Frankly, given that the NY Times has had both Palin and Romney as previous best-selling authors, and have Ann Colter on the list at present, gives them a certain "No, it's not that we're a liberal rag" cred when suggesting that Sen. Ted Cruz (or his publisher, or some other party) are paying people to buy the book through "strategic bulk purchases."
Conservatives howl as NY Times calls out Ted Cruz for trying to cheat his way onto bestseller list
“Overwhelming preponderance of evidence was that sales were limited to strategic bulk purchases,” the Times said
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HarperCollins says NYT is lying. Cruz agrees and offers that NYT could produce evidence if they weren't lying — otherwise they need apologize.
+Heath Griffith HarperCollins is saying they "found no evidence of bulk orders or sales through any retailer or organization," and says that other rating services aren't backing up the claim, which is not quite the same thing. The Times is sticking to its decision.
As to what Cruz says, I give it as much credibility as his policy positions. Which I realize puts us in conflict, as your G+ profile notes, "I'm on Google+ because I trust Ted Cruz with my whole heart."
Perhaps NYT didn't "lie." Perhaps they only made a false excuse. If it weren't false, they would have the proof to justify it at hand.
How do you prove who's buying books? You look at the statistics and say "huh, there's a 99% chance that individuals aren't buying 100,000 books at a time."
+Heath Griffith I have no idea of the nature of the proof in the analysis they use (or how going public with how they analyze the data would make it easier for future folk to game the system), and I'm not sure at any rate they're obliged to have it "at hand" to provide it.
The Salon loves Cruz more than me. In fact,they adore all us conservatives.