The publishing industry is bracing for a public push back on pending investigative books about Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh after the New York Times fumbled its debut of theirs.
“The epic bomb of the NYT Kavanaugh book will hit the two remaining Kavanaugh ‘take downs,’” said a Washington book agent. Those books are coming from Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus and Los Angeles Times Washington Editor Jackie Calmes.
While the sales numbers won’t be out for a week, the Times book, The Education of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation, has stumbled and may not even make it on to the Times’ best-seller list. It ranks 690th on Amazon, a 200-point drop in just one day.
In total, Kavanaugh is the subject of at least 10 finished or pending books.
Reporters who covered the Kavanaugh Senate confirmation hearings said that the Times book was newsy, but the paper mishandled the debut in the paper by leaving out key details of an alleged sexual assault by Kavanaugh the the victim didn’t remember.
Ryan Lovelace, who recently released his book on the hearings, Search and Destroy: Inside the Campaign against Brett Kavanaugh, said the Times book could undermine the public’s trust in journalists and the court.
“The newest rumors against Justice Kavanaugh traded up the chain of the press just the same way that last year’s sexual misconduct allegations did. This is how nonsense becomes nightly news — through a compliant press, activist lawyers, and ambitious politicians with ulterior motives,” he said in an interview.
What’s more, he added, “The legitimacy and authority of the Supreme Court is under attack and the public’s confidence in the judiciary is what’s at stake now.”
