Controlling Words

In June 2005, André Schiffrin gave a lecture at the Paris Sorbonne University, during the Seminary of Sens Public run by Gérard Wormser and Paul Zawadski. Author and publisher, André Schiffrin describes the present tendency to concentration in the press, and to creation of monopolies, as well in the United States as in Europe. On the same topic, he published two books : {L’édition sans éditeur} (La Fabrique, 2001) and {Le contrôle de la parole} (La Fabrique, 2005).En juin 2005, André Schiffrin a fait une conférence à la Sorbonne au séminaire de Sens Public alors dirigé par Gérard Wormser et Paul Zawadski. Auteur et éditeur, André Schiffrin décrit le phénomène de concentration de la presse et la formation de monopoles aux États-Unis et en Europe. Sur le même sujet il a publié deux livres : {L’édition sans éditeur} (La Fabrique, 2001) et {Le contrôle de la parole} (La Fabrique, 2005)

Les presses universitaires américaines et la logique de profit

Schiffrin André. Les presses universitaires américaines et la logique de profit. In: Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales. Vol. 130, décembre 1999. Édition, Éditeurs (2) pp. 77-80

Profits and Publishing

In U. S. publishing, market thinking has replaced traditional concern with quality. Whereas in the old days publishers concentrated on growth rather than quick return, today’s conglomerates (that have bought out the old family businesses) impose strict profit quotas on every line of books -and even on individual titles. Manuscripts that do not hold out the promise of sales of 20,000 copies in the course of the first year do not see the light of day. The results have led -in the case of Pantheon- to collective resignations, and to the attempt to found a new non-profit press that would operate according to different criteria. The experiment, launched in January of 1992, has involved a reassessment of readership needs in the U.S..L’édition et l’argent. Dans l'édition américaine, le souci du marché a remplacé le traditionnel souci de qualité. Tandis qu’autrefois les éditeurs visaient l’expansion plus que le bénéfice immédiat, les conglomérats d'aujourd’hui (qui ont racheté les vieilles entreprises familiales) exigent des taux de bénéfice très précis et élevés pour chaque type de livre et même sur les titres pris séparément. Du coup, le manuscrit dont on n’escompte pas vendre au moins 20.000 exemplaires la première année ne sera pas publié. Les résultats de cette politique ont conduit, dans le cas de Pantheon, à des démissions collectives et à la tentative de création d’une maison d’édition sans but lucratif qui fonctionnerait selon d’autres critères. L’ expérience, lancée en janvier 1992, repose entre autres sur un réexamen des besoins des lecteurs américains.Schiffrin André. Profits and Publishing. In: Cahiers Charles V, n°14,1992. Lire en Amérique. pp. 21-32

The problems facing Obama

As everyone knows by now, the election of Obama was greeted with great joy and relief in the United States-and elsewhere. The racist and reactionary campaign that McCain, surprisingly, decided to run did not have the effect he hoped for. Until then, a moderate and decent man, McCain was persuaded that he could only win by using and condoning extremist attacks. Symbolic of this turn was the choice of Sarah Palin, who played on all the traditional right wing fears and added many more, dividing the country into the real America, that would back her and the others, urban, elitist, intellectual and of course black, who would not

Effect of chronic ET(A)-selective endothelin receptor antagonism on blood pressure in experimental and genetic hypertension in rats

1. Chronic treatment with a combined ET(A)/ET(B) endothelin receptor antagonist has been shown to reduce blood pressure in experimental rat models of hypertension in which endothelin-1 gene overexpression occurs in the walls of blood vessels, particularly small, resistance-sized arteries, but not in those genetic or experimental models of hypertension in which there is no overexpression of vascular endothelin-1. Failure of some experimental models of hypertension to respond to treatment with the combined ET(A)/ET(B) endothelin antagonist may be due in part to blockade of vasorelaxant endothelial ET(B) receptors which could in theory reduce the efficacy of endothelin antagonism. 2. In this study the orally active ET(A)-selective endothelin antagonists A-127722.5 and LU 135252 were used in chronic experiments on deoxycorticosterone acetate (DOCA)-salt hypertensive rats (which overexpress vascular endothelin-1 and respond with blood pressure lowering to combined ET(A)/ET(B) endothelin receptor antagonism), on spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) (which do not overexpress vascular endothelin-1 and do not respond with blood pressure lowering to the combined ET(A)/ET(B) receptor antagonist), and in 1-kidney 1 clip Goldblatt (1-K 1C) hypertensive rats (which present mild overexpression of vascular endothelin-1 but do not respond with blood pressure lowering to the combined ET(A)/ET(B) receptor antagonist). Additionally, it has been suggested that interruption of the renin-angiotensin system may sensitize responses to endothelin antagonism. Accordingly, SHR were treated with an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor, cilazapril, in addition to the ET(A) receptor antagonist. 3. Blood pressure of DOCA-salt hypertensive rats was lowered by a mean of 24 and of 27 mmHg (P<0.01) by A-127722.5 after 4 weeks of treatment, when given orally at two different doses (10 and 30 mg kg(−1) day(−1)), and by 18 mmHg by LU 135252 50 mg kg(−1) day(−1). 4. SHR treated with A-127722.5 for 8 weeks starting at 12 weeks of age exhibited the same progressive rise in blood pressure as untreated SHR. Addition of cilazapril resulted in similar reduction of blood pressure in A-127722.5-treated and untreated SHR. 5. Treatment of 1-K 1C hypertensive rats with the dose of LU 135252 which lowered blood pressure in DOCA-salt hypertensive rats did not cause any reduction in blood pressure relative to untreated rats. 6. These results demonstrate that treatment with either dose of the selective ET(A) receptor antagonists A-127722.5 or LU 135252 caused reductions in blood pressure similar to those obtained for a combined ET(A)/ET(B) endothelin antagonist. Blood pressure was lowered only in hypertensive rats known to overexpress vascular endothelin-1 (DOCA-salt hypertensive rats) but not in those which do not (SHR) or only have mild vascular overexpression of endothelin-1 gene (1-K 1C hypertensive rats). Reduction in activity of the renin-angiotensin system in SHR did not sensitize blood pressure to potential hypotensive effects of an ET(A)-selective receptor antagonist