Topic: WorldNetDaily
The birthers are getting desperate. WorldNetDaily and its proxy in Joe Arpaio's cold case posse, Mike Zullo, have become increasingly annoyed that their motives are being questioned and whining -- falsely -- that their so-called evidence is being ignored.
First up is Zullo, in a July 17 WND article by Art Moore, in which he whines that at that day's dud of a press conference, he was asked about the book on the investigation he co-wrote with WND's Jerome Corsi. Zullo declared that "I’ve made nothing out of that book" -- yet Moore quoted him as saying that he "received a check [for] $700 and another for $630." That apparently doesn't count as making money because "All of that money, he said, went directly to his church." Being the obsequious WND drone he is, Moore not only doesn't challenge Zullo on his blatant lie, doesn't ask the logical question of why the posse, a nonprofit group, shouldn't keep that money. Of course, if he did perform that act of journalism, Moore would also have to ask that very same question of Corsi, his fellow WND employee, and you know that ain't gonna happen.
Moore also quotes Zullo as saying, "Obviously, the information we are bringing forth is becoming very difficult for them to refute." In fact, we cited refutations of Zullo's "information" that were first published before Zullo announced them -- one of them by an organization founded by WND editor Joseph Farah.
The issue is not that Zullo's evidence is "difficult for them to refute," it's that it's difficult for Zullo to admit that it has, in fact, been refuted.
Speaking of Farah, he whined about the same thing in his July 17 column:
After watching the press reaction and “questions” following Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s breathtaking news conference yesterday, I have to tell you I’m embarrassed to call myself a newsman.
If someone asks me what I do for a living, maybe I’ll identify myself as an Internet entrepreneur.Or maybe I’ll say I’m a “writer.”
Or maybe a publisher or businessman.
I never thought it would come to this. Being a newsman was all I ever wanted to be as far back as I can remember. It’s really all I’ve ever done through adulthood. It’s all I really know and love.
But I don’t ever want to be associated with that pack of jackals from Phoenix who jumped all over Arpaio and his investigator, Mike Zullo, for courageously presenting overwhelming evidence – I would even use the term “proof” – that Barack Obama’s birth certificate is fraudulent and that the state of Hawaii is not only a willing accomplice in this scandal but perpetrating an even bigger one as a virtual factory for phony documents giving noncitizens instant citizenship with a stroke of the pen.
Farah is lying, of course. Farah has freely admitted he's "an activist, a crusader" and no longer a journalist. It's unclear why he would be "embarrassed" to be called a "newsman" when he has completely abandoned journalism.
Farah concludes with a bit of false self-aggrandization:
I may not want to associate myself with the media anymore out of sheer humiliation. But I promise you one thing: I’m not going to stop being a real journalist. I’m not going to stop doing what I’ve been doing for 35 years. I’m not going to stop supporting intrepid, independent renegades like the WND team who make me believe there’s still hope for redeeming the media.
If Farah was a "real journalist," he would have disclosed by now the full extent -- including financial -- of WND's ties with Arpaio and the posse. He also have reported how his entire birther crusade has been discredited, but people like John Woodman remain persona non grata at WND.
It seems that the "real journalists" are the ones questioning the motivations and evidence of Zullo and Farah, not the ones who uncritically regurgitate their discredited research, which is what Zullo and Farah want.
