by Jim W. Dean, VT Editor … with author Phil Butler, Crete
What is it about Putin that upsets the Ruuso-phobes so much”
[ Editor’s Note: I had been thinking of doing an update on how Phil’s new book was doing, and then decided to interview him about it Q&A, Jonas E. Alexis style, to give VT readers a peek behind the curtain into what it takes to pull off publishing a book like this during these hostile times toward independent media.
We will be checking back in with Phil from time to time to see how things are going as his book is the tip of the spear at this moment.
VT had our corporate media blackout broken this year in a strange way, a hit piece on us by Political Magazine about being anti-veteran, that failed miserably, actually backfiring on them as we got a lot of publicity from the attack.
And then Google Jigsaw (formerly Google Ideas) took their “Russian Trolls” shot at us via an Oxford, England report, but screwed up by putting a former Google guy over the project. We suspect Google was angry over our exposure of the paramilitary operations they have inside.
Someone forgot to tell these PR impaired people that when you are a big rich company, naming calling is slumming it, when doing a televised debate would be so much better. But for some reason that never want to do that with us as we would demand equal time and no editing.
Bring the fight on, as we are as ready for it as we ever will be, and tons of supporting material that the mass media folks have never seemed to learn much about. You will find a lot of that in Phil’s groups experience book, at Amazon in paper of Kindle format…JD ]
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Phil Butler, digital media pioneer author and VT-NEO columnist
Jim: Phil, how is the book marketing going? I know that even though this book has an international theme, capturing an international audience is a big hurdle.
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Phil: As you suggest Jim, marketing such a book can be an even bigger hurdle than writing. The reception initially has been very good, and “Praetorians” actually surprised me becoming an Amazon bestseller on Kindle overnight. Even more surprising are the sales of the paperback versions.
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However positive these initial steps have been, however, breaking through the shell of traditional media and those audiences is a tough go. To be honest, I thought the book’s popularity and early reviews should have caused more interest.
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Jim: When did you come up with the structure of using this particular group of “anti-fake war” activists to tell THE story via their own personal experiences in the field?
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Phil: The idea first occurred to me back when elements of the opposite view labeled some of us so-called “Top Kremlin Trolls” a few years back. Many of us actually laughed at the insinuation at first, but later on, the “title” became a sort of badge of honor. As the media war has progressed farther into madness and “fake news”, and with the reassertions of some “Putin troll army” – well, showing the genuine people fighting the anti-Russia narrative from their hospital beds and wheelchairs etc. it just made more sense.
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Jim: In the past, “threatening authors” like David Irving have had publications of their books blocked by the “usual suspects”. We have people asking us how you even got this published?
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Phil: I actually identify with David in this respect. The whole block of mainstream media and publishing is dead set against the unpopular dissenting view. Having published books for our clients in the past, I logically self-published this book using my own meager resources.
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Jim: We’ve already seen some negative backlash against the book and those promoting it from people associated with the Atlantic Council. What is your take on the criticism pro-Russian activists promoting a book about Kremlin trolls?
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Phil: Well, considering the source we expected a lot worse criticism actually. But the people behind the story you mention clearly never even read the book. The purpose of this story was to bait our social media people into engaging with middle-level globalists pawns. It’s a strategy you see. As to the implied question, “Who else in the world would be promoting good news about Russia?”
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Jim: Reading the book for the first time I could not help wondering about the wisdom of RT Editor in Chief Margarita Simonyan contributing the afterword. Weren’t you afraid her contribution would be used to detract from or eliminate the credibility of the book?
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Phil: On the contrary, there was never any question Margarita should not be included if she could find the time to offer her view. Anyone who knows her can attest to her honesty and openness about what RT is, and the direction it was intended to depart toward.
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Her contribution indemnifies the contributions and ideas of all the people involved in this fight against a real Orwellian threat. Let me make this clear. What we are facing and fighting here is nothing short of a cataclysm of ideologies.
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RT’s mantra of “Question More” is not just a brilliant public relations dogma – we are all begging and pleading with readerships to engage in a real discussion. Our opponents want no discussion at all – the globalist want to issue decrees.
Jim W. Dean is VT Editor Emeritus. He was an active editor on VT from 2010-2022. He was involved in operations, development, and writing, plus an active schedule of TV and radio interviews. He now writes and posts periodically for VT.
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