Topic: WorldNetDaily
Joseph Farah is pretty much obligated to defend Todd Akin -- after all, his WND is publishing Akin's memoir in which he stands by his dumb "legitimate rape" remarks. But Farah has to find new ways to defend the indefensible. He gives it another shot in his July 10 WND column:
I’m not even willing to concede Akin made a gaffe at all in his famous interview in August 2012. Initially I believed so – before I watched it. I was judging Akin on the basis of what others said he said. After watching it over and over again, I’m truly shocked that so much was made of it.
I invite you to watch the relevant part of that interview in context – probably for the first time.It was clear to any objective, thinking person what he was saying. He was not questioning that “rape is rape,” as Barack Obama said in a hastily called press conference the next day. He never suggested that rape victims don’t ever get pregnant, as some headlines charged.
As you see, Farah has taken the approach of not addressing any of the actual words Akin used. No mention of "legitimate rape" -- which seems to presume that a woman is lying about being raped until proven otherwise -- or of Akin's idea that a woman can "shut that whole thing down," which depends on the fallacy that women can actively control her fertility depending on who is having sex with her.
While Akin "never suggested that rape victims don’t ever get pregnant," as Farah wrote, he did say that pregnancy through rape was "really rare," which, again, falsely suggests that woman can active control her fertility. Farah and WND have pretended that long-term stress that can inhibit fertility is the same thing as the sudden, traumatic stress of being raped.
Funny how Farah can declare "It was clear to any objective, thinking person what he was saying" without citing any of the words Akin was saying.
Farah has made this bed by publishing Akin's book, and he is incredibly determined to lie in it. If it means lying about and distorting what Akin actually said, so be it.
