Topic: WorldNetDaily
A Sept. 6 WorldNetDaily article by Drew Zahn carries the false headline, "Dems trash U.S. flags at DNC convention." The article asserts that "Following their national convention in Denver last week, Democratic organizers heaped up thousands of unused U.S. flags, allegedly to throw them away." While Zahn includes a denial from Democratic officials, it falls short of what those officials actually have said, allowing Zahn to portray the allegations as true when they're not.
Zahn claims the story came from "a Denver Post blog" and from Fox News, but doesn't report that it originated with the McCain campaign. As the Huffington Post reports:
"The campaign says the flags were recovered from Invesco Field after the Democrats concluded their convention there," Fox News reported, "and they are going to be used as part of the warm-up ceremonies before McCain takes the stage" for a rally in Colorado Springs, Col.
But according to a senior official involved in organizing the Democratic convention, the McCain camp is simply lying about the flags.
"All of the flags at Invesco were picked up and put in bags and into storage, along with the unused flags and campaign signs. The flags were going to be donated, and the signs were going to be sent out to be used elsewhere," the official said, speaking anonymously since he was not authorized to talk to the press.
Fox News' Carl Cameron and Bonney Kapp reported that they had "been told" that "a vendor at Invesco Field found the flags, which were going to be thrown out, and turned them over to the McCain campaign."
The Democratic convention official says that's not true.
"It's pretty reprehensible on their part," he said. "Someone made an assumption, took the flags, and essentially lied about what was going to happen to them. I mean, c'mon, we were never ever going to throw out flags."
Emails to three McCain spokespersons inquiring where the flags were found and how the McCain campaign obtained them were not returned.
So, it appears someone associated with the McCain campaign stole the flags from the Democrats. Given WND's pro-McCain agenda, don't expect the truth to be told to its readers when a lie reads so much better.
Zahn, by the way, is a WND news editor who also touts himself to be a freelance "author, editor, speaker, guest preacher, and home-educating father of twelve," adding, "Authors, publishers, businesses, and students have benefited from his editing experience." His employment at WND, however, seems to demostrate the low priority Zahn puts on reporting facts -- which is too bad, because a couple weeks ago he wrote an article that actually told a positive fact about Obama that contradicted WND's agenda of lying about Obama. That sort of thing has apparently been beaten out of him between then and now.
