David Limbaugh’s Jesus on Trial has hit best-seller status (see review here). But you would never know it by the New York Times best seller list.

As you might suspect, this isn’t the first time The New Times has done this. The paper’s “All the news that’s fit to print” motto that appears on the paper’s masthead is best interpreted to mean “we print only the news that our editorial department determines is fit to print based on our leftist operating principles.”

Dinesh D.Souza’s America: Imagine a World Without Her was kept off the best seller list even though previous books by D’Souza had made the list. In fact, the cover copy of America has “New York Times Best Selling Author” under the title. America cut a little too close to the liberal bone.

The Times had gone all in for Obama, and D’Souza had exposed him and the folly of those who supported him.

“Now it’s David Limbaugh’s latest book Jesus on Trial. [Paul Bedard of the Washington Examiner] reports the Times’ crew has ‘banished conservative legal author David Limbaugh’s latest, Jesus on Trial, from its upcoming best seller list despite having sales better than 17 other books on the list.’

“According to publishing sources, Limbaugh’s probe into the accuracy of the Bible sold 9,660 in its first week out, according to Nielsen BookScan. That should have made it No. 4 on the NYT print hardcover sales list.

“Instead, Henry Kissinger’s World Order, praised by Hillary Clinton in the Washington Post, is No. 4 despite weekly sales of 6,607.

“As Secrets wrote about a similar banishment early in the sales of conservative Dinesh D’Souza’s America, the Gray Lady is mysterious in how it calculates its list. A spokeswoman said, ‘We let the rankings speak for themselves and are confident they are accurate.’

“The September 28 list of the top 20 print hardcover best sellers includes one book that sold just 1,570 copies.”

I don’t pay much attention to the New York Times or its best-seller list, and neither should you. Amazon is a better indicator of book sales, especially when there aren’t many brick and mortar bookstores anymore. As of today (9/22/2014), here’s how Limbaugh’s book is ranked:

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #18 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

#1 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Bible Study & Reference > New Testament > Jesus, the Gospels & Acts

#1 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Theology > Christology

#1 in Books > History > World > Religious > Christianity

Denying best-seller status to conservative and Christian books has been going on for a long time. In the 1980s, Francis A. Schaeffer’s A Christian Manifesto was a mega-best seller. It sold more than one million copies. “In May 1982, it outsold ‘Jane Fonda’s Workout Book’ by two to one, but Jane was No. 1 on the New York Times’ best-seller list and Dr. Schaeffer was relegated to ignominious oblivion.”1

Francis Schaeffer’s A Christian Manifesto was a serious discussion of civil disobedience and not a fluff piece that had no cultural significance with it comes to Christian belief. It was a major topic of discussion everywhere except at The New York Times.

It doesn’t matter anymore. The New York Times’ best-seller list is passé and irrelevant. As Frank Schaeffer, the son of Francis Schaeffer, writes, “the days when the Times could break a book just by ignoring it are over.”

1. Cal Thomas, “Censors from the Left” (September 24, 1983). [↩]