N.Y. Times list omits Michael Savage's new bestseller

Michael Savage's new novel, "Countdown to Mecca," outsold four books in the New York Times' fiction top 20 in its first week, but it's not to be found in the upcoming edition of the gray lady's influential list.

Nielsen Bookscan – a publishers' service that reports book sales by ISBN number at retailers nationwide – shows "Mecca," with 5,060 copies sold last week. That's more than "Rock With Wings," by Anne Hillerman (4,325); "A Spool of Blue Thread," by Anne Tyler (2,205); "The Stranger," by Harlan Coben (2,828); and "Every Fifteen Minutes," by Lisa Scottoline (3,378).

But those four books will be on the May 31 New York Times list – which calculates sales for the week ending May 16 – and Savage's new book will not.

Savage sees the omission as proof of the paper's unreliability when it comes to reporting facts.

"I have faced the fangs of affirmative action many times in my life, but numbers don't lie," he told WND. "In this case, the New York Times has stolen my success to push their agenda and reward the 'in crowd.'"

See the entire Savage collection in the WND Superstore.

"Mecca" also sold 2,500 ebooks, according to Savage's book agent, Ian Kleinert.

The Times has not responded to WND's request for comment.

Kleinert explained to WND that the New York Times Book Review's formula for determining its list is a closely guarded secret.

The Times, he said, argues it is guarding against inflated sales and insists it tries to make the list as fair as possible.

A movie star who has a signing and draws a massive crowd of people lined up around the block would have his book's sales weighed differently than others, Kleinert explained.

"While their method does have some credence to it," he told WND, "because it's a subjective formula, just like the bias in the media, it's impossible to think that ideology doesn't seep into it."

Mecca plot

In an interview with WND earlier this month, Savage explained his new book, the third in a trilogy, is about a plot to blow up Mecca, but it's not what many, including his liberal critics, might be inclined to think.

Michael Savage

Savage's hero, Jack Hatfield, is "the one man who might be able to STOP the attack."

Hatfield is a freelance TV producer who lost his top-rated opinion show because of a liberal media smear campaign by a group that resembles Media Matters.

"I don't call for blowing up Mecca," Savage told WND. "This is the thing. This is what the liberals are going to do. The same liberals who got me banned from England are going to say my novel, 'Countdown to Mecca,' is too controversial, and it should be burned."

He explained the book, released May 12, is about a renegade group of generals who plot to destroy Mecca, but it also deals in plain terms with the people responsible for the conflict in the first place.

"It shows what could happen, given the militancy of radical Islam and the passivity of Barack Obama," he said. "There could be a renegade group of generals who plan some catastrophic event to stop this madness that has been going on for millennia against the West."

"And as we all know, that would lead to Armageddon, which none of us would benefit from," he said.

In "these incendiary times," Savage believes, his new novel is "right on time."

"Countdown to Mecca" is the final episode of a trilogy that began with "Abuse of Power" and "A Time for War."

'Anti-Obama' book left off list

Last year, Obama critic Dinesh D'Souza's book, “America: Imagine a World without Her,” was missing from the Times' list of 25 nonfiction hardcovers despite having sales higher than 13 on the chart.

Regarding the omission of D'Souza's book, a Times spokeswoman said at the time, “We let the rankings speak for themselves and are confident they are accurate.”

D'Souza said the Times is "part of the propaganda arm of the Obama administration."

"It’s their newspaper, and they have a right to rig their list anyway they want, but if they are doing it, people should know," he said last summer.

Eventually, D'Souza's "America" hit No. 1 on the Times' list, as WND reported, beating out Edward Klein’s “Blood Feud: The Clintons vs. the Obamas” at No. 3 and Hillary Clinton’s “Hard Choices” at No. 5.

In July, Costco pulled D’Souza’s book from its stores nationwide one day before the companion movie of the same name was scheduled to open at more than 1,000 movie theaters nationwide. In the nationwide uproar that resulted, the book “America” shot to No. 1 on Amazon.com bestseller list. The day after WND's July 7 story, WND reported Costco, amid a flood of opposition from members, reversed its decision.