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WorldNetDaily

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WorldNetDaily, also known as WND, is a conservative online news site. The webpage links to mainstream media stories that are viewed as beneficial to conservatives and articles authored by the WND staff are generally of conservative political bent. The reliablity of facts appearing in the WND-authored stories has been repeatedly questioned by journalists in the mainstream media.

Background

The webpage was founded in 1997 by Joseph Farah after collaborating with Rush Limbaugh on the book See, I Told You So, which was released in 1994. In 1997 Farah co-founded the Western Journalism Center with James H. Smith, (former publisher of the Sacramento Union and former CEO/publisher of the revived Sacramento Union webpage). This group supplied Christopher Ruddy (founder of NewsMax) with "additional expense money, funding for Freedom of Information Act requests, legal support and publicity during his" investigation of a Bill Clinton conspiracy surrounding the suicide of Vince Foster.[1] In the 1994-95 course of the Center billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife connected foundations gave $330,000 in donations to the group.[2] (Scaife previously sold the Sacramento Union paper to two men who then named Farah editor. They turned the paper into a more conservative paper and lost 30% of its readers in 15 months, Farah resigned and it closed in 1994.) By May 1997, Farah set his eyes on the internet and set up WorldNetDaily as a project of the Center. In 1999, WorldNetDaily.com, Inc., with offices in Cave Junction, Oregon. was incorporated in Delaware as a for-profit subsidiary of the non-profit Western Journalism Center with the backing of $4.5 million from investors.[3] As a result, Farah and the Western Journalism Center possess the bulk of the WND stock, but the remainder is owned by about 75 private investors. In August 2001, Business Week cited Farah who claimed WND had turned began to profit employing 25 workers.[4] Currently the webpage has a staff of 20 people.

Description

The site features links to news articles and political/social commentaries. Subsequently, some feel WorldNetDaily has also provided many stories criticizing liberals and stories that have encouraged 9/11 Conspiracy Theories[5]. Yet, the website is not solely limited to political commentary or news. Reportedly, this brand of news has been successful as noted by "Farah in a 3-page interview in the John Birch Society's magazine The New American, Farah claimed that by March 1998 the website was receiving 20,000 to 30,000 hits per day. In the April 17, 1998 issue of Dispatches, Farah claimed 150,000 hits per day."[6] Although WND features exclusive stories, it also features many articles that originate with other news services that correlate with its right-leaning views.

The website has also marketed conservative merchandise at "ShopNetDaily," which sells books under the name WND Books. In 2002 the WND became a book publisher with Thomas Nelson Publishers (a prominent Christian publishing house) and relased books by political pundits like Katherine Harris, Michael Savage, and Farah himself. The partnership with Thomas Nelson publishing ended after the 2004 election though.[7]

Currently, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson has threatened/pursued legal action against World Net Daily and Paul E. Vallely for publishing false information about the Plame Affair.[8]

Congressman Jim Welker controversy

In March 2006 Republican Congressman Jim Welker was criticized for forwarding a WorldNetDaily article by Jesse Lee Peterson.[9] Congressmen criticized Welker for uncritically sending a copy of the article by email, which included the statements "President Bush is not to blame for the rampant immorality of blacks" and accused "welfare-pampered blacks" of waiting for the federal government to save them from Hurricane Katrina. Welker stated that he did not argee with everything in the article. He said that the reason he sent it was because of its message "about society victimizing people by making them dependent on government programs." [10]

Examples of Controversal Articles

9/11

  • The cover story of the March 2005 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine sought to debunk 9/11 conspiracy theories. The magazine noted:

WorldNetDaily.com weighs in: "Witnesses to this low-flying jet ... told their story to journalists. Shortly thereafter, the FBI began to attack the witnesses with perhaps the most inane disinformation ever--alleging the witnesses actually observed a private jet at 34,000 ft. The FBI says the jet was asked to come down to 5000 ft. and try to find the crash site. This would require about 20 minutes to descend."[11]

    • WND was refuted by Popular Mechanics authors:

There was such a jet in the vicinity--a Dassault Falcon 20 business jet owned by the VF Corp. of Greensboro, N.C., an apparel company that markets Wrangler jeans and other brands. The VF plane was flying into Johnstown-Cambria airport, 20 miles north of Shanksville. According to David Newell, VF's director of aviation and travel, the FAA's Cleveland Center contacted copilot Yates Gladwell when the Falcon was at an altitude "in the neighborhood of 3000 to 4000 ft."--not 34,000 ft. "They were in a descent already going into Johnstown," Newell adds. "The FAA asked them to investigate and they did. They got down within 1500 ft. of the ground when they circled. They saw a hole in the ground with smoke coming out of it. They pinpointed the location and then continued on." Reached by PM, Gladwell confirmed this account but, concerned about ongoing harassment by conspiracy theorists, asked not to be quoted directly.[12]

Valerie Plame-CIA Leak

  • WND has also been told misinformation about the The Plame leak. After two and a half years after the original Plame leak, it was noted on November 5, 2005 Fox News commentator Paul E. Vallely told WND:

Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely told WorldNetDaily that Wilson mentioned Plame's status as a CIA employee over the course of at least three, possibly five, conversations in 2002 in the Fox News Channel's "green room" in Washington, D.C., as they waited to appear on air as analysts.

Vallely says, according to his recollection, Wilson mentioned his wife's job in the spring of 2002 -- more than a year before Robert Novak's July 14, 2003, column identified her, citing senior administration officials, as "an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction."[13]

    • Over that weekend Vallely supposedly recalled another time Wilson allegedly shared classified information on his wife's CIA status. As noted above Vallely said he was told once in Spring 2002, but the WND on November 9, 2005 reported:

After recalling further over the weekend his contacts with Wilson, Vallely says now it was on just one occasion – the first of several conversations – that the ambassador revealed his wife's employment with the CIA and that it likely occurred some time in the late summer or early fall of 2002.[14]

On Saturday, WorldNetDaily published a story based on an interview with Maj. General Paul Vallely, a distinguished career military man and Fox News analyst, who said Ambassador Joseph Wilson, the man at the center of the CIA leak case, had told him in casual conversations in the Fox News studios that his wife, Valerie Plame, was a CIA employee - more than a year before this was first disclosed publicly in a column written by journalist Robert Novak.[15]

    • Joseph Wilson has currently threatened/pursued legal action against World Net Daily and Vallely.[16]

Dirty Bombs in the United States

  • On March 20, 2002 WND cited Robert Morey as an expert, even though his Ph.D is from an unaccredited institution. The article said that he told the FBI:

"that Muslim Pakistanis brought into the U.S. a small nuclear device called a 'dirty bomb' through Niagara Falls out of Canada," Morey says." He described the terrorists as "driving this nuclear device in the back of a van or a car waiting for Bin Laden to tell them when it's time to set it off."[17]


See also/Related

References

  1. ""World Net Daily and Joseph Farah"". Con Watch. Retrieved December 13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  2. ""Decades of Contributions to Conservatism"". Washington Post. Retrieved December 13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  3. ""World's 'No. 1 website' goes for-profit: Starting today, WND is 'out of begging business'"". World Net Daily. Retrieved December 13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  4. ""On the Web, Small and Focused Pays Off"". Business Week. Retrieved December 13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ ""'Prophet' summons UFO for camera"". World Net Daily. Retrieved December 10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ ""Western Journalism Center - Joseph Farah"". Public Eye.Org. Retrieved December 15. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  7. ""World Net Daily and Joseph Farah"". Con Watch. Retrieved December 13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ ""Joe Wilson fumes over Vallely charges in WND: Demands retraction of statements alleging he 'outed' wife in Fox studio"". World Net Daily. Retrieved November 29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ ""Controversy over Kerry's re-enacted war scenes: DNC video uses home footage taken with future career in mind"". WorldNetDaily. Retrieved November 29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  10. ^ ""Debunking the 9/11 Myths"". Popular Mechanics. Retrieved November 29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ ""Debunking the 9/11 Myths"". Popular Mechanics. Retrieved November 29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  12. ^ ""Two years into leak investigation, Gen. Vallely suddenly claims, in contradictory statements, that Wilson revealed Plame's identity to him"". Media Matters. Retrieved November 29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  13. ^ ""General wants Wilson apology Threatened again with lawsuit over claim of 'outing' CIA wife"". WorldNetDaily. Retrieved November 29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  14. ^ ""Joe Wilson's threat against me"". WorldNetDaily. Retrieved November 29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  15. ^ ""Joe Wilson fumes over Vallely charges in WND: Demands retraction of statements alleging he 'outed' wife in Fox studio"". WorldNetDaily. Retrieved November 29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  16. ^ ""Islam expert warns of nuke terror: Claims Pakistanis smuggled 'dirty bomb' into U.S. from Canada"". WorldNetDaily. Retrieved January 10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  17. ^ ""'Prophet' looks to call UFOs in all 50 states"". WorldNetDaily. Retrieved March 15. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
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