The New York Times Tweaks Its “Bestseller” List . . . to Exclude Conservative Authors

by Little Miss Attila on March 17, 2011

This is petty shit, indeed.

No word yet on how political books by left-wingers and Democrats will fare under the new system, but this stupid maneuver had the effect of moving conservative books wayyyyy down the list–nine categories down. Putting political tomes in with self-help books is a cheap thing to do.

Why do I sense a “best-seller list” in the Wall Street Journal‘s future?

{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }

ponce March 17, 2011 at 6:16 pm: “Why do I sense a “best-seller list” in the Wall Street Journal‘s future?”

Um, The Wall Street Journal already publishes a bestseller list.

Ouch.

Reply
Little Miss Attila March 17, 2011 at 8:46 pm: You are coming across as increasingly desperate.

Reply
ponce March 17, 2011 at 8:56 pm: LMA,

This is your second post today telling private sector executives how they should run their companies.

I’d say it’s your mask that’s slipping…

Reply
Darrell March 18, 2011 at 4:08 am: Saying that you “see” that something will happen is not telling anyone what to do.
Using the EPA and the Justice Dept. as a soviet-style shovel of regulation and intimidation to accomplish
what you couldn’t do legislatively is. The shovel was the Soviet Union’s handiest tool. It could not only deliver the death blow but it could
bury the evidence. Sort of like the NYT did with the “ClimateGate” memos and emails. Few stories have any impact if citizens can’t read them.

The NYT should come up with that one master cross-category list of bestsellers. The kind that ponce stupidly thought they already had
when he was “correcting” me about Sarah’s book being (#12 or #15–it keeps on changing on the NYT Best Sellers List–even though that was its ranking in
the Hardcover Nonfiction category.

The only thing that matters is sales. Lefties “know” that no one ever bought Sarah’s book as surely as they “know” any other fucking thing.
And Left-leaning booksellers keep books by people they hate on the floor of the stockroom–shoved under a metal storage rack. Why would
employees do something that might cost them their job if the store fails? Ask the Wisc public unions. I giess the belief that they will
acquire/retain power is pretty strong. And they know that Nancy Pelosi will sponsor their “art” even if no one wants to see it, much less buy it.
A bunch of pathetic Don Quixotes looking for the good-old days. “Patron! Patron! Si, si puede! Dame! Dame!”

Reply
I R A Darth Aggie March 18, 2011 at 7:15 am: This is your second post today telling private sector executives how they should run their companies.

Then they shouldn’t pretend to be the Newspaper of Record, either…

Reply
Yu-Ain Gonnano March 18, 2011 at 7:41 am: I’d say it’s your mask that’s slipping…

What’s the problem with voicing your opinion?

I don’t know of any issue with voicing an opinion, even it it’s about how someone ought to run their company. It is when you start using the of gov’t to enforce your opinion that it becomes an issue. And LMA didn’t come anywhere close to doing that.

Reply
ponce March 18, 2011 at 7:54 am: “What’s the problem with voicing your opinion?”

Ignoring the extreme irony of a Fox News supporter complaining about media bias, exactly what part of conservative dogma states a private businessman should give a crap what a non-customer thinks about the way he runs his business.

Does LMA believe the New York times should waste its money peddling fringe right propaganda out of the goodness of its heart?

Or for the betterment of society, perhaps?

Reply
Yu-Ain Gonnano March 18, 2011 at 8:29 am: exactly what part of conservative dogma states a private businessman should give a crap what a non-customer thinks about the way he runs his business.

None. But what part of conservative dogma (or democrat dogma, for that matter) that says you shouldn’t voice an opinion on anything?

If the private businessman doesn’t give a crap, that’s perfectly fine. He could even, shock-shock, say so. If he wanted he could voice his own negative opinion of LMA’s opinion who is also perfectly able to also not give a crap.

That’s the great thing about free speech.

But yes, reporting facts, and not interjecting opinion into journalism would be better for society. That you consider facts you don’t like (i.e. a book has sold X number of copies) as fringe right propaganda is rather telling.

Reply
Yu-Ain Gonnano March 18, 2011 at 8:31 am: I also note that nowhere did LMA ever say that the NYT should give a crap.

Reply
ponce March 18, 2011 at 8:44 am: “That you consider facts you don’t like (i.e. a book has sold X number of copies) as fringe right propaganda is rather telling.”

Well, considering the Koch brothers and other fringe right sugar daddies buy up wingnut books in bulk and hand them out for free as doorstops and fire starters, these books’ sales figures are indeed propaganda.

Reply
Yu-Ain Gonnano March 18, 2011 at 9:20 am: Your evidence?

Reply
Yu-Ain Gonnano March 18, 2011 at 9:36 am: I also wonder what the deal with the hatred of the Koch brothers are. They support gay marriage, reducing military involvment in the world, and ending the drug war.

Not exactly right wing extremist views, those.

Reply
ponce March 18, 2011 at 11:16 am: “I also wonder what the deal with the hatred of the Koch brothers are. ”

I wonder why wingnuts equate criticizing someone with hating them.

It’s very revealing.

Reply
Yu-Ain Gonnano March 18, 2011 at 1:50 pm: Dude, if your obsession with them amounts to mere criticism, I’ll eat my hat.

I haven’t seen a single criticism of them from you. Insults, yes. Conspiracy theories, sure. Criticism, no.

Reply
Yu-Ain Gonnano March 18, 2011 at 1:53 pm: And I note that you still have provided no evidence for your assertion that “fringe right sugar daddies ” are buying up books to manipulate the NYT bestseller list.

Just more conspiracy theories masquerading as “criticism”, I guess.

Reply
ponce March 18, 2011 at 2:20 pm: Is that you, Purrel?

Reply
Yu-Ain Gonnano March 18, 2011 at 2:30 pm: Who?

Oh, and still no evidence.

Reply
ponce March 18, 2011 at 3:29 pm: Yuain’t,

The New York times bestseller list puts a little dagger next to books whose sales figures have been helped by bulk sales to groups.

There are few right-wing books on the list that don’t have daggers.

“One book review staffer observed that conservative activist groups and book clubs are more effective than their liberal counterparts at jacking up sales figures through bulk buying.

The current New York Times best-seller list seems to confirm his observation. Four conservative books — by Corsi, Feddoso, and Morris and McGann, plus The Revolution, a libertarian manifesto by former Presidential candidate Ron Paul, currently listed at #21 — all come with daggers indicating that sales figures have been influenced by bulk orders. ”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-dreier/jerome-corsis-nonfiction_b_120246.html

Reply