A Friend asks me to Prove that RWingers buy books in bulk!

[romantico]

A friend of mine who's 90% liberal & I got into a conversation this afternoon that really got me steamed.He told me that the public has just as much of an interest in Ann Coulter,Sean Hannity,Bill O'reilly,etc.as they do liberal authors.I told him about people like Richard Melon Scaife who buy these books in bulk & then give them away.He got realt mad when I brought this up.

Now,this friend tries to play both sides.He claims he is being fair & says both liberals & conservatives lie.He said liberals have been saying this crap about bulk sales,Melon Scaife buying them up,etc.but can never prove it.I said,"Who do you think is gonna report on it?Fox News?"He said no,but its a claim the liberals can never back up.He had never heard of the daggers on the NY Times best sellers list & questions thats what the dagger really means as well.

TRUST ME,this person is not a winger(althought I'm begining to think he's the type who just loves to argue)Any ideas how I can show him I'm not crazy?

[sangh0]

1. Don't bother

Why would you want to prove anything to a Freeper?

He had never heard of the daggers on the NY Times best sellers list & questions thats what the dagger really means as well.

The NY Times prints what the dagger means on the same page as the dagger itself. If he can't understand that, why are you wasting your time?

[JHB]

20. And guess which books show up for $1...

...on the Conservative Book Club list:
http://www.conservativebookclub.com/Join/JoinHome.asp

[papau]

2. NY Times puts a mark next to books where bulk buying is reported.

Just about every RW book has that mark.

[LittleApple81]

3. The NYT places a "dagger" symbol next to books that have been sold

in bulk. That is usually a pretty good sign.
(in their Best Seller list)

[Jeff in Cincinnati]

4. NY Times List

I believe there's a little disclaimer at the bottom of the Bestsellers List that says the dagger denotes bulk sales.

[bicentennial_baby]

5. Yep

"A dagger (+) indicates that some bookstores report receiving bulk orders."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/06/books/bestseller/0606besthardnonfiction.html

[Touchdown]

6. Four words for your friend.

Tell him to buy it, and read it.

[Wickerman]

12. yep, he needs to read this or stfu

[benburch]

7. Send him to the New York Times bestseller's list

The books with a "dagger" dingbat are the ones where bulk purchases were recorded.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/06/books/bestseller/0606besthardnonfiction.html

There appears to be only one such book in today's list; #13

When Ann Coulter's book was on the list, it never appeared without a dagger.

Send your friend to the Library to look at the back issues.

[JHB]

14. Here's an example from last October:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/19/books/bestseller/1019besthardnonfiction.html?ex=1086321600&en=3f54a49708930cdd&ei=5070

Note how the books by Franken, Ivins, Clinton, Albright, etc. have no "+", but which ones do? With one exception, it's the books by Right-wing pundits: Laura Ingraham and David Limbaugh (they don't flag bulk sales on the "Also Selling" list at bottom, where Coulter's book was at this time. When it was up at top it had the bulk sales marker too.

Obviously one list isn't proof, but go to the library and check lists back for a few years; there's a definite pattern.

[benburch]

17. Here is one with "Treason" with a dagger

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/05/books/bestseller/1005besthardnonfiction.html?ex=1086321600&en=895bd0d1e6b92356&ei=5070

[benburch]

19. And another

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/28/books/bestseller/0928besthardnonfiction.html

See? One week with a dagger might be a fluke; A GOP reading club purchase or somebody giving the book to all his friends. But week after week?

Here are more;

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/21/books/bestseller/0921besthardnonfiction.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/14/books/bestseller/0914besthardnonfiction.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/07/books/bestseller/0907besthardnonfiction.html

See? Week after week after week! Coulter's book would never have made even the "also selling" list for more than a week or two without the bulk buys.

[elperromagico]

8. To quote the NY Times exactly,

"A dagger (+) indicates that some bookstores report receiving bulk orders."

"Some" is too vague a term for my tastes. I want to know exactly how many bookstores are reporting bulk orders, and how many orders they are receiving in bulk. I think Eric Alterman says in What Liberal Media? that a book could get on the NY Times list with as little as 30,000 copies sold. It wouldn't take that much bulk-ordering to "help" a book reach the list.

To my mind, a better indicator of the popularity of a book is amazon.com, which does not seem as prone to the bulk-ordering scheme. When in doubt, I compare the NY Times list with the Amazon list.

[romantico]

9. I explained the dagger thing to him & I think he got it

He is NOT a rightwinger!!!TRUST ME,I wouldn't bother wasting my time if he were.His main gripe was for me to prove to him other than using a left leaning website to prove that people like Scaife or any other rcih conservative DO NOT buy these books in bulk".I think he wants to convince me there are plenty or RWingers out there to buy them,they don't need help.I KNOW he's wrong!

[elperromagico]

11. Didn't say he was a right-winger.

But it's relatively easy to find out what the NY Times says about the infamous dagger.

[Bandit]

10. The dagger means bulk sales on that book have been placed

Of course not all sales are bulk so they can't say that, but those books without the dagger have had no bulk sale orders. The Dagger means the book has been sold in bulk lots. Pretty straight forward I would think. What is not to understand?

[elperromagico]

13. Why is everybody replying to my post?!?

I'm not the one who doesn't understand the concept of daggers! :shrug:

[JHB]

15. Because we're all Prima Donnas...

...who can't stand to have anyone else make the point :evilgrin:

[Bandit]

18. I didn't realize I was ~ sorry

:shrug: :spank: I be bad

[elperromagico]

21. LOL - no big deal.

Don't paddle yourself over it... much. :P

[Wilber_Stool]

16. How many books

constitute a bulk buy?

[elperromagico]

22. That's a good question.

Wish I knew the answer...