Terry Prone: Naomi Klein discovers a mirror world rather than a mirror image

Terry Prone looks at the strange confusion that sees people confuse socialist writer Naomi Klein with right-wing, conspiracy theorist Naomi Wolf

Canadian socialist author Naomi Klein outlines the experience of being confused with controversial conspiracy theorist Naomi Wolf in her book ‘Doppelgänger’. Picture: OLIVIER MORIN/AFP/Getty Images

It wasn’t a TV prime time interview. It wasn’t conducted by an internationally known household presenter. It wasn’t savagely conducted. But it was arguably the only time that a New York Times bestselling author had her reputation shredded, live on air. It was inarguably the only time a major publisher has, in the days immediately following what was intended to be a promotional interview, pulled a book by a famous writer and pulped every withdrawn copy.

To listen to the interview today, five years later, is to re-live the skin-prickling horror of it all over again. Naomi Wolf is the writer. Confident with a striking appearance.