Facts Are Stubborn Things

2:04 pm EST April 27th, 2006 | Politics | 3 Comments

The facts on the Matt Drudge initiated blogger book pissing match

As of this morning, for Reynolds An Army of Davids (February 2006), Bookscan reports 1716 retail sales and 2609  discount sales, for a total of 4325.

As of this morning, for Armstrong and Kos s Crashing the Gate (March 2006), Bookscan reports 2598 retail sales and 1804  discount sales, for a total of 4402.

In other words, despite the fact that it s been available for four fewer weeks, Kos and Armstrong s book has now clocked Bookscan sales in excess of Reynolds . Notably, several hundred more full-price sales. This is leaving aside the fact that Kos and Armstrong s book is currently at #40 on Amazon, whereas Reynolds is at #801.

And Glenn Greenwald’s book is currently #1 on Amazon.

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3 Responses to “Facts Are Stubborn Things”

  1. Rheinhard says:
    April 27, 2006 at 4:04 pm

    Considering the lightning speed with which Drudge’s BS was accepted as gospel truth throught the right wing online echo chamber, and apropos of your mention of Glenn Greenwald’s book, I thought I might point out Glenn’s analysis of the right’s imperviousness to facts in general.

    Now, in the end, all this Sturm und Drang is about a pretty insignificant issue, really; numbers of sales of politically oriented books in the USA. But when confronted with numbers that show Drudge’s blurb was out-and-out wrong, the response of the right blogosphere is totemic of its response to pretty much ALL data contrary to the policies of the Little Emperor, to wit:

    Kos claims that Drudge s numbers aren t on the up and up.
    What-ev-eh.

    One can substitute pretty much any data for the first sentence in that quote. As Glenn observes,

    Doesn’t that pretty much capture the whole sickness? “There are facts that suggest that what I am saying is not actually true. What is my response do that? ‘What-ev-eh.‘” As in: “Some people claim there are facts that show that things in Iraq are not going really great. Something about civil war, sectarian hatred, anarchy, widespread violence, a total lack of security. What-ev-eh.“

  2. Repack Rider says:
    April 27, 2006 at 8:04 pm

    Crunching numbers has not typically been a Republican skill. For them, actual counting is so…liberal.

    That’s why they like to count votes themselves.

  3. SaveFarris says:
    April 28, 2006 at 8:04 am

    Turns out Drudge was wrong about WLIB’s ratings too. They’re even worse!