Is it fair to expect the press to snap up gossipy tidbits about your publishing house's high-profile new book and then ask them to keep proper reviews under embargo? No!, says Galley Cat's Emily Gould.

Barbara Walter's memoir Audition, from Knopf, has been splashed all over this website and elsewhere for the revelation that she bedded a married Massachusetts senator (and a black one at that!). That news bite was revealed on Oprah by Walters herself as part of a publicity tour. But what about the rest of the book's material? Knopf wanted today to be the first day any reviews would be published, since today is the official on-sale date. But the New York Times ran its review yesterday, flouting the request, which is essentially an invitation for a paper as influential as the Times to break the rules. Because it can.