Topic: WorldNetDaily
While Joseph Farah has done publicity for his new book in venues that allow for the possiblity that he might be asked challenging questions (i.e. the radio shows of Thom Hartmann and Jim Bohannon), the print outlets he has chosen thus far appear to be ones where no such threat will occur. Case in point: articles at FrontPageMag and LifeSiteNews.
Farah is particularly self-aggrandizing and obsequious in his May 18 FrontPageMag interview, and interviewer Jamie Glazov swallows it all, tossing only slow softball questions Farah's way. Farah, for his part, sucks up to FrontPageMag operator, concluding by saying, "It was my great pleasure and keep up the great, groundbreaking work at Frontpagemag.com." Surprisingly, though, Farah praises New York Times reporter John Burns for doing "some of the very best reporting" on the Iraq war.
The May 18 LifeSiteNews article by John-Henry Westen, meanwhile, is structured like a regular news article and carries a lot more detail than FrontPageMag, but the only person quoted is Farah, and Westen shows no interest in venturing beyond the WND-authorized view of its history:
Westen wrote that Farah gave the Sacramento Union "a new, decidedly conservative, stance" as its editor, but he didn't note that the paper's circulation plummeted nearly 30 percent during his 15-month tenure. He wrote that Farah "raised $4.5 million" to spin off WND from the Western Journalism Center but didn't note that one of the people he raised that money from is now a fugitive from justice. He quoted Farah on how WND "set up shop in Southern Oregon" without noting WND's links to Oregon-based accused cultmaster Roy Masters.
Westen also quoted Farah saying that as editor of the Sacramento Union, he faced a protest of "17,000 screaming homosexuals demanding my head on a platter." Did Westen fact-check that with anyone? Because that sounds a tad embellished to us.
But then, it seems that if anything, FrontPageMag and LifeSiteNews are even less interested in telling a full, truthful account of things than Farah and WorldNetDaily.
