Brian Stelter’s Hoax Lands on NYT Bestseller List — Alongside Sean Hannity’s Mega-Seller

CNN anchor Brian Stelter’s new book on Fox News and the Trump White House landed on the New York Times bestseller list this week.

Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth, an in-depth account of the symbiotic relationship between President Donald Trump and his favorite cable news network came in at No. 2 on the Times’s list for combined print and e-book sales.

You’ll notice that Sean Hannity — the Fox News prime time host and one of the stars of Stelter’s Hoax — is on the list as well. His book, Live Free Or Die: America (and the World) on the Brink, is at No. 5 this week.

To be fair to Hannity, his book has been out since August 4, when it debuted at No. 1 on the Times list. Hannity leads Stelter on the print hardcopy list this week, notching in at number two compared to Stelter’s six place slot.

Hannity’s book sold 500,000 copies in the first three weeks it was out, according to a press release. Threshold, the imprint of Simon & Schuster that published Hannity’s book, said Nielsen book scan numbers showed Live Free or Die sold 184,000 copies in its first week compared to Hoax’s 21,000.

Stelter’s book, inked by an imprint of the same publisher was rushed into a reprint after it sold out of the initial run. After rocketing to the top of the Amazon bestseller list, Stelter’s publisher ordered a reprint of Hoax, for a total of 150,000 hardcovers.

Mediaite editor in chief Aidan McLaughlin spoke with Stelter about his new book on Mediaite’s new weekly podcast The Interview, which released Thursday. CNN’s chief media correspondent and host of Sunday show Reliable Sources spoke about his reporting on Fox News, the media landscape more broadly, CNN’s coverage of Trump — and Stelter’s challenge to Hannity for an appearance on their respective shows.