When it comes to ratings, Fox News legend Sean Hannity routinely crushes his rivals at CNN. Turns out he's also better at selling books.
Hannity's most recent literary smash, Live Free or Die: America (and the World) on the Brink, has officially overtaken Hoax, the anti-Fox News diatribe authored by CNN personality Brian Stelter, on Amazon's list of bestselling new releases.
After trailing Stelter's book in the rankings earlier this week, Live Free or Die soared past Hoax to land at the number six spot as of Thursday afternoon. Hoax, which had previously occupied the sixth position on the Amazon chart, fell all the way to ninth—behind Skinnytaste Meal Prep and A Little SPOT Learns Online: A Story About Virtual Classroom Expectations.
The disparity between the two books does not end there. Live Free or Die enjoys a perfect five-star rating based on more than 2,000 reviews. Hoax, by comparison, has a middling three-star rating based on just 29 reviews on Amazon.
Stelter's book may have suffered from an unflattering review published in the New York Times, which slammed the author's incessant "name calling" and "gratuitous gossip," including an anonymously sourced smear regarding a female anchor who "knew how to use sex to get ahead."
The contents of Hoax appear to run counter to Stelter's antipathy towards name calling—at least when it's directed at him. In one passage involving a personal interaction with Hannity, the Fox News host addresses Stelter by the nickname "Humpty Dumpty." Stelter doesn't seem to like it, and asks Hannity "if he ever felt bad about the name-calling." Hannity says no, and walks away.