Topic: WorldNetDaily
In a July 16 Q-and-A with the Jerusalem Post, WorldNetDaily's Aaron Klein outlines why he thinks he can continue to get away with using the words of the terrorists he interviews against them -- they're desperate for publicity and too stupid to figure out what he's doing:
How is it they're willing to talk to you if what you're doing is exposing them? Aren't you killing their lobby, in effect?
Maybe that's the way you see it, but they think I'm doing them a favor - and perhaps I am - by giving them a platform from which to explain themselves. I don't analyze what they say; I quote them, and they are very thankful for this.
You say that you might be doing them a favor. In what way? By getting their message out to like-minded brethren?
I don't think that I'm doing them any favor. I'm saying that they want to get their ideology out there, and so maybe they believe that the best way to do it is to have an open microphone.
So, basically, Klein is counting on terrorists being too stupid to figure out what he's doing. Case in point: Klein and John Batchelor's use of a (possibly unwitting) Hamas spokesman to link Barack Obama to a Hamas "endrosement." Klein has never publicly discussed why a Hamas spokesman would 1) talk to American right-wingers who despise Hamas and 2) endorse Obama before a pair of anti-Obama activists who would promote that endorsement as an attack on Obama.
Klein also paints himself as something of an anointed one who must educate people about terrorists:
From my perspective, what I'm doing is trying to educate people on what the war on terrorism is really about. We often embolden terrorists without even realizing it, through policies of evacuation, withdrawal, dialogue and negotiations. The terrorists are very open about the fact that if you evacuate territory, they are going to use that territory to stage further attacks toward your annihilation.
Klein also continues to demonstrate that he has never considered the possibility that he's being spun by the terrorists. After all, as we've previously noted, Osama bin Laden's so-called endorsement of John Kerry in 2004 was actually designed to keep Bush in office. It may even be that the terrorists are using Klein, and the animosity they can count on from him, for their own purposes.
Klein, of course, continues to paint himself as a daring reporter for chatting up terrorists:
Are you not afraid that these terrorists you interview will kidnap or kill you?
I understand that there's danger in what I'm doing. At the same time, if you look at the kidnappings of journalists in the Palestinian areas, you'll note that they were carried out by masked gunmen - not by a particular terrorist interviewed by a reporter. Believe it or not, when you go in, they protect you.
There's a lot more going on here than what Klein has made public -- for instance, how does Klein's willingness to give terrorists anonymity factor in this little game he's playing?
Klein seems content to play this game -- gaining the confidence of terrorists (that's the only reason to give a terrorist anonymity, right?) yet slagging them at every opportunity when they're not watching. It's a game that can last for only so long.
