This is systematic and ongoing, and is one manifestation of the many ways in which the Left endeavors to deny any place in the culture to those whom it hates and opposes. The ridiculous brouhaha over my appearance at Stanford is another example of the same phenomenon: the idea that opposing jihad terror is reprehensible, while supporting it (Aarab Barghouti and Mads Gilbert have spoken at Stanford) is laudable is monstrous, but the Leftist intelligentsia has aligned with Islamic supremacists and is determined to marginalize and silence all dissenters.
And not just silence us, but to give the impression we never existed in the first place — that anyone who doesn’t toe the Left’s line has no presence, no influence, and no following, and never did. This is intended to demoralize those who share our perspectives, by giving them the impression that they are isolated, and eccentric, and that no one speaks for them. And so Pamela Geller’s book is left off the New York Times bestseller list, despite outselling books that are on it. Regnery Publishing, which has published ten of my books, has stopped referring to the Times list at all, because this is not by any means the first time this has happened. In the larger cultural picture, the late-night comedians are all Leftist, the famous actors are all Leftist, the primary spokesmen for virtually everything are Leftist, and they give no place to opposing views.
This is not new. As long ago as 1952, when Hannah Arendt was preparing her scathing review of Whittaker Chambers’ Witness, which quickly became a landmark of contemporary conservative thought, the novelist Mary McCarthy wrote to Arendt that Witness “can’t be treated simply as a book. The great effect of this new Right is to get itself accepted as normal, and its publications as a normal part of publishing….and this, it seems to me, must be scotched, if it’s not already too late. What do you think? I know you agree about the fact, the question is how it’s to be done.”
All these years later, the ideological children of Mary McCarthy are still trying to “scotch” any opposing views.
“New York Times Robs Pamela Geller’s Book of a Spot on its Bestsellers List,” Milo, November 13, 2017:
The New York Times reveals its political bias in refusing to list Pamela Geller’s book Fatwa: Hunted in America in its once-prestigious Best Sellers list for hardcover non-fiction.
Despite outselling both Hillbilly Elegy and Why We Sleep (#14 and #15 respectively), Fatwa: Hunted in America did not make it onto the list at all.
The reason it didn’t make the cut is simple: the New York Times employs bias when it fills up the ranks of its list, omitting books that the editors in charge do not want promoted.
In September, conservative publishing company Regnery cut its ties with the New York Times following allegations of the newspaper’s left-leaning slant in picking books to feature on the list.
As detailed by the Washington Times, Regnery has moved towards relying on Publishers Weekly lists to determine best-seller status, and no longer allows authors published under its label to self-identify with the New York Times list, or distribute bonuses based on their performance in the newspaper.
“Increasingly, it appears that the Times has gathered book sale data in a manner which prioritizes liberal-themed books over conservative books and authors,” Regnery President Marji Ross wrote in a statement. “The net result has been a bestseller list that has increasingly become less relevant to the Regnery audience, and less reflective of which books are actually selling best in the country, regardless of one’s political persuasion.”
The New York Times denies the allegations against it, stating that conservative writers have—at least in the past—been given high spots. A spokesperson for the paper said that its best-sellers’ lists are also based on interviews with book stores.
“The political views of authors have no bearing on our rankings,” the New York Times spokesman Jordan Cohen told The Associated Press, adding that the allegations of political bias were “simply ludicrous.”
However, his words—as noted by the Washington Times—fall flat in the face of the paper’s political coverage, which has been anti-Trump, pro-Islam, anti-Israel, and notoriously racist in the recent weeks and months.
The paper has published op-eds by convicted terrorists like Marwan Barghouti, who was given five consecutive life terms in Israel for his role in a terror attack that killed five people. This weekend, the paper published an op-ed by a black professor who ruled out friendship between African Americans and whites….