Judith Regan, who made a fortune for News Corp (NYSE: NWS) shepherding books from controversial people such as Howard Stern, is stirring up the pot again with an extraordinary lawsuit against the media conglomerate, which dumped her following the bad publicity generated by OJ Simpson's "hypothetical" book "If I Did It," and for making anti-Semitic remarks.

According to the Associated Press, Regan's suit is "saying her former employers tried to destroy her reputation and asked her to lie to federal investigators about Bernard Kerik, the recently indicted former police commissioner with whom she had an affair."

Wait, it gets better. First, she denies making any anti-Semitic remarks. In her lawsuit, Regan argues that the reason for her ouster from Rupert Murdoch's media empire was because of the company's political support for Kerik's one-time political mentor and current GOP presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani.

"Because of Ms. Regan's affair with Mr. Kerik, court papers say, a senior News Corp executive told her he believed she had information about Mr. Kerik that could hurt Mr. Giuliani's campaign and she should lie to federal investigators," the AP said. News Corp denounced Regan's claims as "preposterous."

Sounds like the makings of a good novel, no?

The Australian media baron Rupert Murdoch gave in to public pressure and his News Corporation (NYSE:NWS) book operation, Harper Collins, will not publish the OJ Simpson book If I Did It. A TV special related to the book was to run on Murdoch's network, Fox.

Australia is a former penal colony and perhaps Mr. Murdoch was worried that his US citizenship would be revoked and he would be returned to his island home.

The US has a long history of banning books. Catcher In The Rye was kept out of schools off and on for years. Ulysses by James Joyce, perhaps the greatest novel of the 20th century, was banned by the US Customs Office for fifteen years. The wonderful thing about banning books or blocking their publication is that, once the process begins, it has no clear end.

Mr. Simpson's book is a hypothetical account of what might have happened if he had killed his former wife and one of her friends. How could it be that Mr. Simpson has no First Amendment rights? OJ may be a jabbering horror of a human being, but he retains the right to write and publish as he see fit.

Murdoch may have wanted to appear the apple polisher to the public, but has done his industry a great disservice.

Douglas McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.