- Author E. Jean Carroll claimed President Donald Trump raped her as part of a book launch, and the national TV shows put her the air non-stop.
- A pair of conservative authors wrote a book about the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings and did not get a single network TV interview.
- Despite all the media attention, the Carroll book sold a shockingly low 1,900 copies, while the Kavanaugh book is the #1 seller in the nation with almost no coverage.
E. Jean Carroll’s book accusing President Donald Trump of rape has sold almost no copies, despite major coverage while a book critical of the Justice Brett Kavanaugh proceedings is the top seller on Amazon with no such treatment.
Carroll’s book, “What Do We Need Men For?” is ranked #3421 on Amazon. It sold only 1,900 copies in its first week, according to BookScan data.
By comparison, “Justice on Trial” is the #1 book on Amazon, selling 4,500 pre-orders on Amazon before it was even released July 9, the book’s publisher, Regnery, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. The book by Mollie Hemingway and Carrie Severino documents the rush to judgment and flawed narrative surrounding Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of an attempted sexual assault.
The 1,900 BookScan total for Carroll’s book includes bookstores as well as Amazon. It covers the week of June 30 to July 6; Carroll’s book was released July 2. It does not appear anywhere in the BookScan list of top 50 nonfiction books.
The comprehensive figure is not available for the Kavanaugh book because it was more recently released.
Marji Ross, president of Regnery, said the sales figures highlight a gap between the media and what the American public is interested in, as well as legacy media’s declining influence.
“The mainstream media is clearly more interested in advancing a left-wing narrative than reporting the truth. And when news that doesn’t fit their agenda comes to light–like Mollie and Carrie’s reporting in Justice on Trial–they do their best to ignore it or bury it. However, the American people see right through that as is evidenced by the dramatically different sales numbers between these two books,” she told the DCNF.
Alyssa Cordova, Senior Director of Publicity at Regnery, said “We have not received any interview requests from any of the networks, CNN, or MSNBC.”
“It is surprising that the networks would pass on exclusives and author interviews for the number-one bestselling book in the country about a topic that those same networks were extraordinarily interested in,” Cordova said.
That includes NBC, which sat on evidence that Michael Avenatti had pressured a woman to make false accusations against Kavanaugh until after the confirmation hearings.
A source with knowledge of the situation said that CBS News declined the opportunity for an exclusive launch interview with the authors on Face the Nation. CBS did not return a request for comment.
CBS did write about Carroll’s claim, but stayed quieter on television. Carroll also claimed that CBS’ former chief executive, Les Moonves, assaulted her.
Advice columnist Carroll said in her book that Trump raped her, and was whisked onto a national media tour of the nation’s largest TV shows as hosts sought to extract negative information about Trump. (RELATED: Trump Responds To Rape Accuser: ‘People Should Pay Dearly For Such False Accusations’)
According to the Grabien database of TV clips, she was mentioned or appeared on 149 TV shows in June and July.
Anderson Cooper interviews Elle advice columnist E. Jean Carroll. Screen Shot/CNN
But from the beginning, Carroll’s story constantly changed. She told CNN’s “New Day” that she was not raped, and told CNN host Alisyn Camerota she didn’t think it would get attention that she accused a sitting president of rape.
The New York Times put an 800-word piece on the allegation in its Sunday paper, and its executive editor Dean Baquet said they should have given it even more coverage, saying “we were overly cautious.”
In a rambling diatribe in which she often appeared lost, Carroll told Anderson Cooper “most people think rape is sexy,” prompting Cooper to quickly cut to commercial as Carroll uttered, “you’re fascinating to talk to.”
The Washington Post called Carroll a “stylish” writer who produced a “witty” book, yet the book has only 17 reviews on Amazon. At the Amazon price of $19 a book, that would net only $36,000, most of which would go to retailers and printing costs, and likely leading to a significant loss for publisher St. Martin’s Press.
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