Topic: WorldNetDaily
Longtime WorldNetDaily employee Art Moore -- one of the few remaining during WND's current round of near-death experiences -- is one of the few WND writers who puts a byline on his work. That may not be a good thing, given some of the things he has affixed his byline to: doing stenography for a pro-Trump pastor, writing puff pieces on Republican congressman Devin Nunes (whose book WND just happened to publish), and blaming Obama for a bridge collapse. Moore is occasionally capable of actual journalism on occasion when he's allowed, but that's not what Joseph Farah is paying him to do.
Moore's current fixation, though, is right-wing filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza, and his latest pro-Trump, anti-liberal film. Indeed, Moore and D'Souza seem to have a special relationship of some kind.
Moore was touting D'Souza a year ago, uncritically parroting his claim that "hackers" locked D'Souza out of his Facebook page -- a claim that just so happened to coincide with the release of his previous book, "The Big Lie."Moore talked to D'Souza, his publicist and the person who manages D'Souza's Facebook page -- but he gave no indication that he ever contacted Facebook for a response.
When D'Souza's new film, "Death of a Nation," was set for release, Moore was eager to play his PR agent:
- In a July 22 article, Moore highlighted how, "in an interview with WND," D'Souza explained away one of the film's ludicrous likening of President Trump to Abraham Lincoln.
- On July 31, Moore let D'Souza discuss another of the flim's goofy claims, that white nationalists are left-wing. The next day, Moore posted a clip "provided to WND" from the film of D'Souza's interview with white nationalist Richard Spencer to allegedly prove that claim.
- And on Aug. 5, Moore gave D'Souza a platform to rant against the critics of his film, taken from "an interview Sunday with WND."
What you won't find in any of Moore's articles: any effort by him to talk to a D'Souza critic or anyone else who disputes the premises his film forwards. He allows D'Souza to cast his critics as straw men to easily knock down -- for example, Princeton historian Kevin Kruse, who has debunked Twitter D'Souza's assertion that the Republican and Democratic parties did not switch positions on civil rights during the 1960s and also blew up D'Souza's claim that liberal historians are conspiring against him.
That means Moore is writing press releases, not "news" articles.
All this fluffing from Moore is followed by an anonymously written Aug. 6 article trying to spin how badly D'Souza's film did at the box office on its opening weekend -- a paltry $2.3 million on 1,105 screens -- by insisting that "there are still three months to the election." The article also baselessly suggests that a previous D'Souza film attacking Hillary Clinton cost her the 2016 election.
It's also a sign of the times -- as well as the current dire financial situation of WND -- that editor Joseph Farah lent his endorsement to the film: "If Americans see this movie, there is little question they will learn some very uncomfortable facts about the Democratic Party that they will not learn from what we euphemistically call ‘the mainstream media. ... This is a very hard-hitting documentary that exposes the dark underbelly of secrets the Democratic party has carefully guarded for generations. Could it make a difference in 2018? Only if millions see it. And they should. I can tell you they will be glad they did."
Some of Moore's "news" articles contain links to WND's online store, where one can "see D'Souza's works." and that's basically what this is all about: WND desperately trying to monetize D'Souza without regard to facts, and D'Souza enjoying all the free, fluffy publicity.
Or maybe D'Souza is paying for this. WND does need the money, after all.
