A while back I posted some excerpts from interviews and reviews of Schiavo attorney George Felos' writings. One of the things I suggested readers do was to go to Amazon and read the reviews from folks who had read his book. There you would have found that his readers seemed to be a bit weirded out by the book, and described things such as Felos reporting that he had caused an airplane he was in to begin to fall from the sky until "God" interrupted his thoughts and told him to be careful what he thought about.
I was reading those reviews just yesterday and thought a couple weren't there any more. Today a commenter on my site reported that all the reviews except a positive one have been removed. I checked it out, and sure enough, the old reviews are gone and what remains is a glowing review from a woman by the name of Joyce D'Auria who describes herself as "a writer in Florida." A Google search didn't reveal anything she had written except this review.
As I check back with Amazon now I see new reviews by readers wondering what happened to the old reviews.
Curious.
UPDATE: Now the new comments are being removed as well.
Hmmmmm.....that IS weird!
Posted by: rebecca | April 01, 2005 at 03:15 PM
He is sick he probably posted the good review himself - notice it is from florida
i posted those comments on straightupwithsherri blog last week
i know exactly which ones you are talking about - he is evil . he dosent even hide it
God Bless
Posted by: keeka | April 01, 2005 at 04:37 PM
Wonder if Felos told Amazon he would sue them if they didn't remove these comments pronto!
Posted by: Truthseeker | April 01, 2005 at 06:20 PM
One of the 'bad' reviews mentioned that the 'good' review was from his girlfriend?
Posted by: jin | April 02, 2005 at 10:18 AM
Just to see what happens, I posted "review" of the book at Amazon. I rated it 5 stars (hoping to bypass any immediate prejudice based on that) and simply asked why the previous reviews had been removed.
I'll be interested in seeing if it makes it through to the page.
Posted by: Jeff H | April 02, 2005 at 01:15 PM
No one should be surprised at manipulation of Amazon by Felos, he manipulated a number of courts as well. Amazon must have been a piece of cake so to speak.
Posted by: GMRoper | April 02, 2005 at 03:39 PM
Hey, check it out now. There are about 5 reviews, all critical not only of the book, but also specifically of Amazon's censorship.
Posted by: Jeff H | April 03, 2005 at 01:16 PM
Check out this audio interview with a lawyer/doctor who has seen Terri's medical records!
http://www.stannespub.com/audio/On%20Tap/artist%20-%20Track%204.mp3
Posted by: Hooser | April 04, 2005 at 10:05 AM
I think we gotta keep in mind that Amazon *does* have posted Review Guidelines. I saw most of the reviews that were mentioned and they all violated the posted guidelines. For instance, several reviews call Felos a fruitcake and a shyster. These violate the guideline against "spiteful comments" and are certainly gonna be removed.
I see the guidelines also state that reviews have to focus on the item (not on the author, not on the subject matter in general) so I'm sure that's why those reviews where people were just spouting their own opinions about the Schiavo case and Felos in general (there were a few of these) were removed. One final note I see that one guideline says you can't "Comments on other reviews." So any review commenting on the fact that other reviews were removed is gonna get yanked pretty quickly. Check out the guidelines: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/508094/
I'm sure if a valid negative review is submitted that focuses on the book's content and is within guidelines, it will remain on the site. It's just that none of the negative ones have been within the posted guidelines yet. I wouldn't go off shouting "conspiracy theory" just yet.
Posted by: FideScriptura | April 04, 2005 at 10:19 PM
FideScriptura is correct that the recent comments would probably violate review policy and the review function was being used as a comment section on Amazon editorial policy. However, the older reviews that were there originally were not spiteful, in my opinion, and made no mention of the Schiavo case, but were by people who were commenting on the book itself, claimed to have read it, and were critical of it.
Posted by: Dory | April 06, 2005 at 03:07 PM
There is currently just one negative review of this book, but it has been there for more than a year:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/1577331044/
This is what the review says:
Posted by: ncdave | May 24, 2006 at 07:36 PM