The New York Times bestsellers list is like the hall of fame for authors and publishers. Naturally, considering its liberal source, the publishers of that list must find it hard to swallow when a conservative book makes it to the top.
Regnery Press, a company that published The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left, by Dinesh D’Souza, announced on September 4 that “it will no longer recognize the Times’ accounting of book sales.” According to AP News, “That’s a big deal in the book business.”
The Times’ bestselling list has placed D’Souza’s book at number 7, even though “another organization that tracks sales ranked it No. 1.” In addition, another Regnery book, No Go Zones: How Sharia Law is Coming to A Neighborhood Near You, is apparently also being demoted by the Times. According to Regnery, “The Times’ list gives priority to liberal books.”
This is not the first time the Times have demoted, dismissed, or ignored popular conservative books that are selling well in bookstores and online. Mark Levin’s book, Rediscovering Americanism: And the Tyranny of Progressivism, was removed from the number one spot in July, even after the Wall Street Journal and the Conservative Book Club both reported that it was the number one “top selling nonfiction book.” According to The Washington Examiner, the book had “swamped the competition, selling over 100,000 copies in three weeks,” yet was still demoted to the Number 2 spot on the NYT list.
In February, the NYT refused to place the book Gosnell: The Untold Story of America’s Most Prolific Serial Killer on the correct position as the number 4 best-selling nonfiction book. Instead, it kept the title at number 13, even though Regnery, the publisher, argued that “Gosnell reached No. 3 on Amazon’s best-seller book list and was named Amazon’s no. 1 “Hot New Release.””
And still, according to a spokesperson for the NYT, “the notion that we would manipulate the lists to exclude books for political reasons is simply ludicrous.”
Regnery Press, “The country’s leading publisher of conservative books,” has published such names as Ann Coulter, David Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin, Dinesh D’Souza, Newt Gingrich, Mark Levin, and Laura Ingraham. It has placed “more than fifty books on the New York Times bestseller list.”
For the company to sever all ties with the New York Times is indicative of the Times’ inherent corruption. Marji Ross, the president of Regnery, stated to its authors, “We are often told it’s foolish to bite the hand that feeds you. I say it’s just as foolish to feed the hand that bites you.”
