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.
How Would a Patriot Act? Defending American Values from a President Run Amok
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:
One can substitute pretty much any data for the first sentence in that quote. As Glenn observes,
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.
Turns out Drudge was wrong about WLIB’s ratings too. They’re even worse!