Topic: WorldNetDaily
We've detailed how WorldNetDaily uncritically reported allegations made by litigious Obama birth certificate obsessive Orly Taitz against her former webmaster while making little effort to allow that person to respond to the charges -- even though the response was on the person's website for the taking.
We've also noted that a complaint has been filed against Taitz with the California bar, accusing her of unethical behavior and making false and misleading claims in court filings.
It's been three weeks since both the complaint and the webmaster issue first became public -- and WND still has yet to tell the full story on them.
Here's something else that we don't expect WND to write about anytime soon -- a intra-birther war.
Philip Berg, who filed some of the earliest legal actions over the birth certificate -- which WND first endeavored to shoot down until it decided that Berg's legal actions served its anti-Obama agenda -- has filed a lawsuit against Taitz, accusing her and various associates of "harrassing" Berg and fellow plaintiffs (among them Taitz's former webmaster), and filing "falsified police and law enforcement reports" regarding her claims against the former webmaster. Berg notes in his filing that "Taitz is no stranger to falsifying stories and falsely claiming to be the victim of 'hacking' of her websites" and accuses Taitz of plagiarizing the briefs he filed in his birth certificate-related actions for her own filings.
Berg also claims that an investigator working for Taitz dug up alleged information about an employee of Berg's and "sent the information to Taitz and a reporter with World Net Daily" complete with the employee's full Social Security number, which neither the investigator nor Taitz had "permissible purpose to obtain."
Berg seeks a judgment against Taitz and the other defendants of $432 million (computed as $3,000 for each of the 140,000 emails sent out by Taitz and others containing the employee's Social Security number), plus $11.5 million from each defendent in compensatory and punitive damages. And that's just for the Social Security number disclosure; there are also specific slander, libel, invasion of privacy, harassmentand other claims seeking millions more in damages.
We're not taking sides in this battle, since both of them are pursuing a false cause with their nuisance lawsuits. It's worth noting, however, that even though this story broke nearly a week ago, WND has yet to report it -- just like all the other news that makes Taitz look bad. It has, however, found time for a May 9 article by Bob Unruh touting Taitz's claims that "she'll be returning to the high court, this time seeking a petition for the extraordinary writ of mandamus" over the birth certificate.
No mention, of course, of Berg's lawsuit against her, let alone the California bar complaint. And WND has made no further effort to tell the webmaster's side of the story.
Why is WND protecting Ortiz? What relationship do the two have? Important questions -- but since we're dealing with a "news" organization that brazenly lies to the public, questions we won't get answers to anytime soon.
