Topic: WorldNetDaily
A Nov. 27 WorldNetDaily article kicks off with an outright lie in the headline: "Santa train takes kids to sexy Victoria's Secret." The article itself doesn't even claim that, though it tries hard to make the purported offense as sinister as possible:
The kids' Santa train at the White Flint shopping mall in Bethesda, Md., is giving the tots an eyeful, taking them past a storefront display of "SEXY" lingerie, according to a consumer who complained to the shopping plaza's owners.
Rebecca McMurry called the situation, "Marketing of Evil, Washington suburban style," after she expressed her concern to the owners of the White Flint Mall, without getting satisfaction. She was referring to "The Marketing of Evil" book by David Kupelian, WND's managing editor, which outlines the campaigns responsible for selling sex and violence agendas to the American public.
"I am shocked! This evening my husband and I visited White Flint Shopping Mall and while strolling through window shopping we were greeted by a sleazy display of near pornographic sado-masochistic sexist mannequins in the display windows of Victoria's Secret," she wrote to Mark Lerner, of Lerner Enterprises, the mall's owner.
"It was bad enough for me to be humiliated by the scene, but what about the children, Mr. Lerner? We watched as the little train carried them by those windows. Is this the image that you want to be projected for your mall?" she wrote.
So, in other words, the "train" never takes children to Victoria's Secret, as the headline claims, but merely past it -- just as it drives past every other store in the mall (at least on the level the train runs on). The article offers no evidence that the Victoria's Secret window displays are "pornographic," "sado-masochistic," or "sexist" as the "shocked" shopper asserts. (Sadly, the photos accompanying the article aren't clear enough for us to determine just how sexy the display is, a helpful service WND used to provide.)
WND also reported a claim from the shopper that "the train starts near the Lord & Taylor store, then moves throughout the mall, passing several times in front of the Victoria's Secret lingerie promotions," without noting that the train also passes several times in front of every other store in the mall. WND offers no evidence to support its suggestion that the train makes a specific point to pass by or linger at Victoria's Secret.
WND editor Joseph Farah lives in the Washington, D.C., area, not all that far from this mall (as do we, which is how we know the truth about the train). Why doesn't he go and investigate for himself?
