A new campaign against conservatives…
An investigation by The Economist reports that The New York Times bestseller list may be systematically biased against conservative books and publishers.
In its findings, The Economist said “on average, books by conservative publishers are seven percentage points less likely to make it onto New York Times weekly bestseller lists than books by other publishers with similar sales figures” with lesser-known titles being especially affected.
The Times refuted claims of bias in a statement that “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.”
The Economist argued while defending its report that “The fairness of the New York Times list is not merely a question of politics,” and concluded:
Bestseller status helps an author sell more books, generate speaking fees and negotiate better contracts for future book deals. As other newspapers have done away with their lists and bookstores have closed in recent decades, the New York Times list is even more important. It is supposed to function as a reflection of what the public is reading—and influences what consumers might want to.
A more transparent list would also be more useful. If Alex Jones, a controversial far-right conspiracy theorist, was indeed the second-place bestselling author in America—as Bookscan says he was in August 2022, with a title that was omitted from the New York Times list—people should probably know that. His enduring popularity says a lot about the country and its readers, who are not willing to close the book on him.
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