure a few of those comments are legit, but most of them strike me as utterly bogus. And they aren't even clever about it.