Threshold Editions, part of Simon & Schuster, announced today that conservative radio host and author Mark R. Levin’s “Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto” has officially sold one million copies since its release in March. No thanks to the mainstream media.
As the Culture and Media Institute detailed in a new Special Report “Unmentionable: Best Selling Conservative Books and the Networks that Ignore Them,” Levin’s book, which spent 12 weeks at No. 1 on the New York Times Best Sellers List, has been ignored by the mainstream media. Levin told CMI that “we have not heard from any of the major networks, and the only major newspaper that has interviewed me is Philadelphia Inquirer, and that’s because I’m from Philadelphia.”
Obviously, that hasn’t harmed sales. “The book is selling by word of mouth,” Levin said. “I’ve done very little media, and its chugging along.”
Levin hasn’t been the only conservative author getting the cold shoulder from the MSM. The CMI Special Report found that in the first half of 2009, the three broadcast networks covered liberal bestsellers three times as often as comparable conservative titles. Of the 11 conservative authors on the list, just four received any coverage on the networks. On the other hand, the networks covered 11 out of 14 liberal authors.
Furthermore, when authors appeared on the networks for interviews, conservatives received markedly different treatment than liberals. From Matt Lauer calling Elizabeth Edwards’ book “stirring,” to Harry Smith telling Ann Coulter, “You have this kind of sophomoric sort of simplistic kind of view of so many things,” hosts made it clear where their ideological sympathies lay.



















Editor at Large
Comments Policy
Tried to get Levin's book at the library yesterday
September 15, 2009 - 11:04 ET by FeynmanFanI'm number 5 on the list.
"Reason and persuasion are the only practical instruments against error. To make way for these, free inquiry must be indulged" - Thomas Jefferson
Liberty and Tyranny...
September 15, 2009 - 11:17 ET by robertlbryantFor anyone that hasn't read this book yet (Liberty and Tyranny), I HIGHLY recommend it! I'm about to start chapter 8, and it has been a great and inspiring read so far. The chapters about the free market and the welfare state are especially insightful.
Be sure to listen to Mr. Levin on the radio, too. I love that program!
Has it occured to anyone at
September 15, 2009 - 11:20 ET by jdhawkHas it occured to anyone at NB that the reason so much of what is the conservative voice, including books by best selling conservative authors, is denigrated or simply ignored on purpose? At what point are you going to recognize this near universal stance on the part of the government run media as part of the socialist propaganda machine? When are you going to call these people what they are, socialist propagandists.
jdhawk
September 15, 2009 - 11:23 ET by MrShyThumbs up on that.
Nutworks would talk about this but ...
September 15, 2009 - 11:41 ET by IgnatzJFahrquarthey're too backed up from researching Van Jones and ACORN to get to this.
"You should always tell the truth, because if you tell the truth you make it the other person's problem." Sean Connery
Good news
September 15, 2009 - 11:47 ET by sevenIt is a great book. it shouldn't be covered by the MSM. Their audience doesn't read books. they watch Oprah. If they read, it was when their books had pictures.
The
September 15, 2009 - 12:00 ET by jessieHThe MSM is dying. The feeding frenzy has started. Soon they will turn on themselves. They will be extinct, like the dinosaures of the past. Everyone is invited to the funeral. It's going to be one hell of a party, so bring the kids!
Obama isn't reading it
September 15, 2009 - 14:36 ET by upgradeMSM only promotes books that Obama is reading. Rules for Radicals, that book Chavez gave him Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, etc. Bush was an idiot to them and never paid attention to what he read while in office.
Nuh-UH-uh
September 15, 2009 - 19:52 ET by pbanks7The MSM isn't covering the books he read; they're not "relevent."
MSM - shaping all the perceptions you need to believe, then confirming it with a poll.
Liberals and Levin
September 15, 2009 - 15:40 ET by grumpyoldbThe left wouldn't acknowledge Levin if it turned out that he was the second coming......