“If they pressured Springer to reject the papers out of hand, that would have been wrong.” (See Nick Matzke – Book burner.)
Tepid, but we’ll take what we can get.
WJM writes: “What happened is that Nick and others exercised thuggish intimidation on Springer and Springer, acting in fear of what a few devoted people can do to reputations (especially via the internet) should they set their mind to it, pulled the book from publication at the last minute.”
Liddle responds: “IF this is what happened, I condemn it.”
Better except for the unnecessary qualification, because everyone familiar with the whole sordid affair knows that is exactly what happened.