Couple of questions for more experienced scholars

From: Michael Fitzgerald <[email protected]>

I have a couple of questions for some of the more experienced scholars out
there since I am fairly new to this game, having earned my PhD a few months
ago.

I was lucky enough to convince a major academic publisher to have a look at
a revised version of my dissertation, which deals with media treatment of
Native Americans and how this closely resembles imperial discourse as
employed in colonial countries. Moreover, I argue that the US is in a
position of having to deny it is and has long been a colonial power. As this
is admittedly an unpopular and contentious concept, I expected controversy.

Naturally, I was expecting a few of rounds of reviews, which I assumed is
standard operating procedure, as it is in journals. The first review I found
laughable. The reviewer acknowledged my research was solid but was livid
over my tone and stance, which he found "strident." He lumped me in a
category with Noam Chomsky-good company, in my view-and others in what he
feels is an unpatriotic ilk (he openly mentioned that he personally knew
several television-network executives and that they were decent, "patriotic"
citizens who had "fought for this country during WWII").

I was neither surprised nor disturbed by the review itself. What surprised
and shocked me was that the editor did not even wait for the second review
before pulling the plug. So I feel I have been effectively "blackballed" by
a politically motivated reviewer whose objective was to squelch scholarship
that does not fit his nationalistic worldview. And he succeeded.

Logic would suggest that the purpose of soliciting multiple reviews is
specifically to "balance out" this sort of ideological hostility. What is
the purpose of soliciting multiple reviews if the first one is the only one
that counts?

My questions are: did the editor violate standard protocol here, and am I
right to be indignant? I reiterate, I am not upset by the review itself as
by the unmitigated and unquestioned power it was given by the editor.

Thanks so much,
Michael Ray Fitzgerald
Jacksonville University
Jacksonville, Florida