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Thursday, July 16, 2015

New York Times Caves, Places Ted Cruz's Book "A Time for Truth" on Bestseller List

By Rick Pearcey • July 16, 2015, 09:00 AM

Katie McHugh reports at Breitbart.com:

The New York Times acknowledged Wednesday that Sen. Ted Cruz's book, A Time For Truth, belongs on its bestseller list and gave it a no. 7 ranking in nonfiction, after snubbing it and accusing the Cruz campaign of making "strategic bulk purchases."

HarperCollins sent an inquiring email to The New York Times last week after the book's impressive sales were ignored by the paper.

"We have uniform standards that we apply to our best seller list, which includes an analysis of book sales that goes beyond simply the number of books sold," spokeswoman Eileen Murphy said, according to Politico. "This book didn’t meet that standard this week."

But the Cruz campaign smelled something rotten in New York and "furiously attacked the New York Times for their deliberate omission," Breitbart reports.

"The Times is presumably embarrassed by having their obvious partisan bias called out. But their response -- alleging 'strategic bulk purchases' -- is a blatant falsehood. The evidence is directly to the contrary. In leveling this false charge, the Times has tried to impugn the integrity of Senator Cruz and of his publisher HarperCollins," Rick Tyler of the Cruz campaign is quoted as telling Politico.

Amazon is apparently none too pleased, as well. "An Amazon spokeswoman said that A Time For Truth was a bestselling book," Breitbart reports, and that the online giant "found no evidence of 'unusual bulk purchase activity'."

"Cruz's book currently ranks as the number-one bestselling book in 'Political Conservatism & Liberalism' on Amazon," according to Breitbart. As of this writing, A Time for Truth continues to hold that no. 1 spot.

As of yesterday, the New York Times has "backed down . . . without apology while maintaining they did nothing wrong," Breitbart reports.

"This week's NYT best seller list was arrived at using the same process as last week's -- and the week before that. 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," Times spokeswoman Murphy is quoted as telling The Hill via email, according to Breitbart.

Unfortunately, there is no way to verify the truthfulness of the Times' claim to innocence, for the newspaper conducts its deliberations in secret.

"Our approach serves Times readers by authenticating broadly popular books through the confidential reporting of a wide range of retailers. In order to avoid compromising that process, we do not disclose who reports sales to us," Murphy is quoted as saying.

So when it comes to verifying the NYTimes' bestseller list, there's no need to think, ask for evidence, or think critically about the newspaper's results. Just believe. Blindly.

If the Times says it, you're supposed to "believe" it, and that settles it.

Or maybe not.

Let us just say: That simplistic approach to life -- in matters big or small, deep and wide, is not recommended. Far better to adopt and practice the principle of "test everything."

Meanwhile, we encourage secular fideists not to revel in their various "faith" constructs. And maybe it's time to buy A Time for Truth.