Topic: WorldNetDaily
A Jan. 20 WorldNetDaily article touts how Rick Santorum has "earned the support of dozens of key conservative leaders around the nation, from Family Talk radio founder James Dobson to Elaine Donnelly of the Center for Military Preparedness."
Missing from that paragraph: WND editor Joseph Farah.
In fact, you don't learn of Farah's endorsement of Santorum until his designated place in the alphabetical list of endorsers at the end of the article. That's an unusual show of restraint on the part of WND, which normally loves to proclaim when any remotely mainstream group takes it remotely seriously.
Of course, if you've been reading Farah's column, you already had a pretty good idea about this.
In his Jan. 15 column, Farah praised the group of evangelicals who met in that secret confab outside of Houston, claiming that "they came together in the spirit of seeking God’s direction – and I think most believe they found it." Farah's column carried a Houston dateline, the biggest giveaway that he was a part of this group.
The next day, Farah penned another column bearing a Houston dateline, again portraying the evangelicals' meeting as "inspiring," this time providing advice to Santorum on how to attract Ron Paul's supporters (embrace his anti-government domestic policy, ignore his statements on foreign policy and his "nonsensical, ostrich-like positions on same-sex marriage").
On Jan. 18, Farah again defended the confab, responding to aWashington Times article suggesting that the meeting "was 'manipulated' to result in an endorsement of Rick Santorum, perhaps to the point of permitting ballot stuffing":
I’m here to tell you the meeting was not manipulated to favor Santorum.
I was invited to participate like anyone else. I had not decided to endorse Rick Santorum to get such an invitation. In fact, I went with a different agenda entirely – deeply skeptical that any consensus for one candidate could be found in a two-day meeting.
I know most of the people who participated. They are honorable people who conducted themselves in an honorable fashion. I don’t know anyone at that meeting who would even think of stuffing ballots. It wouldn’t even be a temptation for them.
It is an insult to everyone present at that meeting to make such a suggestion.[...]
For two days, the gathering on the ranch of Judge Paul Pressler talked about nothing else but religion and politics. Some obviously left the meeting disappointed in the result. But no one should be disappointed in the process – and no dissatisfaction with the process was expressed by any participant.
My congratulations to the organizers of the meeting for calling it and conducting it so honorably. My congratulations also to Rick Santorum for winning the hearts of minds of a group of opinionated people – many of whom did not attend planning to offer him their support.
What does Farah's embrace of Santorum mean for WND? Well, obviously, since Farah believes he's now on a mission from God, we now have the new candidate WND will be biased for.
In WND's case, that means slagging Santorum's opponents. A Jan. 19 article recounts the allegations of Gingrich's second ex-wife, and a Jan. 21 article by Michael Carl claims that "political analysts from at least three think tanks" think Romney is a tax-and-spend liberal.
Still, WND has been strangely low-key about Farah's endorsement. Perhaps they realize that if they say too loudly that the head of a conspiracy-obsessed, birther-driven website chosen a candidate, it wouldn't make that candidate look very good.
