A recent analysis conducted by The Economist suggests The New York Time’s bestseller list is politically biased against conservatives, a point many on the right have long argued.
Books released by conservative publishers are, on average, 7 percent less likely to make it onto the paper’s weekly bestseller list, even if the books sell at a comparable rate to work released from other publishers, the analysis found.
While big names on the right don’t face as much of a challenge getting on the list, lesser known authors that are right of center do, The Economist notes.
Books that are not bestsellers have it worse, according to The Economist. A book that ranks in the bottom five of Publishers Weekly rankings will on average place five spots lower on the Times’ list, the analysis concluded.
Michael Knowles, a conservative commentator, is author of the 2021 book “Speechless: Controlling Words, Controlling Minds.”
In its first week, it sold 17,587 copies — good for first place on Publishers Weekly’s list. The book recorded robust sales in the weeks that followed.
Nonetheless, it failed to crack the Times’ bestseller list.
“The New York Times has a view of an acceptable kind of conservative,” Knowles told The Economist.
Ari Fleischer, who was White House press secretary during the George W. Bush administration, is author of the 2022 book “Suppression, Deception, Snobbery and Bias.”
The book reached as high as number six on Publishers Weekly’s list of bestselling non-fiction works in the summer of 2022.
But the book was nowhere to be found on the Times’ list.
“It’s bang-your-head-against-the-wall frustrating,” Fleischer told The Economist.
Earlier this year, author Rob Henderson’s book “Troubled” about the hypocrisy of America’s elite was omitted from the Times’ bestseller list despite the fact that its sales outperformed those that were ranked as high as fourth and fifth that week, according to Circana Bookscan, which tracks 85% of print book sales in the US.
Others books that sold well but which were conspicuously absent from the Times’ bestseller list include “A Time for Truth: Reigniting the Promise of America,” by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and “American Playbook: A Guide to Winning Back the Country from the Democrats,” by commentator Clay Travis. (New York Post)
Whenever the New York Times snubs a prominent conservative book it rekindles a debate about whether it discriminates against right-wing authors. Some may be tempted to cast aside such complaints as sour grapes. But could they have some merit? https://t.co/IJKPGiXeUr 👇
— The Economist (@TheEconomist) June 11, 2024
The @TheEconomist conducted an exhaustive data investigation into claims that the NYT makes it more difficult for books by right-wing authors to appear on NYT Best Seller List regardless of sales numbers.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 11, 2024
Its conclusion: that bias is real and clear: https://t.co/dNoUo8PhFx pic.twitter.com/cEe2HFHiX1
The Times pushed back on the claims, telling The Economist, “the political views of authors or their publishers have absolutely no bearing on our rankings and are not a factor in how books are ranked on the lists.”
"There are a number of organizations with bestseller lists, each with different methodologies, so it is normal to see different rankings on each," the spokesperson added.
