WND
You gotta spin it to win it Media |
Stop the presses! |
We want pictures of Spider-Man! |
Extra! Extra! |
WND (originally an initialism for WorldNetDaily, or as it was affectionately known to its fans as WingNutDaily[1][2] or WhirledNutDaily[3]) is a far-right webshite founded by the impressively mustachioed Joseph Farah in 1997 as a project of his "Western Center for Journalism".[4][5] The site espouses a fundamentalist, Christian, creationist worldview with a healthy dose of jingoism, and its coverage provides multiple sides of issues: the very conservative viewpoint and the ultra-conservative viewpoint. Basically, it makes Fox News look positively moonbatty in comparison. Managing editor David Kupelian claims:[6]
“”We serve as your watchdog on government 365 days a year. We guard your priceless freedoms by aggressively exposing corruption and evil everywhere, and by championing good.
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While they present themselves as news, WND is basically a tabloid for radical right-wingers. Their publishing standards are rock-bottom,[7] and they have run stories from extremely questionable sources on many, many occasions.[8] It's also one of the earliest and longest-running publishers of Ann Coulter's insipid columns, as well as editorials from such august political analysts as Chuck Norris, Pat Boone, Andy Schlafly, and Charlie Daniels. The addition of editorials by disgraced baseball bigot John Rocker[9] and an obsession with so-called "black mob violence" marked a shift from their less-than-subtle dog whistles into more overt racism.
The scary thing is, this bilge is actually slightly influential, with its made-up bullshit making its way out the mouths of wingnut Congressional Representatives and cable TV pundits far too often. Most notably, WND became ground zero for the Birther movement during the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections.[10]
Corporate structure[edit]
Although its website lists Washington, D.C. as the location of its corporate and marketing headquarters, WND is actually headquartered in Medford, Oregon, which it lists as the location of its accounting office. For decades, Medford has been a mecca for survivalists, conspiracy theorists, and others of the paranoid-unhinged persuasion; it is also candidate to become the capital of the State of Jefferson, should that state ever become a reality. The other offices listed are an "operations" office in Long Beach, California, and a "customer service" office in the Kansas City suburb of Blue Springs, Missouri; in 1999, it was incorporated in the tax haven state of Delaware. In fact, the address in Washington, D.C., that WND claims is their corporate headquarters is actually a UPS store.
Website contents[edit]
Advertising[edit]
While WND obviously has to pay its costs somehow, advertising on the site is done in a particularly tacky way. Entire articles and editorials are nothing more than promotions for books and tours. When an article isn't solely dedicated to selling crap from their store, you can be sure it'll contain at least two hypertext links to the store disguised to appear as links to other relevant sources. Ads are placed on the front page using the same sensationalist headlines, fonts, and formatting as articles, making it difficult to distinguish them from actual content. One of the best examples of this was in November 2011, when, under the banner of "WND Exclusive", was an article titled "Obama hasn't destroyed 'that time of year,' at least not yet..." Clicking on this apparent "shocking" headline led you to an article plugging WND Superstore's Christmas selection.[11]
Banner advertising on the site at least at one time into two broad categories: passive weight-loss techniques[12] and survivalism-related products.[13] Basically, advertisers think WND's readers are nothing but fat slobs who want to lose weight without effort or paranoid nut jobs who think America is going into a second dark age and that the only way to survive is to preserve one's own food and generate one's own power. This is not that different than the Infowars Store's emphasis on supplements and "prepping".[14] Since 2021, the WND Superstore has focused more on Christianity, nationalist pseudohistory and prepping.[15]
Commentary and columnists[edit]
“”I really should send Joseph Farah a gift for putting together a publication that goes above and beyond the call of duty to provide me with maximum fodder for this blog.
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—Ed Brayton[16] |
Farah writes endlessly daily on his three favorite topics: how the media is liberal, how the liberal media is ignoring his latest venture, and defending his latest venture from the media's attacks... because they're liberal. He also frequently brings up how he has been in the media for thirty years, and that when he started out, the media "just reported the truth" and similar fantasies. As of 2019, Farah's daily editorials are exclusively focused on begging his readers for money and attacking social media.[17][18] Farah appears to be upset that "news" stories from his wholly unreliable and completely biased tabloid no longer appear on the first two pages of a Google search.[note 1]
The list of former and current weekly columnists reads like a Who's Who of the wingnut set:
- Matt Barber
- Theodore Beale
- Pat Boone
- Pat Buchanan
- Herman Cain
- Jerome Corsi
- Ann Coulter
- Charlie Daniels
- Larry Elder
- Brigitte Gabriel
- Pamela Geller
- Linda Harvey
- Victoria Jackson
- Alan Keyes
- Scott Lively
- Michelle Malkin
- Ilana Mercer
- Christopher Monckton
- Roy Moore
- Chuck Norris
- Ted Nugent
- Jesse Lee Peterson
- Janet Porter
- Dennis Prager
- John Rocker
- Rick Santorum
- Michael Savage
- Andy Schlafly
- Ben Shapiro
- John Stossel
- Tom Tancredo
In 2010, WND temporarily ceased publishing Ann Coulter's columns and disinvited her from a conference over her involvement in the gay Republican event HomoCON. Farah went on a gay radio show(!) to accuse Coulter of believing that "sodomy is just an alternate lifestyle", and stated that he no longer considered himself a conservative due to what he perceived as the right's "embrace" of homosexuality. In response, Coulter called him a "swine", a "publicity whore", and a "fake Christian".[19] Despite all that, WND quickly resumed publishing her columns, and Farah is as much a wingnut conservative than he's ever been.
Email to the Editor[edit]
This section[20] is basically a chance for readers to tell Farah how right he is. On rare occasions where they do post letters disagreeing with WND's editorial stance, it is usually threatening and offensive, reflecting poorly on the letter writer. They post five letters a day, and it's not hard to believe they receive a lot more than that, so they are obviously choosing only the ones they want.
Unfortunately, there's no archive or permanent links to emails, so we can't show you any highlights. However, to give you an idea on the well-informed views you're missing out on, one day we had: a long, ranty, birther letter; a comparison of healthcare reforms to Soylent Green; a letter saying that all socialists are Nazis; a letter complaining that Robert Gibbs starts sentences with "The American people want..." despite the fact that Tony Snow also used that phrase;[21] and a person fawning over how great their columnist Burt Prelutsky is.
Forums[edit]
The best batshit craziness is to be found on the "forums" of the site. They're only called "forums" because that's only the name WND has given them, even though they're actually a comments thread on a blog without a blog piece to comment on. These are started by the site admins rarely, and there is no ability to link to posts. Annoyingly, the newest post goes first, and to follow any conversation, you have to work backwards, trying to connect the blue quote text to the original post. Forum moderators are easy to spot, as they are the only ones with a signature, and it is about 15 lines long, trying to explain how their convoluted forum system works. There are actually only fifteen threads on the forums, currently available for commenting, not counting the polls, which are a lot more fun.
Polls[edit]
WND runs polls daily, which typically never have fewer than eight options, running the full gamut of the political spectrum from far-left to far-right, as well a few wingnut options that lie nowhere in the spectrum (or reality). Occasionally, the truth sneaks in with options such as, "No, this is all just sour grapes from right-wingers", but they receive few votes. Polls are mildly restrictive, since you have to register before you can participate. However, you may view the embarrassing results without registering.
Previous poll results include the following:
- "Is Obama's eligibility issue a concern to you?" — 17 options. Top result, 36%: Yes, he's already proven he's not qualified. Now let's find out if he's eligible. (The top 8 results were variations on yes, totalling 99% of the votes).[22]
- "Why do you think the national media avoided the July 4th tea parties? — 15 options. Top result, 70%: They're driven by ideology and are completely in the tank for Obama and the Congress.[23]
- "Do you believe mankind evolved from lower species?"[note 2] — 13 options. Top result, 63%: No, I believe the Bible account of creation.[24]
- "Where exactly do you think President Obama was really born?" — 10 options. Top result, 72%: Kenya.[25]
- "What would you like to give Obama for Christmas?|" — 25 options. Top result, 25%: A court ruling booting his ineligible self from office.[26]
- "Who's your pick for 2012 GOP presidential nominee if you could vote today?" — 27 options. Top result, 21%: Ron Paul. Second, 19%: Sarah Palin.[27]
- "What do you make of the recent spree of earthquakes?" — 10 options. Top result, 35%: It's the beginning of the end-time birth pangs, as the Bible puts it.[28]
- "Sound off on Michelle Obama's comment that Barack's 'home country' is Kenya." — 15 options. Top result, 62%: She spilled the beans. Barack was really born in Kenya, his home country.[29]
Videos[edit]
WND also hosts several video series, but they're all tragically awful and should be avoided like the plague. Here are just a few:
For The Record[edit]
By amateur filmmaker Jason "Molotov" Mitchell.[30] Some of the videos surpass WND's usual standards of offensiveness, such as when Mitchell actually argues in favor of the Ugandan law making homosexuality a capital crime, citing a commandment in the book of Leviticus as his reason.[31] (Molotov admits to having a Christian tattoo, apparently ignoring Leviticus 19:28, wherein the Lord explicitly forbids tattoos.)
News! News![edit]
A painfully unfunny "Weekend Update" knock-off produced by "Molotov" Mitchell and hosted by D.J. Doulce (basically an ersatz Christina Hoff Sommers). Every episode ends with the line "That is all the time we have for this week's News! News!, next week we may all be dead". Only if there is a merciful God.
The Ultimate Jew[edit]
The newest member of the The Avengers Hosted by stand-up comedian and formally living fossil, Jackie Mason. Not funny, just kind of preachy. Imagine Krusty the Clown's father repeating all the current conservative talking points.[note 3]
Living Waters[edit]
Ray Comfort and his life partner young ward Kirk Cameron ambush college co-eds to ask deep philosophical questions. When their startled victims fail to provide irrefutable proofs for answers, our two heroes declare that atheism and evolution are proven false... or something. Who knows? What do you expect from these two?
Just the Facts[edit]
Probably the driest of the five(!) series hosted by Richard Rives. His videos usually focus on Christianity and how the founding fathers were Christians (protip, Richy Rich: many weren't), and he seems to be anti-established churches.
The Heavens Declare[edit]
David Rives, son of Richard Rives, is an amateur astronomer and young Earth creationist whose videos present all the usual arguments for a 6000-year-old universe, with a focus on irreducible complexity. Rives also appears to believe that most (if not all) modern scientific discoveries were predicted by the Bible. Dave comes across as a wimpy Ray Comfort.[32]
Red Elephant's Cafe[edit]
A "drama" series about a small town in the US called Liberty. The villain of the piece is the government, the characters talk in Tea Party talking points, and everything will be better if, um... God.
WND Superstore![edit]
Everyone knows how to make money on the web, right? You give away stuff free and sell T-shirts on the back of it. They have Bibles! They have other books! They have a Reagan Store! They have their WorldNetWeekly magazine! (All material you could have read free on the site every day!) They have CDs and DVDs! They have a Tea Party store! They have a Birth Certificate store! And of course, they have T-shirts.
WND's store also features a "Preparedness" section, where the intrepid doomsday prepper can find low prices on items like 36 buckets filled with nearly five-thousand servings of vacuum sealed meals, the "Ebola Survival Handbook", and an authentic Russian gas mask.[33]
Obama birth certificate "controversy"[edit]
The election of Barack Obama in 2008 really sent Farah and his cronies over the edge.[34] During the 2008 and 2012 election cycles, the vast majority (if not all) of WND's headlines were about the so-called "birther controversy"; it was willing to post any article that could possibly point to Obama being ineligible to be president, regardless of its absurdity. Despite the fact that a high quality picture of Obama's birth certificate is readily available on the Internet[35] and there is no doubt at all about his mother's citizenship, WND still believes he is ineligible, because:
- He was born in Kenya, his Grandma said so.[note 4]
- He was born in an unnamed hospital in Hawaii, which does not claim credit.[note 5]
- They only showed his birth certificate to a "select few media outlets", not to us, so it could still be fake.[42]
- Even if it is real, that certificate is a "Certificate of Live Birth" not a "Birth Certificate", so it proves nothing.[43]
- Even if he has a "long-form" birth certificate, he lived in Indonesia for some years and gave up his American citizenship.[note 6]
- Even if he lived in Indonesia without giving up his US citizenship, his father was Kenyan and so does not meet
ourthe Constitution's definition of "natural born citizen", because both parents have to be US citizens.[note 7]
Just to show their determination to get that black Democrat out of the White House uphold the Constitution, they claim to have raised more than $65,000 to erect billboards around the country with the message, "Where's the Birth Certificate?" Interestingly, WND was mostly silent on the eligibility of John McCain, who caused a slight stir due by being born in the Panama Canal Zone.[45]
Farah has also expressed doubts as to who Obama's mother really is. Appropriately, Ed Brayton quipped that the next step would be for Farah to declare his belief that Obama is actually a reptilian (David Icke, take note!); Farah was sure to come up with something just as silly if a lizard-man vibe strikes him as being inappropriate for his birther conspiracy theory of the week.[46]
In addition, Jerome Corsi has also used WND to spread rumors that Obama is secretly gay, used to frequent Chicago gay bars, and is secretly married to a former male roommate.[47][48][49]
Proving that stupidity is frequently non-partisan, the eligibility of 2016 Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz (a dominionist wingnut tailor-made for WND) was occasionally questioned by WND columnist and noted crazy person Larry Klayman.[50] Seeing as Cruz was the son of a Cuban refugee and born in Calgary, Farah stuck to his guns as a seeker of constitutional truth, and… endorsed Cruz in the Republican Primaries for the 2016 election.[51]
Difficulties with the truth[edit]
WND has had some difficulties telling the truth over the birth certificate controversy. On August 2, 2009, when Orly Taitz presented them a photograph of what was reportedly Obama's Kenyan birth certificate, they clearly stated in their article:
However, the birth certificate turned out to be a fake based on an Australian birth certificate.[54] WND was caught doing what is commonly called lying,[55] and was not helped by the fact that they defended glaring errors in the document, such as Kenya not being a republic at the time, which were pointed out before the hoax was exposed.[56]
In August 2010, WND published an article claiming that then-Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan had helped to cover up Obama's birth certificate. In fact, they had only found nine Supreme Court cases mentioning Obama and Kagan (considering she was US Solicitor General at the time, meaning her entire job was arguing cases before the Supreme Court, that was perfectly normal), none of which had anything to do with the birth certificate controversy, most of which were filed well before Obama became President and merely "carried over", and only one of which was even related to the election.[57] So WND took the action of any brave journalistic organization and deleted the story without explanation.[58] The link remained broken for days, but WND eventually reactivated the links, replacing it with a story that had only a small connection to the original and an acknowledgement of their initial error.
Racism[edit]
WND regularly runs stories engaging in base racism, typically focusing on their readers' (i.e. racist white people) fears of "violent" brown people. The site regularly features the work of journalist and alleged human being Colin Flaherty, who has "done more reporting than any other journalist on what appears to be a nationwide trend of skyrocketing black-on-white crime, violence and abuse". Some choice articles from Flaherty and other people who can type who were employed by WND include:
- "White Girl: I'm Tired of Being Looked At Like Prey."[61]
- "Take a stroll, wake up in hospital thanks to black mob"[62]
- A scoop that "Corpulent women of color" in the TSA are molesting white people as revenge for the murder of Trayvon Martin.[63]
- "PACK OF BLACK YOUTH TERRORIZE CITY"[64]
- "Combat soldiers no match for black mob…[65]
- "BLACK-ON-WHITE BEATINGS LEAVE MORE DEAD"[66]
- "BLACK-MOB VIOLENCE DESTROYS U.S. LANDMARK"[67]
- "Black Mobs Plague Nightclubs Coast to Coast"[68]
- "It's only new if you have been aggressively ignoring the epidemic of black mob violence."[69]
- "Whistleblower: Philadelphia flooded with black mob violence."[70]
The site also advertises Flaherty's book White Girl Bleed a Lot, which argues that "groups of black people have been roaming the streets of America – assaulting, intimidating, stalking, threatening, vandalizing, stealing, shooting, stabbing, even raping and killing."[71]
It got to the point where Google Ads cut off service to them and labelled them as a "hate site".[72]
And that's not all[edit]
In addition to claims that Obama is actually a Kenyan who gay-married a Muslim and that hordes of African-Americans are rampaging in your neighborhood and/or spreading Ebola, WND has advanced plenty of other sanity-deprived ideas.
- Iraq under Saddam Hussein supposedly ordered a thousand or so PlayStation 2 consoles to be used for its computing capabilities in an effort to develop missile guidance systems for its military. The PS2 did come with powerful hardware for its time and could be chained together to form a Linux-based supercomputer cluster,[73] leading to reports that the Japanese government imposed export controls banning exports of the console without a special license; Sony was given the green light to release the PS2 worldwide except in regions subject to US sanctions such as Iran and North Korea.[74] However, no definitive proof exists of Saddam using the supposed PS2s to run something other than Gran Turismo or Grand Theft Auto; if anything, it could have been a just a special perk Saddam managed to get for his inner circle[75] much like how Kim Jong-un somehow acquired luxury vehicles in spite of sanctions against his regime.[76] There has also been speculation that the whole Saddam PlayStation affair was a carefully orchestrated publicity stunt on part of Sony to generate hype,[77] fuelled in no small part by WND's fearmongering. In any case, Sony's next console, the PlayStation 3, did end up as an example of dual-use computing technology when the US Air Force harnessed the power of 1,760 of PS3s thanks to the console's Cell Broadband Engine, whose complex (and arguably over-engineered) architecture is of interest to scientific and high-performance computing applications particularly with the military.[78]
- The attack by Anders Behring Breivik was invented by the Norwegian Labour party in order to gain sympathy. "This is likely a fabrication of the Labour Party, who needs to hold onto power to enforce their multiculturalist, Muslim-favoring, anti-nationalist views", according to Michael Savage.[79]
- Soybeans and soy milk will make your penis shrink and turn you gay.[80]
- Obama is planning on building a Death Star.[81] Seriously.
- Whenever WND uses the word gay or gay marriage, they employ scare quotes.
- Obama will not leave office after 2016.[82]
- Editor and Gene Shalit impersonator Joseph Farah blamed the Sandy Hook massacre on secularism and the removal of mandatory prayer from public schools, and warned that if gun control measures were established, God would punish us more.[83]
- WND published a highly hagiographical report about a visit of Peter Popoff to Washington, D.C.[84]
- A minute-by-minute recounting of the execution of Saddam Hussein.[85]
- Burt Prelutsky even once made an article calling for the Ka'aba to be nuked.[86]
Is Barack Obama the Devil?[edit]
A reoccurring theme at WND is just asking the question "Is Barack Obama literally, non-metaphorically, Satan?" With stories about Obama's similar appearance to a guy who played the Devil on TV,[87] the fact that a fly landed on his face at some point[88] or that a lens flare demon was recorded with him while in Kenya,[89] the only conclusion a moron regular reader of WND could come to is: yes, Barack is probably Old Scratch.
WND Books[edit]
Under the WND Books imprint, WND publishes IMPORTANT INFORMATION on subjects relevant to its informative mission. Along with being an outlet for Farah's fine volumes, it also prints books by such intellectual greats as Ray Comfort, Ken Ham, and of course, Chuck Norris. Mostly, though, the authors are WND staff writers producing hyper-partisan screeds against liberals and RINOs.
You would have to be blind to miss the latest WND Books release, since there are advertisements for it all over the site. There is usually an interview with the author, an article on how well it is selling on Amazon and an article by Farah complaining about how nobody wants to interview his author. Any story that can possibly be linked to the book is, and will dissolve into a plug for the book by the time you pass the annoying flashing GIF advertisement in the middle.
In December 2015, WND proved their publishing standards are equal to their journalistic standards by acquiring the rights to crank pseudohistorian David Barton's wholly discredited book, The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You've Always Believed About Thomas Jefferson. The book was pulled from shelves by its original (conservative) publisher, Thomas Nelson, after a group of ten evangelical Christian professors from prominent U.S. universities released a report calling assertions made in the book "unsupportable" and that Barton was frequently guilty of taking statements and actions out of context.[90] The History News Network voted it "the least credible history book in print".[91] WND.com columnist Michael Thompson advertised editorialized that Barton's evangelical critics are simply not conservative enough to correctly interpret history, despite being actual historians with fancy stuff like advanced degrees and decades of study. Barton's only degree is a bachelors in Christian education from Oral Roberts University.[92]
Joseph Farah notes the wide respect accorded to WND's publications in the mainstream media:[93]
“”Never, ever contact me again.
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—Jeffrey Kluger, senior writer, Time magazine |
“”This is sensational rubbish that is of no interest to any legitimate publication.
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—Rana Foroohar, deputy editor, Newsweek |
“”Ridiculous crap.
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—John Oswald, news editor, New York Daily News |
“”Absolute crap.
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—Evelyn Leopold, Huffington Post, formerly of Reuters |
“”Remove me from your list.
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—Nancy Gibbs, editor-at-large, Newsweek |
“”Seriously, get a life.
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—David Knowles, political writer, AOL |
Mailing list[edit]
WND maintains a mailing list of readers who have signed up to have their mailbox filled with the same sort of crap that the website is filled with. Various organizations have rented the WND list, including the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE)[94] and more significantly, the Republican National Committee. Right-wing blogger Jon Henke, who considers birtherism and its conspiracy theory "hideously embarrassing" for sane conservatives, contacted the latter and got a complete non-answer as to why the Republicans would wish to rent the email list of a fringe group of loonies like WND.[95][96] This may be because WND-reading nutjobs are now the Republican base…
Eating their own[edit]
WND has a long history of sloppy accounting, being chronically late in paying bills, ripping off authors, and high-level executives making personal purchases off of the company credit card.[97] All of this mismanagement primarily hurts the people that support it: kooks, Christian fundamentalists, and co-grifters. WND seems to be in a downward spiral, with the book publishing arm devolving from free publishing for authors with unfulfilled promises of royalties to stright-up vanity publishing via World Ahead Press ($10,000 up front from the author to get published).[97] Farah blames WND's dire financial situation on the lack of promotion of the site's fake news stories by Google/Facebook/Twitter (who he calls the "Digital Cartel"), rather than WND's complete lack of journalistic standards and long history of conspiratorial and inflammatory content.[98] Remaining WND devotees can prepare for WND's end times, when the wingnut comes unscrewed, by buying a Russian gas mask on the WND website when the stink of internal rot becomes more apparent.[33]
See also[edit]
- Fake news
- The Blaze: WND with Glenn Beck as the editor. Slightly less racist, significantly more sanctimonious.
- Breitbart.com: WND with a more populist slant.
- Infowars and PrisonPlanet: WND with the insanity turned up to 11. Run by Alex Jones
- The Daily Mail: The marginally less insane British version
- Globalresearch.ca: The left-wing, moonbat version
- Robert Beale: a former financial backer turned gibbering tax crank
- Self projection as god: a favored tactic
- Zion Oil: A biblical petrochemical(!) company heavily promoted by WND
External links[edit]
- The site in question.
- What's WorldNetDaily Hiding on Obama Birth Certificate?, Terry Krepel, Huffington Post, 2 July 2009.
- The Ten Most Absurd Stories at Rick Santorum's New Home, WorldNetDaily, Rightwingwatch, 4 December 2012.
- Youtube channel
Notes[edit]
- ↑ Most wingnuts have moved on from Birtherism, WND's raison d'être during the Obama presidency, and the site has little original content to offer that isn't already covered by nominally more reliable right-wing sites like Breitbart and the Daily Caller. This, the blacklisting as a result of Colin Flaherty's racist articles and Google/FB's attempts to counter fake news are the likely causes for WND's reduced traffic following the 2016 election.
- ↑ Actually even a person who supports evolution as the best explanation for the biodiversity present on Earth would answer no to this question: in evolutionary biology there is no such idea as "higher" and "lower" species, making the poll a leading question.
- ↑ Mason voiced Rabbi Hyman Krustofsky in the classic ""Like Father, Like Clown" episode of The Simpsons
- ↑ This is what we were told she said based on a translation. Even if the translation was true, the question she was reportedly asked was "Which city in Kenya was Barack born"? This is begging the question. Also, her son's name was Barack Obama, so once asked about the Kenyan-born Barack Obama she may have assumed they were talking about her son, not grandson.
- ↑ A typical WND article on this topic[36] ignores that he was born at Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women & Children, which Obama thanks in a congratulatory message to them.[37]:6 There was some confusion with people claiming he was born at Queen's Medical Center, but Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women & Children being named after Queen Kapi'olani may be the source of this confusion. Two days after this was posted here, WND ran an article on the letter, as per usual, WND used the fact that it is against federal law to release private information to insinuate that Obama is hiding his place of birth.[38] Eventually the issue of this letter descended into a farce. When the letter was removed from the website WND accused them of participating in a cover up[39] they ran a poll on it.[40] They were eventually satisfied of the existence of this when they got to see it, although they insisted on saying it was "allegedly" written by Obama.[41]
- ↑ This topic does not receive much coverage on WND. If this did apply (which it doesn't; even if Obama had become an Indonesian citizen this would not involve giving up his American citizenship, as American citizenship is quite obviously not subject to foreign nations' laws), it would be difficult to rebut as we would have prove a negative and find evidence that Obama did not become an Indonesian citizen. The absence of such a record will not be satisfying to WND as they don't believe in a certificate that does exist, never mind the one that doesn't exist.
- ↑ In point of fact the nationality of one, or for that matter both, of Obama's parents is simply irrelevant. Anybody who is born on US soil is automatically a US citizen.[44] The only mention of what constitutes a citizen in the Constitution is in the Fourteenth Amendment: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." Given that Obama's mother was a natural born US citizen, and he was born in the US, this would cover most, if not all, legal definitions of "natural born" with various legislatures in the US. This is actually a political controversy among anti-immigration activists, some of whom feel that the Fourteenth Amendment should be partially repealed so as to stop the scourge of "anchor babies"; you'd think a far-right site would know about this.
References[edit]
- ↑ We Are All Clintonists Now (16 September 1999) alt.current-events.clinton.whitewater, Google Groups.
- ↑ WingNutDaily (WorldNetDaily or WND nickname) by Barry Popik (July 19, 2021).
- ↑ The things you learn from Whirled Nut Daily by Paul Z. Meyers (May 19, 2009) Science Blogs.
- ↑ WorldNet Daily Continues to Pump Out Outrageous Propaganda, Leah Nelson, Southern Poverty Law Center Intelligence Report, Fall 2012.
- ↑ WorldNetDaily Southern Poverty Law Center
- ↑ Important letter to WND readers. Exclusive: David Kupelian on top independent news site's secret of survival (03/26/2008 at 12:00 AM) WND (archived from 7 Jul 2013 14:10:35 UTC).
- ↑ World Net Daily (WND) Media Bias/Fact Check.
- ↑ Dangers of CFL Mercury Light Bulbs. Rumor: Compact fluorescent light bulbs release dangerous amounts of mercury when broken. by David Mikkelson (2 May 2007) Snopes. In which WND gets nailed by Snopes.
- ↑ John Rocker to pitch rhetorical fastballs: Outspoken former MLB pitcher debuts as exclusive columnist (June 25, 2012) WND (archived from June 28, 2012).
- ↑ Right-wing publisher: We run "some misinformation": WorldNetDaily's Joseph Farah explains the journalistic standards at his Birther news website by Justin Elliott (Apr 11, 2011 18:37 ET) Salon (archived from August 28, 2011).
- ↑ The Worldnutdaily Pimps Christmas Junk — Freethoughtblogs, Ed Brayton, November 17, 2011.
- ↑ Health WND Superstore (archived from September 15, 2015).
- ↑ Preparedness WND Superstore (archived from August 5, 2021).
- ↑ Infowars Store (archived from January 3, 2021).
- ↑ WND Superstore (archived from August 1, 2021).
- ↑ Thank You, Joseph Farah. Thank you. by Ed Brayton (July 17, 2008 9:09 AM) Dispatches from the Culture Wars, Science Blogs (archived from January 13, 2012).
- ↑ Google-Facebook: The Speech Code Cartel by Joseph Farah (August 17, 2018) WND (archived from August 19, 2018).
- ↑ Save free speech, free press, freedom of religion by Joseph Farah (July 31, 2018) WND (archived from August 3, 2018).
- ↑ WND CEO Takes To Gay Radio To Slam Ann Coulter For ‘HomoConflict’ by Glynnis MacNicol (Aug 25th, 2010, 10:17 am) Mediaite.
- ↑ Emails to the editor WND.
- ↑ Press Briefing by Tony Snow (uly 17, 2007; 12:21 P.M. EDT) George W. Bush White House Archives.
- ↑ Is Obama's eligibility issue a concern to you? WND (archived from December 17, 2009).
- ↑ Why do you think the national media avoided the July 4th tea parties? WND (archived from December 8, 2009).
- ↑ Do you believe mankind evolved from lower species? WND (archived from January 6, 2010).
- ↑ Where exactly do you think President Obama was really born? WND (archived from October 1, 2009).
- ↑ What would you like to give Obama for Christmas? WND (archived from February 8, 2009).
- ↑ Who's your pick for 2012 GOP presidential nominee if you could vote today? WND (archived from June 7, 2010).
- ↑ What do you make of the recent spree of earthquakes? WND (archived from May 7, 2010).
- ↑ Sound off on Michelle Obama's comment that Barack's 'home country' is Kenya WND (archived from May 12, 2010).
- ↑ My top-10 predictions from 2010 by Jason "Molotov" Mitchell (December 30, 2009; 1:00 am Eastern) WND (archived from January 2, 2010).
- ↑ Open Forum: What Do You Think About Jason "Molotov" Mitchell’s Anti-Gay Videos? by David Badash (April 29, 2014 at 01:59 PM ET) New Civil Rights Movement.
- ↑ David Rives WND (archived from February 12, 2020).
- ↑ 33.0 33.1 New Russian Gas Masks/New NBC Filters/New Carry & Storage WND Superstore (archived from April 3, 2019).
- ↑ Obsessed about birth certificate? by Joseph Farah (Posted: July 09, 2009; 1:00 am Eastern) WND (archived from December 15, 2009). Farah responding to claims he is obsessed about this, only giving himself another excuses to go over it again.
- ↑ Certificate of Live Birth: Barack Hussein Obama II (August 4, 1961) State of Hawaii via Factcheck.org. That could belong to anyone named Barack Hussein Obama II born to a Caucasian woman and an African man on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu.
- ↑ Want to send Barack Obama a message? 'Where's the birth certificate?' postcards available now (July 03, 2009 12:10 am Eastern) WND (archived from July 6, 2009).
- ↑ Inspire (Spring 2009) Hawaii Pacific Health Foundations via WND (archived from October 21, 2019).
- ↑ Hospital won't back Obama birth claim: Honolulu's Kapi'olani Medical Center refuses to confirm White House letter by Jerome R. Corsi (July 06, 2009; 9:26 pm Eastern) WND (archived from July 8, 2009).
- ↑ Obama's 'birth hospital' in astonishing cover-up: Hospital once proudly celebrated president, now in active mode to hide 'proof' and of course by Joe Kovacs (July 10, 2009; 11:49 pm Eastern) WND (archived from July 15, 2009).
- ↑ It's a Boy, Oh Boy, Oh BOY: What do you make of the Hawaii hospital covering up its Obama-birth claim? WND (archived from December 8, 2009).
- ↑ 'Birth hospital': Letter for real: New images of 'Obama document' at center of eligibility controversy by Joe Kovacs (July 16, 2009; 9:10 pm Eastern) WND (archived from July 20, 2009).
- ↑ This is irrelevant, the website chosen was due to its neutrality and professionalism.
- ↑ Birth Certificates and Certificate of Live Birth are the same thing. There is in fact not any document issued by the state of Hawaii with the title of "Birth Certificate". A longer version of the one on the net is on record, but even his short one says he was born in Hawaii.
- ↑ Is Barack Obama a natural-born citizen of the U.S.? by David Mikkelson (17 October 2008) Snopes.
- ↑ In fact, Obama co-sponsored a bill to ensure the legal definition of natural born citizen would cover McCain. "Those who serve and sacrifice for their country, like John McCain and his father, deserve every honor and privilege that our nation can possibly provide, and that includes the ability to run for the highest office in the land" - Obama
- ↑ Farah Takes Birtherism to Whole New Level, Dispatches from the Culture Wars
- ↑ Claim: Obama hid 'gay life' to become president by Jerome R. Corsi (09/11/2012 at 9:53 PM) WND (archived from December 17, 2012).
- ↑ World Net Daily Dredges Up Ancient 'Obama Gay' Rumors by Jason St. Amand (Sep 14, 2012) Edge Boston, Massachusetts (archived from July 29, 2014).
- ↑ World Net Daily's Corsi Asks: "Was Obama Married To A Man?", BuzzFeed
- ↑ Rubio & Cruz: Ineligible and phonies! by Larry Klayman (February 27, 2016) WND (archived from February 28, 2016).
- ↑ Vote for Ted Cruz by Joseph Farah (March 8, 2016) WND (archived from March 8, 2016).
- ↑ Is this really smoking gun of Obama's Kenyan birth? Attorney files motion for authentication of alleged 1960s certificate from Africa (Posted: August 02, 2009; 11:55 am Eastern) WND (archived from December 21, 2009).
- ↑ Picture in case anything happens to it.
- ↑ Source for forged Kenyan birth certificate found? by Alex Koppelman (Aug. 4, 2009 10:01 EDT) Salon (archived from August 8 2009).
- ↑ WorldNetDaily Does Not Do Journalism by Terrry Krepel (8/11/2009) conwebwatch.
- ↑ Kenyan document ignites firestorm over authenticity: Online Aussie paperwork cited for 'striking similarities' (August 04, 2009; 9:26 pm Eastern) WND (archived from September 18, 2009).
- ↑ FALSE: Elena Kagan Tied to Obama's Birth Certificate: WND falsely claimed Obama nominated Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court as a reward for getting 9 eligibility challenges about his birth certificate dismissed. by David Mikkelson (3 August 2015) Snopes.
- ↑ Kagan case: 'Real Truth About Obama': Fight over ad explaining president's abortion advocacy reached Supremes (August 04, 2010; 10:55 pm Eastern) WND (archived from August 18, 2010). The story before it was deleted.
- ↑ Funniest news stories of 2014 by Joe Kovacs (12/28/2014 at 2:22 PM) WND (archived from January 6, 2015).
- ↑ Buffoons of the year (December 29, 2014) WND (archived from December 29, 2014).
- ↑ White girl: 'I'm tired of being looked at like prey': Letter upsets city's Black History Month by Colin Flaherty (02/11/2014 at 8:49 PM) WND (archived from May 4, 2014).
- ↑ Take a stroll, wake up in hospital thanks to black mob: But victim of racial violence has surprising response by Colin Flaherty (10/13/2013 at 5:43 PM) WND (archived from October 25, 2013).
- ↑ The TSA's Trayvon Martin revenge by Ilana Mercer (05/31/2012 at 8:12 PM) WND (archived from October 10, 2012).
- ↑ Pack of black youth terrorize city: Twin mob attacks strike on back-to-back nights by Colin Flaherty (10/05/2013 at 6:50 PM) WND (archived from October 16, 2013).
- ↑ Combat soldiers no match for black mob… Police hunt assailants in deadly street attack by Colin Flaherty (10/06/2013 at 12:37 PM) WND (archived from October 24, 2013).
- ↑ Black-on-white beatings leave more dead: Violent 'Knockout Game' becoming murderous trend by Colin Flaherty (09/23/2013 at 8:13 PM) WND (archived from December 26, 2014).
- ↑ Black-mob violence destroys U.S. landmark: Hikers, joggers, bikers know better than to traverse famous trail by Colin Flaherty (09/22/2013 at 6:02 PM) WND 9archived from Decmeber 26, 2014).
- ↑ Black mobs plague nightclubs coast to coast: 'Very hostile crowd – people saying things like, you know, 'shoot the cops (11/17/2013 at 3:03 PM) WND (archived from December 26, 2014).
- ↑ Surprise! Media finally wake up to Knockout Game: 'It's only new if you have been aggressively ignoring the epidemic of black mob violence' by Colin Flaherty (11/19/2013 at 8:35 PM) WND (archived from December 24, 2014).
- ↑ Whistleblower: Black-mob violence flooding Philadelphia: 'Punching, stealing cell phones, laughing at the victims, fighting, assaulting police' (11/21/2013 at 8:41 PM) WND (archived from October 2, 2014).
- ↑ 'White Girl Bleed a Lot' – $4.95 today only!: Sensational exposé documents growing racial violence throughout America – and media denial! (November 11, 2011) WND (archived from November 16, 2011).
- ↑ Google accuses WND of 'hate speech': Cites use of 'black mobs' in coverage of racial attacks (02/17/2014 at 7:55 PM) WND (archived from May 4 2014).
- ↑ "Playing the Supercomputer Game" (in en-US). 2003-05-27.
- ↑ "Sony's High-Tech Playstation2 Will Require Military Export License" (in en-US). 2000-04-17.
- ↑ Hay, Jeremy (2001-04-01). "Fun and War Games" (in en-US).
- ↑ "Mercedes-Benz Investigates How Its Cars Surface in North Korea Despite Ban" (in en). Voice of America. 2024-01-05.
- ↑ "PlayStation 2 exports to be restricted – again" (in en).
- ↑ "AFRL to hold ribbon cutting for Condor supercomputer". The Official Web Site of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. November 17, 2010.
- ↑ Savage: Norway Terrorist Attacks A Left-Wing Conspiracy, RightWingWatch. Original on WND has been blanked, with just the title left.
- ↑ Soy is making kids 'gay' by Tm Rutz (12/12/2006 at 1:00 AM) WND (archived from September 22, 2012).
- ↑ Will Obama build a Death Star next? White House urged to construct 'Star Wars' space battle station by Joe Kovacs (12/03/2012 at 8:35 PM) WND (archived from February 7, 2013).
- ↑ Will Obama not leave office after 2016? Fear stoked that president will violate constitutional term limit by Kathy Shaidle (02/11/2014 at 2:00 PM) WND (archived from May 4, 2014).
- ↑ Expect more Sandy Hooks, not fewer. Exclusive: Joseph Farah declares, 'No amount of gun control can save us from ourselves' by Joseph Farah (12/16/2012 at 5:05 PM) WND (archived from February 20, 2013).
- ↑ Peter Popoff Ministries Visits Washington, DC by PRLog (August 30, 2013 at 11:41 AM EDT) WND (archived from November 13, 2013).
- ↑ Speechless Hussein trembled, struggled: The details of Saddam's non-heroic final hour (12/30/2006 at 12:48 PM) WND (archived from October 18, 2013).
- ↑ Bomb Mecca off the face of the earth: Burt Prelutsky says Islamists 'have been asking for it for over 1,400 years' by Burt Prelutsky (11/19/2015 at 7:55 PM) WND (archived from December 22, 2015).
- ↑ Devil looks like Obama in 'The Bible': Twitter explodes during airing of latest episode of miniseries by Joe Kovacs (03/18/2013 at 9:49 AM) WND (archived from June 3, 2013).
- ↑ Jumpin' Beelzebub! Obama buzzed by fly… again: Prez has repeat encounter of the insect kind while praising 'gay' marriage (06/26/2015 at 3:37 PM) WND (archived from July 30, 2015).
- ↑ Video: Is this a 'demon' racing in front of Obama? Bizarre mystery caught on camera has some guessing (08/04/2015 at 7:00 PM0 WND (archived from September 72, 2015).
- ↑ The David Barton controversy: Christian critics challenge WallBuilders president on America's founders by Thomas Kidd (Aug. 10, 2012 at 4:08 AM) World (archived from September 28, 2012).
- ↑ And the Worst Book of History Is… by Jennifer Schuessler (July 16, 2012 4:00 pm) The New York Times.
- ↑ Anatomy of an American Book Banning: How New York Times bestseller was resurrected after falling casualty to political correctness by Michael Thompson (12/17/2015 at 9:12 PM) WND (archived from December 23, 2015).
- ↑ Media neutrality and open-mindedness by Joseph Farah (May 06, 2010; 1:00 am Eastern) WND (archived from July 10, 2010).
- ↑ Organizing Against WorldNetDaily by Jon Henke (08/31/2009 - 11:57) The Next Right (archived from September 18, 2009).
- ↑ The RNC responds, but will not distance itself from WorldNetDaily by Jon Henke (09/02/2009 - 17:51) The Next Right (archived from September 19, 2009).
- ↑ WorldNetDaily, the RNC, and the mainstreaming of extremist ideas by David Neiwert (9/09/09 2:00pm) Crooks and Liars.
- ↑ 97.0 97.1 Inside the spectacular fall of the granddaddy of right-wing conspiracy sites by Manuel Roig-Franzia (April 2, 2019 at 1:26 PM) The Washington Post.
- ↑ Joseph Farah WND. See nearly every editorial Farah has written since 2016.
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