Anti-Fox News Reporter’s Book About Rupert Murdoch Has Weak Sales, in Latest Flop of a Book Attacking Conservatives

Another book attacking a conservative media figure by an author from a left-wing outlet has seen a disappointing first week of sales, despite publicity that most authors could only dream of. A newly released book by a Vanity Fair correspondent, Gabriel Sherman, about Rupert Murdoch, “Bonfire of the Murdochs,” saw lackluster sales in its first week.A description of the latest release by Mr. Sherman – screenwriter of the Oscar-nominated anti-Trump movie, “The Apprentice” – says it tells the “inside story of this epic family war” among the Murdochs, which is a “tragedy Shakespeare would have appreciated.” But data from BookScan, reviewed by Mediaite, shows that the book sold just 1,118 copies after its February 3 publication date. That means it did not break into the top 200 sellers among nonfiction books. It also puts sales of Mr. Sherman’s book even lower than those of another book that was hyped by the media but flopped, “American Canto,” written by a former Vanity Fair journalist, Olivia Nuzzi.“American Canto” was the subject of a lot of attention among journalists due to the buzz surrounding Ms. Nuzzi’s alleged affair with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. However, in its first week, it sold just 1,200 copies and failed to make it onto the New York Times’s best seller list. “Bonfire” was the subject of several profiles in left-wing outlets, such as the New Yorker, MS NOW, and the Washington Post. However, the buzz apparently did not translate into sales.Mr. Sherman did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment by the time of publication.Mr. Sherman’s 2014 highly negative book about the longtime CEO of Fox News, Roger Ailes, “The Loudest Voice in the Room,” also struggled with sales. The description of the book promised a “revelatory journey inside the world of Fox News and Roger Ailes—the brash, sometimes combative network head who helped fuel the rise of Donald Trump.”However, despite that book receiving a lot of hype before its release, it sold just 3,000 copies in its first week. By contrast, the memoir of former secretary of defense, Robert Gates, which was released the same week, sold roughly 80,000 copies. There have been other books about conservatives by left-wing authors that have seen lackluster sales upon launch. Earlier this month, a book about conservative commentator Tucker Carlson by a writer from the New Yorker, Jason Zengerle, “Hated By All the Right People,” sold just 928 copies despite receiving a coveted excerpt in the New Yorker. Sales of books about conservative figures written by authors who are perceived as unsympathetic to their subjects have not seen as much success as they did during President Trump’s first term.In 2017, Michael Wolff’s anti-Trump book “Fire and Fury” sold 25,000 copies in its first week. But last year, “2024: How Trump Retook the White House and Democrats Lost America,” written by Josh Dawsey, Tyler Page, and Isaac Arnsdorf, sold 6,000 copies in its first week.By contrast, “Butler: The Untold Story of the Near Assassination of Donald Trump and the Fight for America’s Heartland,” by conservative journalist Salena Zito, sold 23,000 copies in its first week. Mr. Trump had heartily endorsed the book, which tells the story of the assassination attempt through the lens of working-class Pennsylvania communities that, over the years, have abandoned the Democratic Party.

Anti-Fox News Reporter’s Book About Rupert Murdoch Has Weak Sales, in Latest Flop of a Book Attacking Conservatives

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