The Media Is Failing to Cover Conservative Best Sellers

When Bush was in office and voter dissatisfaction with him and the Republicans was high, liberal books ruled the best seller lists from Amazon.com and The New York Times. There was a lot of coverage:

• In September 2003, the Boston Globe proclaimed liberals "triumphant" against "conservatives' decade long hold on popular culture." (1)


• In October 2003, Gersh Kuntzman gushed on Newsweek.com, "The best-seller list, once the sole bastion of conservative screeds by Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Rush ‘OxyContin is my Co-Pilot' Limbaugh, is now crammed with liberal broadsides. TO THIS UNABASHED lefty, it all adds up to one thing: We're back, baby, we're back! And, man, it feels good...[we will no longer keep] our mouths shut while the right-wing [takes] sole possession of God, the flag, national security and family values (things we think are pretty damn important, too - except, of course, God)." (2)


• Barnes and Noble, reacting to the outpouring of Bush-bashing literature in August of 2003 announced that it would set up ‘political science/cultural affairs' tables at its stores to feature the newest partisan works (3).

But now conservative books dominate the best seller list and no one is covering it. Amazon, which, unlike The New York Times, ranks books according to the number of actual copies sold, shows Glenn Beck's Common Sense rounding out the top, with Michelle Malkin's Culture of Corruption coming in a close second. Ron Paul's End the Fed comes in at number seven, Mark Levin's Liberty and Tyranny is at number nine, and at number 22 is Dick Morris and Eileen Mcgann's Catastrophe, which carries the blunt sub-heading, "How Obama, Congress, and the special interests are transforming... a slump into a crash, freedom into socialism, and a disaster into a catastrophe... and how to fight back." (4)

The New York Times, which uses an opaque though accurate algorithm to rank its bestsellers, has Culture of Corruption at number one, Liberty and Tyranny at number five, Catastrophe at number seven, Bill O'Reilly's memoir A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity at number eight, and Robert Wright's less political but ostensibly conservative The Evolution of God at number 12 (5).

Says conservative author Michelle Malkin, "The Times will only cover conservative books when they start falling off its best-seller lists."

The original article can be found here.
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1. Canellos, Peter S. and Anne E. Kornblut (2003, September 14). "Liberal Authors Triumphant As US Bookshelves Lean Left". The Boston Globe.
Retrieved September 2, 2009, from Boston.com

2. "American Beat: We're Baaaa-Aack" (2003, October 14). Newsweek.
Retrieved September 2, 2009, from Newsweek.com

3. Markay, Lachlan (2009, September 1). "Media Ignoring Conservatives' Return to Dominance of Political Book Market". News Busters.
Retrieved September 2, 2009, from News Busters

4. Markay, Lachlan (2009, September 1). "Media Ignoring Conservatives' Return to Dominance of Political Book Market". News Busters.
Retrieved September 2, 2009, from News Busters

5. Markay, Lachlan (2009, September 1). "Media Ignoring Conservatives' Return to Dominance of Political Book Market". News Busters.
Retrieved September 2, 2009, from News Busters