NY Times snubs No. 1 best-seller Levin in feature reviews of conservative authors

"LevinTV" host Mark Levin's latest book, "Unfreedom of the Press," has been No. 1 on the New York Times nonfiction best-seller list for nearly a month. In it, Levin shows the modern mainstream media for what it is: a wing of the Democratic Party. He bitingly recounts how the Times willfully ignored the Holocaust. Perhaps that's why, when devoting space to the review of new "conservative" books, the Times Book Review completely ignored the book at the top of its own chart.

NewsBusters executive editor Tim Graham noticed the glaring omission in Sunday's edition of "The Book Review." Graham reported that the Times reviewed five books by conservative authors, including Ben Shapiro, Victor Davis Hanson, and NeverTrumper George Will.

In true Times style, the paper assigned left-wing writers to report on these books. As Graham reported, even the NeverTrumpers were "shamed for being insufficient." It's a reminder that, as Levin argues in his book, it's not Trump the leftist media is against; it's the notion that anyone would think differently from them.

This isn't the first time that Levin has been snubbed by the Times. In 2017, Levin's book "Rediscovering Americanism and the Tyranny of Progressivism" was listed by Nielsen and the Wall Street Journal as the No. 1 book, yet did not top the Times' nonfiction list.

In 2017, Times spokesperson Jordan Cohen told Conservative Review, "The Times's best-seller lists are based on a detailed analysis of book sales from a wide range of retailers who provide us with specific and confidential context of their sales each week." He also said that the list is not completely objective, but has some subjective criteria.

When forced to acknowledge that an unwanted book is in fact the No. 1 book on the list, the Times has often used a dagger to denote bulk shipments of the book, without really defining what that means, and it has historically been disproportionately used to tag conservative authors.

Given the long-standing animus toward conservative authors at the Times, particularly against Levin, it's not a surprise that the paper wouldn't review his book in a spread on "conservative" authors. To do so would require the Times to take a critical look at its own dark history and modern practices.

The comical lengths the Times went to in ignoring the book it lists as No. 1 on its own chart proves Levin's central argument about media bias. The Times, like the rest of the mainstream media, sees itself as a gatekeeper to knowledge.

Objectively, the Times cannot ignore the sales of "Unfreedom of the Press." But it can ensure that it doesn't highlight the author or the central thesis of his work. That's how the Times shields its readers from viewpoints it disagrees with.

Mark Levin hosts "LevinTV" on BlazeTV. BlazeTV and Conservative Review are both properties of Blaze Media.