NY Times Surrenders to Ted Cruz

We wrote here and here about the New York Times’s effort to sabotage Ted Cruz’s new book, A Time for Truth by leaving it off their best seller list, even though it sold the third-highest number of books (hardcover nonfiction) in its debut week. The Times arrogantly asserted that no one was really buying Cruz’s book, and its “sales were limited to strategic bulk purchases.” Ponder that: the Times spokeswoman said not that sales of the book were augmented by “strategic bulk purchases,” but that sales were limited to such purchases. This despite the fact that A Time for Truth was among the top ten best sellers on Amazon among all books, not just hardcover nonfiction.

The Times apparently is used to getting its way, but not this time. HarperCollins backed up its author, saying publicly that there were no bulk sales. Amazon and Barnes & Noble, the country’s two biggest book sellers, weighed in, saying that they had investigated and seen no signs of such bulk purchases. Initially the Times stuck to its guns, but yesterday the paper threw in the towel:

Cruz’s memoir, “A Time For Truth,” will appear at No. 7 on the Times’ list for hardcover nonfiction, reflecting its second-week sales, a Times spokesperson confirmed on Wednesday. The Texas senator’s book had not been included on the list for its first week, on the grounds that its sales had been driven by “strategic bulk purchases.”

Times spokesperson Eileen Murphy said that the newspaper made no changes to its selection process, and so the fact that Cruz’s book is being included now suggests a rise in individual purchases, spurred by his public battle with the paper.

“This week’s NYT best seller list was arrived at using the same process as last week’s – and the week before that,” Murphy wrote. “That process involves a careful analysis of data, and is not influenced in any way by the content of a book, or by pressure from publishers or book sellers.”

Yeah, right. The Times’s arrogance persists, even in the face of defeat. One wonders how many other conservative books have been frozen out of best seller lists, have gone unreviewed, and generally been buried by the liberal press that still dominates the book world.

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