Gosnell: The Untold Story of America's Most Prolific Serial Killer is one of the top selling releases on Amazon. Yet, the book, which describes in detail the disturbing story of late-term abortionist Kermit Gosnell, apparently wasn't worthy of The New York Times bestsellers list. While the Times had the book at No. 13 on the “Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction” list, it failed to put it in its rightful place as the 4th bestselling nonfiction title.
You better believe the authors noticed the slight. In a statement to their supporters, Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney surmised that the Times had a clear agenda to uphold.
"It’s clear that this is a blatant fake list in a fake news newspaper," McElhinney said. "It's not only an insult to the people who have bought this book, but an insult to the readers of the New York Times who buy the newspaper and think they are getting the truth about book sales across America but instead get false facts disguised as a neutral list.”Newsbusters investigated why the top selling book could possibly be excluded from the newspaper's prestigious list. The editors admitted that sales aren't the only factor in their decision making.
The Times's best-seller lists are based on a detailed analysis of book sales from a wide range of retailers who provide us with specific and confidential context of their sales each week. These standards are applied consistently, across the board in order to provide Times readers our best assessment of what books are the most broadly popular at that time.
Huh? The No. 1 hot new release on Amazon wasn't considered "broadly popular?"
In her immediate reaction, McElhinney mused that the Times had been concerned about putting a book on its bestseller list that seemed to cast a negative light on abortion.
Their concerns were unwarranted. As the authors explained to me and Christine in an interview last month, Gosnell is not a "pro-life book" - it is a book of journalism.
"We need to teach the New York Times and other fake news outlets a lesson," McAleer said. "We need to push the sales to such a level that they are forced to acknowledge that the book exists and that the Gosnell story exists. Im devastated by this exclusion after all our hard work. If you tell a story the establishment mainstream media don't like you have to work ten times harder and even then you can be excluded - the system really is rigged."