A new investigation by The Economist has found that the New York Times bestseller list is politically biased against non-left-wing books. The study found that among book titles that sell fewer than 5,000 copies per week, those from conservative authors are much less likely to crack the Times’ bestseller list.
According to the analysis, those books that make the bottom 10 of the top 25 slots on Publishers Weekly’s bestselling non-fiction list in any given week are 22% less likely to be listed in a similar slot on the Times’ bestseller list.
The study also found that conservative authors who do manage to get their work touted on the Times’ bestseller list for non-fiction rank on average 2.3 notches below other authors with similar sales figures.
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.
Its conclusion: that bias is real and clear: https://t.co/dNoUo8PhFx pic.twitter.com/cEe2HFHiX1
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 11, 2024
The findings suggest that the Times’ bestseller list is not an accurate reflection of the most popular books, but rather a reflection of the Times’ own political bias. Critics argue that this bias is unfair to conservative authors and their readers, who may be missing out on books that are popular among their own political group.
“The New York Times bestseller list is supposed to be a barometer of what’s popular in the book world,” said a spokesperson for the Conservative Book Club. “But this study shows that it’s really just a reflection of the Times’ own political bias. Conservative authors and their readers deserve to have their voices heard, and the Times is doing them a disservice by keeping them off the bestseller list.”
The New York Times has yet to comment on the study, but the findings are likely to fuel the ongoing debate about media bias and its impact on the public’s perception of the world.
