Joseph Farah's Descent Into Depravity Topic: WorldNetDaily
Joseph Farah writes in his Aug. 14 WorldNetDaily column:
This column is inspired by a commentary by Rush Limbaugh last week.
I’ve written columns like this frequently over the last 20 years, but Rush coined a phrase last week, probably without even realizing it, that says it all: “The descent into depravity.”
He didn’t actually string those words together, but he came close. So I’m going to do it for him today.
[...]
Rush used the word “depraved.” He also described the news item as an example of the way “the descent our culture is taking [us] toward the sewer.” All of this is very accurate.
But we should recognize it for what it is: “The descent into depravity.” Of course ugly, sinful, immoral and repugnant behavior has been going on since Genesis. But today, it’s normal. It’s not even news.
And that’s how a nation, a culture, a society descends into depravity.
Of course, Farah will never tell you about his own descent into depravity. That's because, like any good depraved person, he portrays his depravity as virtue.
For the past five years, Farah and his website have been engaged in the attempted personal destruction of Barack Obama by any means necessary. Farah doesn't care whether what he publishes about Obama is true -- he cares only that it takes down the president. All he has achieved thus far is turning his own website into a laughingstock that no sentient person believes, catering only to an extremely narrow audience of Obama-haters and conspiracy theorists.
Later this month, WND Books is releasing the new anti-Obama book from Aaron Klein, which purports to make a case for impeaching Obama. If it's anything like WND's previous attempt at such a book, it will be slipshod, ridiculously biased, and factually inaccurate.
And even if it's not, Klein's book will carry no weight in the marketplace because it is a product of a WND reporter that is published by WND -- in essence, a vanity publication.
That is the result of Farah's descent into depravity. But Farah will tell you that this is not only virtuous, it's patriotic. And he will tell you that he's the one person who's qualified to lead a "national day of prayer and repentance," all while acting like he has nothing to repent.
Jeffrey also wrote an article about how Levin's book "skyrocketed to No. 1 on the Amazon.com bestseller list for books today, the first day it was available for sale."
MRC chief Brent Bozell wrote a fawning column on Levin and his book: "Levin is a Constitutional scholar — and he shines." Bozell adds, "Levin is a consequential man, and this is a consequential book."
NewsBusters promoted David Limbaugh's column on Levin's book -- fawning, of course -- to its main blog feed.
What the MRC doesn't mention is that for the past several months, it has been paying an undisclosed amount of money to promote the MRC's anti-media initiatives on his radio show.
Is all this promotion for Levin's book a quid pro quo for Levin's promotion of the MRC on the radio? Don't expect the MRC to answer that question.
WND Sidesteps Question of Cruz's Eligibility To Be President Topic: WorldNetDaily
You'd think that with all it has written about Barack Obama's eligibility to be president, WorldNetDaily would be able to make a declarative snap judgment about the eligibility of Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. But it seems WND will punt on the question for now.
An unbylined Aug. 14 WND article highlights how CNN "suddenly is concerned about whether Republican Sen. Ted Cruz would qualify for the Oval Office." After noting that Cruz "was born in Canada to a U.S. citizen mother and a Cuban father," WND adds:
Cruz himself says he qualifies as a natural-born citizen because he’s a citizen by birth.
But those opinions assume that the authors of the Constitution used the terms citizen and natural-born citizen interchangeably.
But rather than further examining the question of Cruz's eligibility, WND spends the rest of the lengthy article rehashing discredited claims about Obama's "eligibility" -- even though that's not what the story's about.
Is WND going to apply a different standard to Cruz's eligibility than it has to Obama's? It seems that way.
Noel Sheppard heartily approves of a Missouri rodeo clown mocking President Obama, using an Aug. 14 NewsBusters post to denounce criticism of the clown as a "phony scandal" and touting Rush Limbaugh's "marvelous" commentary on the subject, in which he said, "He's the president of the United States! They get made fun of! They get laughed at all the time!"
But wait -- wasn't Sheppard just a few short days ago saying that elected officials are "deserving of respect," which mocking from a rodeo clown probably doesn't qualify as? Yes, yes he did.
Apparently, in Sheppard's world only conservative politicians are deemed worthy of respect. The rest deserve the rodeo-clown treatment. Some people might call that ridiculous double standard rodeo-clown behavior.
WND Roots For Muslim Brotherhood to Take Out Obama Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily has normally despised the Muslim Brotherhood and regularlysought to portray President Obama as having some sort of sympathy toward or outright ties with it. But apparently the Muslim Brotherhood hates Obama almost as much as WND does, so WND is changing its tune.
In an email promotion for an Aug. 14 article, WND is positively giddy at the prospect of the Muslim Brotherhood taking down Obama, saying, "Finally! There may be something good in connection with the Muslim Brotherhood after all."
The article itself, by Jerome Corsi citing shady self-proclaimed ex-terrorist Walid Shoebat, is not quite as giddy but still seems to push the idea of the Muslim Brotherhood taking out Obama as a good thing.
NEW ARTICLE -- CNS: Spending Money on Gays Is A Waste Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com's effort to uncover supposedly wasteful spending has disproportionately focused on LGBT-related issues -- and, strangely, preventing cancer. Read more >>
WND's Unruh Misleads on Anti-Evolution Video Topic: WorldNetDaily
Surprisingly, Bob Unruh essentially concedes in an Aug. 10 WorldNetDaily article that that evangelist Ray Comfort misleadingly edited interviews with evolutionists in a new anti-evolution video. How so? By depicting Comfort's refusal to release unedited footage of the interviews unless some nebulous goal is reached:
“They are worried, and they’ve got a right to be,” commented Comfort.
“‘Evolution vs. God’ shows that there’s no evidence for Darwinian evolution – that it rests on nothing but blind faith,” he said. “So they are hoping to find some ‘silver bullet’ in what wasn’t used that will discredit the movie. They know that millions are going to end up seeing evolutionary scientists from USC and UCLA gasping like fish out of water, as they try to think of scientific evidence for Darwinian evolution.”
He responded: “American Atheists, Inc. Want to see all the interview footage? Let’s go on TV. Convince me with a good reason to, and I will release it.”
An honest filmmaker would have released the unedited interviews with no quesitons asked, so at least we now know where Comfort lies. If Comfort is so honest, why is he playing games?
But lest anyone think Unruh has suddenly developed enough of a conscience to devote himself to fair and balanced journalism -- trust us, he hasn't -- he threw in this:
Other scientists interviewed are Peter Nonacs of UCLA and Craig Stanford of USC.
Said Nonacs: “I am one of the evolutionary biologists interviewed by Ray Comfort for his new DVD. First, Ray is a charming fellow and I greatly enjoy interacting with him. I do not expect that my words will be edited out of context or that I’ll find myself somehow saying on camera that ‘All of evolutionary biology is a hoax perpetuated in order to justify atheism.’ In short, I expect that everything in the DVD will be an accurate reflection of my words.”
Unruh apparently copied that off a website promoting Comfort's film. But he won't tell that isn't the way Nonacs feels about it now. Nonacs writes in a comment on the American Atheists Facebook page:
Hey, it's me, Peter Nonacs, - one of the stars of Ray's movie although to my great disappointment, I get about 30 seconds of air time, total. But I want to defend Ray from all the abuse being poured on his head. Ray is smart, incredibly funny, unfailingly polite and civil in person. I take him at his word that he is sincere in his beliefs. Maybe. A few years back he actually interviewed me for well over an hour. It was a ton of fun with a lot of great back and forth between us. I think if Ray released that tape, plus the entirety of the interviews he did for this movie, it would actually make for a far better argument for his point of view than what he has done. Like I said, he is smart and a very sharp debater. It is therefore mind-boggling to me that he makes these God awful products instead (oops, there I go blaspheming again. It's off to hell for me, next to Hitler, after I die!). They are so slanted with such ridiculous questions and such clearly biased editing, that they have no chance of making "converts". Thus, I have come to form a new hypothesis. Ray Comfort is a cryptic evolutionary biologist, who's plan is to take down Creationism and ID from within. He will keep making more and more absurd movies that the evolution deniers will trot forth as their best evidence - hastening their ideological death spiral to irrelevance. So, whenever Ray asks, I'll be there to help him with this effort!
Unruh also fails to mention that Comfort himself has admitted he "selectively edited" the interviews in his film, which would seem to discredit him further. As PZ Myers, one of Comfort's interview subjects, points out:
Comfort came to me asking for the evidence for evolution. The way it went is that he would a) ask for evidence, b) I would give him an example (like the research on sticklebacks or bacteria), c) Comfort would raise an irrelevant objection (they’re still fish! They’re still bacteria!), and d) I would explain why his objection was invalid, and how his expectations of the nature of the evidence were wrong. Somehow, though, in the movie (d) always ended up on the cutting room floor, so that he could announce in all of his promotional materials and in the movie itself that I was unable to provide any evidence for evolution.
Unruh may have the occasional spasm of honest reporting, but he's not so honest as to tell the full truth. That's not what WND is paying him to do.
Newsmax, CNS Swallow Dubious Claim of Missile Theft Topic: Newsmax
The ConWeb is pouncing on a story seemingly designed to make the Obama administration look bad over the Benghazi attack:
A May 12 Newsmax article by Cathy Burke repeats how "Beltway lawyer Joe diGenova" said in a radio interview that "400 surface-to-air missiles were 'diverted to Libya' during the attack and fell into 'the hands of some very ugly people.'"
An Aug. 13 CNSNews.com article by Susan Jones echoed diGenova claim that "the real scandal in Benghazi is the theft of 400 surface-to-air missiles" that could be "used to shoot down an airplane or blow up one of our embassies."
Both Newsmax and CNS merely repeated diGenova's claims uncritically. Newsmax followed upwith an Aug. 13 article by Jim Meyers and Kathleen Walter that allowed former congressman Allen West to opine on the subject.
But there are good reasons to question diGenova's story. First, he and his wife, Victoria Toensing, are partisan Republican activists. Second, diGenova himself admitted during the radio interview he had no evidence to back up his claim and some of the evidence isn't "verifiable."
Obama Derangement Syndrome, Larry Klayman Edition Topic: WorldNetDaily
The fact that Larry Klayman titled his Aug. 12 WorldNetDaily column "Obama's Mein Kampf" suggests that the level of Obama derangement contained within would reach toxic levels. And boy, does he deliver, with a side trip to "Clinton death list" nonsense:
Having been caught with his hand in the NSA cookie jar, the “spymaster in chief,” Barack Hussein Obama, shamelessly and deceitfully used his press conference of last Friday to effectively appear to embrace the so-called leaks of whistleblower Edward Snowden – who he obviously would like to see disappear – and conjure up what is not only an opportunistic but also a faux review of the spook agency’s surveillance on over 300 million Americans.
And, after having committed a number of “phony scandals” from Fast and Furious, to Benghazi-gate, to Navy SEAL-gate, to IRS-gate, to Birth Certificate/Eligibility-gate, to now NSA-gate, all of a sudden the neo-national socialist Führer develops a newfound appreciation for the rule of law and respect for our Constitution. How convenient given the boiling caldron of criticism, even from some elements of the left, that Obama now finds himself. In effect, Obama’s subterfuge is nothing more than a clever ruse, taking a page from Hitler prior to his rise to power, to fool the citizenry that it is safe at the hands of his corrupt administration.
[...]
Indeed, during the Clinton years, while Bill and Hillary vociferously disclaimed any role in the deaths of more than 80 key witnesses and others with some involvement in their myriad of scandals, they were happy to have their henchmen leave a list of these dead persons on the office chairs of inconveniently “alive” witnesses like Linda Tripp and other White House whistleblowers, who had the goods on their various crimes. On a smaller scale than Obama’s unbridled massive abuse of government power, this was a not-too-subtle attempt to intimidate and silence them from spilling the beans and providing evidence to send the Clintons to prison, which is where they belong. Outrageously, today, 13 years since the Clintons left the White House, we, the more than 300 million Americans whose confidential communications have been violated by this Muslim megalomaniac, are now the hands-on witnesses of Obama’s attempt to rule and transform the nation as he alone sees fit – by fear. And, we, the American people, are in danger.
[...]
In this regard, perhaps it was Obama’s bigoted remarks after the George Zimmerman trial – where he effectively rejected the jury’s verdict of not guilty with a statement that he could have been Trayvon Martin 35 years ago – that truly unmasked his hateful intentions to make “whitey” and the others pay back “his people” for prior discrimination. And, indeed, this is what is at the heart of NSA-gate; a means to keep whitey and whitey’s allies down as Obama dismantles and deconstructs the nation by having them pay their “fair share” in reparations.
Given these stakes and Obama’s master plan, it is no wonder that the privacy and intimate communications of all of us are now in government hands. Obama and his comrades have made it clear that if we object to and fight against his agenda, we will then pay the price, no matter what disingenuous and deceptive propaganda he attempts to spew to the contrary to lull us again into submission.
With all of the Obama derangement Klayman has spewed over the years, it's a wonder all that bile hasn't killed him yet. Fortunately, between his undisguised hate and his incompetent lawyering, most sentient beings not connected with WND don't take him seriously.
Newsmax's Walsh Fearmongers About Disease-Ridden Immigrants Topic: Newsmax
Immigrant-basher James Walsh is at it again in his Aug. 9 Newsmax column, warning against allegedly filthy illegal immigrants and the alleged "need for medical examinations of illegal aliens applying for 'legalization.'" He goes on to write:
A Kaiser Health News report in 2013 states that although illegal aliens are allegedly denied access to Medicaid, they are receiving medical benefits costing $2 billion a year, and illegal aliens have health problems. For instance, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advise that the rate of tuberculosis (TB) in foreign-born persons in the United States, legally or illegally, is 11.5 times higher than in U.S.-born persons.
On July 22, 2013, The Washington Post reported on the need for TB tests for the students and staff at Robert E. Lee High School in Fairfax County, Virginia. Three cases of TB were reported during the last school year, and pupils and faculty may have been exposed.
Walsh is playing guilt-by-association here. The three cases of TB at the Fairfax County high school have never been publicly identified, so Walsh has no idea whether illegal immigrants are involved.
Further, while Walsh fearmongers about the rate of TB infection in "foreign-born persons," the number of TB cases in the U.S. has been declining for years, falling 40 percent since 2000 and declining last year to its lowest number since the 1950s.
Walsh also ignores the fact that while TB once rendered an immigrant "inadmissible" to the U.S., vaccines and antibiotics have largely neutralized the threat of TB infections.
'The Newsroom' Is Right: WND Makes Up Stuff Topic: WorldNetDaily
Joe Kovacs uses an Aug. 12 WorldNetDaily article to channel his employer's displeasure at being depicted in HBO's "The Newsroom" as having published a fabricated story. It includes the usual thin-skinned response from WND chief Joseph Farah:
WND’s real-life CEO Joseph Farah commented on HBO’s targeting of his news agency, saying:
“I don’t watch HBO or subscribe to it because of the way it exploits women with pornographic content and corrupts minds with salacious programming. But I’ve read the description of this episode of ‘The Newsroom,’ and have the following comments based on that: Too many Americans are getting their news and opinions from purely entertainment shows today. And HBO is apparently attempting to jaundice people’s opinions of the first and largest independent Internet news agency with episode 5 of the second season of ‘The Newsroom,’ which mischaracterizes WND in a subplot that dominates a third of the show.
“But here’s the irony of ironies: Here’s a TV show about a fake newsroom accusing a real newsroom of making up stories. Hello? I’ve spent my entire life actually working in real newsrooms, leading them, directing them, doing actual reporting – not playing a reporter or editor on TV. WND’s actual newsroom is comprised of actual journalists who have worked in actual newsrooms for most of their lives. They don’t make up stories.
“I’ll have more comment when I have a chance to watch the episode. First, I will make sure no innocent children are around, as is necessary with most HBO programming. But this is clearly an attempt to smear our work. Why? Presumably the motive has to do with our effectiveness. We must be hitting a nerve in the corporate boardrooms of HBO or in the fertile imaginations of the morally bankrupt writers of ‘The Newsroom.’
“I suggest people read WND and make up their own minds about it.”
But "The Newsroom" is right -- WND has fabricated stories. Farah's own admission that WND publishes "misinformation" -- a notable portion of which is generated by Farah himself -- is just the beginning. Here's a sample of WND's bogus reporting over the years:
In 2001, WND was sued for defamation by a Tennessee auto dealer whom WND accused of being a "suspected drug dealer" in a series of articles in 2000 designed to smear Al Gore's presidential run. After fighting the lawsuit for seven years -- during which time it admitted that it did not fact-check the claims made in the articles before publishing them -- WND abruptly settled out of court a few weeks before the case was to go to trial, finally admitting that "no witness verifies the truth of what the witnesses are reported by authors to have stated" and "no document has been discovered that provides any verification that the statements written were true.
In 2005, WND treated as real an April Fool's story on the website Gawker that CBS was rushing into production a TV movie about the Terri Schiavo case after buying the rights to the story from her husband.
WND was forced to retract a 2004 article by Aaron Klein that falsely linked the charity Islamic Relief to terrorism and suggested that it was raising money for orphans that don't exist.
WND hyped a "Kenyan birth certificate" for Barack Obama, claiming that "WND was able to obtain other birth certificates from Kenya for purposes of comparison, and the form of the documents appear to be identical" but making no other apparent effort at verification. Nevertheless, WND defended the document's veracity for a few days -- until admitting that the certificate is "probably not authentic," according to "WND's investigative operatives in Africa."
Last year, WND's Jerome Corsi reported -- citing discredited filmmaker Joel Gilbert -- that a ring Obama wears says "There is no god except Allah" in Arabic. Even Corsi's fellow birthers rushed to discredit that claim.
WND went on to claim that "more dirt was thrown on WND" when one character on "The Newsroom" noted, “Keeping in mind that WorldNetDaily reported that Obama murdered his gay lover.” But WND has done that by indulging in (anonymous, unsubstantiated) rumors that Obama is gay and that "three Trinity United Church openly professed homosexuals [were] brutally killed in yet-unsolved murders that occurred within a 40-day time span between November and December 2007, as Obama's handlers were preparing to take his presidential campaign to the national stage" -- essentially suggesting that Obama played a role in having them killed.
It seems that if Farah and WND were planning to sue HBO and the producers of "The Newsroom" for libel or defamation, they really don't have a case since enough of what the show portrayed is true.
NewsBusters' Double Standard on Respect for Elected Officials Topic: NewsBusters
Noel Sheppard grumbles in an Aug. 11 NewsBusters post that far-right Republican Rep. Steve King -- who ranted for Newsmax about illegal immigrants being drug runners with calves the size of cantaloupes -- appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" "to have host David Gregory, so-called Republican strategist Ana Navarro, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, and former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson (D) attack him for his immigration views." Sheppard huffed: "Now, regardless of what one thinks of the statements King made in July, he is still an elected official in this nation deserving of respect."
First, it can be argued that "Meet the Press" was merely following the template of Fox News, which regularly drowns out liberal opinion with shouting conservatives. In fact, Fox has an entire show based on the concept of a single liberal being shouted down by four conservatives.
Second, has Sheppard forgotten that his boss, Brent Bozell, wasn't exactly showing respect to President Obama when he likened him to a "skinny ghetto crackhead"? Sheppard might want to have a chat with Bozell before he makes this claim again.
Third, notice how Sheppard pivots from what King actually said to insisting he deserves respect no matter how crazy he sounds. Does Sheppard really believe that a Democrat who said crazy things should be treated with the same amount of respect he demands for King? Somehow we doubt it.
Also note Sheppard's attempt to Heather Ana Navarro by calling her a "so-called Republican strategist." He goes on to whine that "because of her regular disparagement of conservatives, she's now become a very popular guest on political talk shows."
Aaron Klein Anonymous Source Watch Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily's Aaron Klein has long hidden behind independently unverifiable anonymous sources to launch attacks on his political enemies. Here are some of the latest examples of Klein's anonymously sourced work:
A July 21 article claimed that "The Obama administration has quietly presented a plan in which the Palestinian Authority and Jordan will receive sovereignty over the Temple Mount while Israel will retain the land below the Western Wall," citing "a senior PA negotiator."
A July 22 article claimed that "A European Union boycott of financial dealings with Jews in the biblical West Bank, Golan Heights and eastern Jerusalem was fully coordinated with the Obama administration," citing "a senior Palestinian negotiator."
An Aug. 1 article claimed "The Obama administration is working behind the scenes in tandem with the European Union’s boycott of Israeli settlements, tying the seriousness of the EU’s future ban to the Jewish state’s actions during current U.S.-brokered talks with the Palestinians," citing "a senior Palestinian negotiator."
An Aug. 3 article claimed that "The current al-Qaida terrorist plot against U.S. and Western targets is a direct result of U.S.-supported efforts currently underway to purge al-Qaida affiliates from the ranks of the Syrian rebels," citing "informed Middle Eastern security sources."
An Aug. 6 article claimed "American compounds in Saudi Arabia and Egypt are now on high alert after the U.S. passed along information to both countries about credible al-Qaida threats," citing "an informed Middle Eastern security official."
As always, Klein offers no evidence why anyone should trust his "senior" and "informed" anonymous sources.
Huma Abedin Derangement Syndrome Topic: Accuracy in Media
In 1996, Huma Abedin became a White House intern working for first lady Hillary Clinton. They formed a close bond resulting in Abedin becoming Clinton’s chief of staff during her 2008 presidential campaign run and her top staffer and adviser when Clinton became secretary of State in 2009.
Having ties to Islamic extremist influences, Abedin should have been thoroughly investigated for a position requiring a high-level security clearance. But, again, inexplicably, she was cleared with minimal vetting.
Abedin married Weiner, who is a Jew, in July 2010. Interestingly, while Islam permits Muslim men to take non-Muslim spouses, it prohibits Muslim women from doing so. Thus, such a union should have generated outrage from a Muslim world prone to lash out over anything. But strangely, nothing was heard — not even from Abedin’s Islamist mother.
[...]
With Clinton’s departure from State, Abedin may only temporarily be out of the classified information loop. Standing by her man may well be driven by her desire to get back into it, hitching a ride either on Clinton’s 2016 presidential bid train or the constantly derailing Weiner train she still hopes may lead to higher office.
But that desire may well be Muslim Brotherhood-driven.
-- James G. Zumwalt, Aug. 8 Accuracy in Media column
WND Still Tell The Truth About Ex-Marine's Anti-Government Postings Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily devoted an Aug. 3 WorldNetDaily article to the case of a former Marine, Brandon Raub, detained for "controversial song lyrics and political views posted on his Facebook page," but it still won't tell readers what Raub wrote that got him into trouble.
The unbylined article simply parrots the claims of Raub's attorneys at the right-wing Rutherford Institute that Raub's rights were violated. But WND doesn't quote anybody from Rutherford detailing what Raub wrote.
As we detailed the last time WND conveniently forgot to report all the facts, Raub had posted the line "Sharpen my axe; I'm here to sever heads." from the obscure Canadian hip-hop group Swollen Members. Raub also expressed truther beliefs on his website, as well as other far-right conspiracy theories in a rant that concluded, "WE MUST TAKE OUR REPUBLIC BACK."
But telling the full truth is inconvenient for the the agendas of both WND and the Rutherford Institute, so it goes unreported.
Joseph Farah writes in his Aug. 14 WorldNetDaily column:
The Media Research Center is promoting the heck out of Mark Levin's new book "The Liberty Amendments":
You'd think that with all it has written about Barack Obama's eligibility to be president, WorldNetDaily would be able to make a declarative snap judgment about the eligibility of Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. But it seems WND will punt on the question for now.
Noel Sheppard heartily approves of a Missouri rodeo clown mocking President Obama, using an Aug. 14 NewsBusters 
Surprisingly, Bob Unruh essentially concedes in an Aug. 10 WorldNetDaily 
The ConWeb is pouncing on a story seemingly designed to make the Obama administration look bad over the Benghazi attack:
The fact that Larry Klayman titled his Aug. 12 WorldNetDaily column "
Immigrant-basher 
WorldNetDaily's Aaron Klein 
In 1996, Huma Abedin became a White House intern working for first lady Hillary Clinton. They formed a close bond resulting in Abedin becoming Clinton’s chief of staff during her 2008 presidential campaign run and her top staffer and adviser when Clinton became secretary of State in 2009.
WorldNetDaily devoted an Aug. 3 WorldNetDaily 
