Some big news broke over the weekend, but first I want to talk about this ridiculous AP story:
Conservative publisher wants nothing more to do with Times
A company that publishes books by Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin, Ann Coulter and other conservative authors says it wants nothing to do anymore with The New York Times and its best-seller list.
Regnery Publishing said on Monday it will no longer recognize the Times’ accounting of book sales, meaning its writers can no longer claim to be “New York Times best-selling authors.” That’s a big deal in the book business.
Regnery is annoyed that its book “The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left” was only No. 7 on the Times’ latest best-sellers list even though another organization that tracks sales ranked it No. 1. Regnery says another of its books, “No Go Zones: How Sharia Law is Coming to a Neighborhood Near You,” is also not ranked as highly by the Times as it deserves to be....
Regnery says the Times’ list gives priority to liberal books.
The Times list doesn't give priority to liberal books. It's true that The Big Lie -- Dinesh D'Souza's new book -- has gone no higher than #7 on the list. But let's take a look at some of the #1 hardcover nonfiction bestsellers for 2017, according to the Times.
* January 1 and January 8: Killing the Rising Sun by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard.
* January 22, January 29, February 5, February 12, February 19, February 26, March 5, and March 12: Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance.
* March 19 and March 26: Portraits of Courage by George W. Bush.
* April 2: Trump's War by Michael Savage.
* April 9: Hillbilly Elegy again.
* April 16, April 23, and April 30: Old School by Bill O'Reilly and Bruce Feirstein.
* July 2: Understanding Trump by Newt Gingrich.
* July 16 and July 23: Rediscovering Americanism by Mark R. Levin.
There have been thirty-seven Times hardcover nonfiction bestseller lists this year, and on twenty of them -- a majority -- the #1 bestseller was written by an avowed conservative. Liberal books have topped the list for only two weeks: Al Franken's Giant of the Senate (#1 on June 18) and Elizabeth Warren's This Fight Is Our Fight (#1 on May 7).
It's not surprising that Regnery is doing this for D'Souza, because D'Souza likes to work the refs this way. You may recall what Congressman Dana Rohrabacher did for D'Souza in 2014:
Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, a frequent foe of Google, is demanding to know why the giant Internet company was fumbling the search results for Dinesh D'Souza's movie America for nearly three weeks.
Shortly after the movie opened wide on July 2, the filmmakers complained to Google that Internet users looking for showtimes and locations were sometimes misdirected to the wrong movie. On other occasions, an image of the film's poster was incorrect or a description of the movie was wrong.
Rohrabacher tells The Hollywood Reporter that he's so disturbed by Google's behavior he intends on discussing it Wednesday during the House Republican Conference, which is the party caucus for Republicans in the House of Representatives.
So, how efficiently is Regnery carrying out this campaign to purge all references to the Times bestseller list? Well, if you compare the current "bestsellers" page on Regnery's website with the most recent version archived on the Wayback Machine, you can see that the headline
Regnery Publishing has one of the best batting averages in the industry...
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
Regnery Publishing Best Sellers
has been changed to
Regnery Publishing National Bestsellers
Regnery Publishing has one of the best batting averages in the industry...
and all references to positions on the Times have been deleted.
But go to the "About Regnery Publishing" page and you'll still see this:
Regnery has boasted one of the best batting averages in the publishing business–placing more than fifty books on the New York Times bestseller list, including numerous books at #1.
Go to the page for D'Souza's current book on the Regnery site and, yes, D'Souza is described as the "author of the #1 national bestsellers Hillary’s America, America, and Obama’s America." (It used to say, "author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers....")
But the covers of D'Souza's books on the site all refer to him as a New York Times bestselling author, as do the individual pages for his old titles -- this one, for instance:
The same is true for other books and authors on the site. Edward Klein's Blood Feud: The Clintons vs. the Obamas is described as "the #1 New York Times bestselling follow-up to The Amateur." Ann Coulter, we're told, "is the author of ten New York Times bestsellers." Gary Aldrich is identified as "the author of the celebrated #1 New York Times bestseller Unlimited Access: An FBI Agent Inside the Clinton White House" (that's the one that accused the Clintons of putting sex toys on the White House Christmas tree).
So this purge has been less than thorough. It's fake noise from purveyors of fake news.
Crossposted at No More Mr. Nice Blog
