Jon Stewart's 'America' named book of the year by industry magazine

NEW YORK (AP) _ Jon Stewart's ``America (The Book),'' the television commentator's million-selling riff on politics and other matters of satire, has been named Book of the Year by Publishers

Monday, December 6th 2004, 9:44 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ Jon Stewart's ``America (The Book),'' the television commentator's million-selling riff on politics and other matters of satire, has been named Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly, the industry trade magazine.

In announcing the award Monday, Publishers Weekly called the book ``a serious critique of the two-party system, the corporations that finance it and the 'spineless cowards in the press' who 'aggressively print allegation and rumor independent of accuracy and fairness.'''

Stewart's book was released in September and immediately topped best-seller lists even as Wal-Mart declined to stock the book, citing a page featuring the faces of the nine Supreme Court justices superimposed over naked bodies. The page facing the nude photos has cutouts of the justices' robes, complete with a caption asking readers to ``restore their dignity by matching each justice with his or her respective robe.'