Publisher ‘Quits’ the Revered New York Times Bestselling Lists Over Leftwing Bias Against Conservatives

Have you ever noticed that some huge conservative authors never make the coveted New York Times best sellers lists?  Marji Ross, of Regnery Publishing has.  In fact, since her publisher produces books for conservative commentators like Dinesh D’Souza, Laura Ingraham and Newt Gingrich, she’s seen the bias up close…  Sometimes books that sell thousands of more copies don’t even make the list, and Ross thinks it’s because the New York Times favors liberal writers.

When she asked about how this happens, the New York Times gave two unsatisfactory answers:

Ross cited multiple cases where conservative books did not appear to do as well on the New York Times Best Seller’s List as their actual sales numbers indicate they should have.

When approached about the seeming discrepancy, Ross said the Times gave two different explanations. “One is, it’s a secret. Our formula is a secret. We don’t tell anyone how we do it,” said Ross.

The other answer she cited was that the Times samples stores across the country, which means it is quite possible the Times could be polling stores more likely to sell fewer conservative titles than others, leading to a skewed result.

“Because frankly, independent bookstores often lean more liberal than conservative – so you could have a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Ross told NPR.  “If you gather your data from stores that tend to favor left-leaning books, well, then your list will reflect that.”

She wrote a letter to her Regnery authors explaining that Regnery will no longer be touting this list.  Instead, they will publicize Publisher’s Weekly’s list:

“We refuse to continue to highlight a list which has an increasingly diminished value to our audience. Therefore, we will no longer promote, publicize or frankly even bother to mention this list,” Ross added.

“Instead, we will continue to track sales, as a large number of media groups do, through Nielsen’s BookScan report, and we will use the Publisher’s Weekly bestseller list as our benchmark.”

In a letter to Regnery’s authors, she noted: “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.”

I love that.  It’s time for conservatives to quit giving the left the respect they don’t deserve.

Listen to Ross discuss this on NPR:

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