Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily was quick to run to the defense of Sean Hannity, using a march 19 article to feature a rebuttal of charges by right-wing blogger Debbie Schlussel that Freedom Alliance, a group founded by Oliver North for which Hannity has organized "freedom concert" benefits, is spending little of its revenue on the scholarships it is supposed to fund, with much of the money raised going to expenses such as transportation for Hannity.
What WND doesn't want to talk about, however, is its tangled relationship with Schlussel.
As we've detailed, Schlussel used to be a columnist for WND for a year in the early 2000s, during which time she engaged in some bizarre accusations. This may be the only documented case in which a columnist has proven to be too crazy for WND to publish.
Schlussel has also been critical of WND in general and Aaron Klein in particular, to the point that WND editor Joseph Farah was moved to respond to "an Internet pundit out there in the blogosphere whose name I will not utter" -- Schlussel. Of course, Farah's defense of Klein contained more than a few misleading claims. The ironic thing is, Klein has lifted at least one story idea from Schlussel.
Given WND's long history of non-disclosure of its interests in subjects it writes about, it's not surprising that it wouldn't tell readers about its relationship with Schlussel. And given WND's long reluctance to identify conservatives as conservatives, it's also not surprising that it wouldn't give Schlussel a political label, which is one reason the story has gotten as much traction as it has. Unethical and lazy, perhaps, but not surprising.
