Monday, October 5, 2009

World Net Daily - it is 'daily', but that is all

This is meant in friendly yet polite criticism of well-meaning individuals who keep forwarding me pro-Israel articles from World Net Daily (and other even more dubious sources).

The World Net Daily is not a valid source of news.

It is an opinion sheet that caters to the loony fringe.
Reading the World Net Daily for any other reason than a need to laugh hysterically calls your sanity into question.


From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WorldNetDaily

Quote:
In early 2005, WND hired Aaron Klein to run a Jerusalem bureau. ConWebWatch, a website critical of conservative new media, in early 2006 alleged that Klein's articles promoted the causes of Israeli settlers in the West Bank and Gaza who opposed Israel's unilateral disengagement plan from those areas. The group also argued that Klein did not disclose the ties of Israeli activists tied to the far-right Kach and Kahane Chai movement.
End quote.

Kach and Kahane Chai are of course the insane fringe of the settler movement - though extremely small in number, their extremist and racist behaviour, politics, and statements are often used to discredit the entire movement.

Quote:
When Eden Natan-Zada shot and killed four people on a bus in Gaza on August 4, 2005, he was beaten to death afterwards by a crowd that witnessed the shooting. Klein wrote an article for WND claiming that Zada was "murdered" by a "mob of Palestinians" after the shooting, although he also mentioned that police called the shooting a "Jewish terror attack."
End quote.

Klein is entitled to his opinion. But he is not grounded in reality, and his heavily slanted reportage is unreliable - little that he has written stands up to even a modicum of scrutiny.


In addition to publishing the rantings of Mr. Klein, the WND is also responsible for upsetting people with a fragile grasp of reality by spreading palpably false and loopy conspiracy theories.

Quote:
During the debate over the failed 2007 Immigration Bill, WND popularized opposition to an alleged "North American Union (NAU)", a dystopian vision of a future America politically and economically merged with Canada and Mexico, in a fashion similar to the European Union. WND blames a "shadow government" in the form of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) for the alleged NAU plot. CFR Conspiracy theories are not a new phenomenon. Jerome Corsi, a popular WND columnist, has penned a book about the alleged plot called The Late, Great USA, which was promoted by the website. The "North American Union" is considered a conspiracy theory by popular social conservatives such as Michael Medved and Kimberley Strassel, and has been disputed in the mainstream media.
End quote.

Shadow government? NAU plot? Bring on the black helicopters and Hong Kong policemen working for the United Nations also, please, as well as the Bilderburgers and the Freemasons.

Most egregiously, WND has perpetuated the balderdash that Obama is not qualified for the presidency because he is allegedly not a natural born American citizen.

Quote:
During the closing days of the 2008 presidential campaign, and in the weeks following Barack Obama's election as president of the United States, WorldNetDaily posted numerous articles questioning Obama's citizenship status and consequent eligibility to be president.
WND frequently posted articles on its homepage giving updates on numerous lawsuits that questioned Obama's citizenship status and were aimed at postponing the election and, later, the inauguration. These articles featured interviews with the plaintiffs, which included former New Jersey lawyer Leo Donofrio, 9/11 Truth attorney Philip J. Berg, and former Republican presidential candidate Alan Keyes. WND and Joseph Farah also touted The Obama Nation, a book critical of Obama written by WND staff reporter Jerome Corsi, which claimed that Obama was born in Kenya. Such claims were disputed by Obama's campaign, progressive bloggers, news outlets, and Hawaii's state health department.

End quote.

Gentlepersons! If you cannot vet your source as sane, grounded in reality, and at least relatively reliable, please do not forward the article.

It is indeed quite likely that the content of the article in question agrees with your every dark fear or preconception, and says what you wish to say better than you possibly could. That is immaterial. Nonsense remains nonsense, even if someone else says it too. The WND is a source of a very large percentage of all the bad karma and dysfunctionality in the known universe, and should be avoided at all costs.

I no longer wish to see bushwa from the World Net Daily. If you forward it, I will taunt you and call you names.

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