WorldNetDaily’s Year That Was
Wednesday, December 30, 2009 at 1:55 pm
The fringe right-wing Website that became a lot less obscure this year is out with a Top-10 list marking its “groundbreaking reports.” Five (and a half if you count the self-promoting birther billboard campaign) of the stories really did break through to the mainstream media, though you could quibble with WND’s brag that the site “was first to report Miss USA judge Perez Hilton launched into a full-blown attack on Christian contestant Carrie Prejean.” Celebrity news media got into that story very, very fast.
Still, the big takeaway from WND’s list is that it really did manage to catapult stories from the web to Fox News. For example:
WND was the news agency that broke the first major story on Obama’s “green” jobs czar Van Jones and it was the dogged reporting of WND’s Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein that helped bring down the first high-ranking member of the Obama administration.
I’d agree with that. Few people admit to reading WND but there’s no doubt that its relentless reports on Jones, coupled with Gateway Pundit’s blog posts, provided the grist for Glenn Beck’s attacks.
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8 Comments
Comment posted December 30, 2009 @ 2:47 pm
Can WND boast that they were first to report on Prejean's 'sexting' sex-tape?
First to post 'Christian' Prejean's soft-porn photos?
How did they miss that scoop?
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Comment posted December 30, 2009 @ 4:33 pm
Except that all WND really did with the Van Jones story was repeat it. As Aaron Klein half-concedes in his own article, virtually all of the information and research came from two bloggers at 'Machete 408' and 'New Zeal.' All Klein did was repackage their material as a news story; he didn't engage in any particularly productive original research.
If anything, the Van Jones saga speaks more to the influence of non-journalist bloggers than to WorldNetDaily.
Comment posted December 30, 2009 @ 5:52 pm
Yah, for a site that wants itself to look like the paramount online news, they sure use “Goebbel's Axiom” a lot. And as you say, they are a little “selective”, in what they report, but that's righty news for you. “All the news we think you should see and hear”.
Comment posted January 20, 2010 @ 3:37 pm
Here's an interest article on WND's many, deliberate lies:
http://conwebwatch.tripod.com/stories/2009/wndl…
Comment posted January 20, 2010 @ 4:44 pm
Thanks for the info!
I'm not too versed with WND, but it comes as no surprise. It almost makes Fox noise look like a legitimate news agency. (remember, I said almost)
Until the lies, half-truths and obfuscation stop, there can be no debate, discussion or anything resembling bipartisanship in D.C., or anywhere else. It's sad, because it's as if the GOP wants this country to fail, so they can institute the same failed policies that led to the miasma we're in, now.
After seeing McConnell's statement about noncooperation with the left, the Dems have to take the gloves off, because the GOP already has.
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