WorldNutDaily's Farah: "Admittedly, we publish some misinformation by columnists"

[Keith Bee]

I urge you all to read the entirety of this takedown of a batshit birther by Salon's Justin Elliot.

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/04/11/joseph_farah_wnd_misinformation

Earlier today, I wrote a piece about the falsehood being perpetuated by Donald Trump that Barack Obama has spent $2 million on legal fees fighting Birther lawsuits.

Trump's claim was based on a series of stories on the right-wing and Birther news outlet, WorldNetDaily. I emailed WND editor and CEO Joseph Farah 90 minutes before my story was published to ask if he thought Trump's comments were accurate, and whether WND had evidence to back it up. After my piece came out, Farah angrily emailed me to take issue with my characterization of WND as "a discredited birther website." Our subsequent email exchange -- in which Farah acknowledged that WND publishes "some misinformation by columnists," which he claimed all opinion journals do -- is telling for what it says about the standards of one of the most influential news websites on the right.

The exchange started with Farah calling me a "smear merchant" and writing: "I notice you don’t bother to cite how WND has been discredited. That’s certainly excellent reporting on your part."

Now, WorldNetDaily regularly publishes falsehoods (e.g. about Obama's birthplace) and wild conspiracy theories (e.g. about Democratic plans to create concentration camps) that have earned the site criticism even on the right. The organizers of the Conservative Political Action Conference, for example, rejected Farah's request to host a Birther panel at the annual event in 2009. That said, WND is influential. Its stories regularly find their way onto the big cable channels (Trump's "$2 million" claim is a good example) and even get picked up by members of Congress.

[Keith Bee]

1. I feel so lonely right now.....

:cry:

[SteveG]

2. WND = Bircher's and Birther's (nt)

(nt)