Topic: WorldNetDaily
So WorldNetDaily's Joseph Farah has been selected to be moderator for a Sept. 17 "Values Voter" Republican presidential debate, as a Sept. 3 WND article announced. Even though Farah is, for all intents and purposes, a conservative, and the list of "America's leaders" that will supply questions -- Paul Weyrich, Phyllis Schlafly, Don Wildmon, Judge Roy Moore, Rick Scarborough, and Mat Staver (listed as being with "Liberty Council") -- are conservative, and the "Values Voters' Contract with Congress" forwarded by debate promoters is unapolegically conservative, the word "conservative" appears nowhere in the WND article announcing Farah's participation.
The article forwards the usual self-promotional blather about Farah, the . What's missing is Farah's real journalistic record:
- The circulation at the Sacramento Union, which Farah edited and tried to drag in a more conservative direction for 15 months in the early 1990s, plunged nearly 30 percent during that time, helping to hasten the paper's demise as a daily newspaper.
- The organization he founded after leaving the Union, the Western Journalism Center, accepted $330,000 from foundations controlled by Richard Mellon Scaife. WND was originally created as a division of the Western Journallism Center.
- As a reporter, Farah has demonstrated a willingness to lie to advance his (conservative) political agenda and has plagiarized the work of others.
- WorldNetDaily routinely violates journalistic ethics standards by not disclosing personal and business interests in the subjects it covers.
The "Values Voter" folks must be proud. Then again, the debate organizer is Faith2Action's Janet Folger, who has her own checkered record on telling the truth. As we've documented, Folger has repeatedly misled readers about incidents in order to promote her anti-gay agenda, and has even invoked the "research" of a neo-Nazi racist.
These are the values of the people behind the "Values Voter" debate. Are conservatives really comfortable with that?
