Topic: WorldNetDaily
A Feb. 16 WorldNetDaily article by Bob Unruh carries the headline "6th-grade porn teachers exposed." That's just one of the many misleading claims in Unruh's article.
The focus of the article is sex education in Croatia and a speech by anti-Kinsey obsessive Judith Reisman given there in opposition to it. As is Unruh's modus operandi, he treats the claims of Reisman and sex education opponents as unassailable while making no effort whatsoever to present balance by telling the other side of the story. Apparently, Unruh believes there is nothing legitimate to say in support of sex education.
Unruh calls Reisman a "preeminent American researcher" -- which anyone familiar with her work knows is simply not true. Reisman is so determined to portray sex researcher Alfred Kinsey as a child-molesting monster that she frequently departs from the facts to further her demonization. Even the consrvative-leaning Canadian newspaper the National Post wrote in a December 2004 editorial: "There is little reason to take Dr. Reisman seriously."
But WND does -- it published one of Reisman's anti-Kinsey books, and WND managing editor David Kupelian has approvingly cited her work in his books.
So, we get treated to the spectacle of Unruh uncritically regurgitating Reisman's hatred of Kinsey and her questionable attacks on him.
What does this have to do with Croatia? According to Unruh, she "told WND one of the authors of the proposed sex curriculum in Croatia, Aleksandar Stulhofer, is linked to Kinsey’s research and the ongoing work of an institute that bears Kinsey’s name."
And where do the "6th-grade porn teachers" come in? That isn't even mentioned until the 30th paragraph of Unruh's article, in which he makes the unsupported claim that "Pornography is taught in the sixth grade" of the sex ed curriculum.
In fact, Unruh quotes only "critics" about the details of the Croatian sex ed program. There's no evidence that he made any effort whatsoevder to contact Croatian education officials for a response to the criticism, like a real journalist would.
While Unruh also fails to note any criticism of Reisman, he does tell us that "She’s been listed in “The World’s Who’s Who of Women.”
Unruh wrote that Reisman "was invited to Croatia to speak," he could not be bothered to ask who invited her. But as Richard Bartholomew notes, she was invited by members of the Croatian Democratic Union, a conservative political party.
Unruh also touts a Croatian journalist whose show was canceled after she did a report on the sex education curriculum, citing a Project Censored report claiming that "The program was well researched, professionally produced and of significant interest to the citizens of Croatia." Well, not so much: That report appeared under the title "Pedophilia as the foundation of sexual education?" and earned the journalist an audience with the Catholic archbishop of Zagreb.
Speaking of which, Unruh is silent about the major role the Catholic Church in Croatia is playing in opposing the sex education program. Church officials there reportedly likened the imposition of the curriculum to Nazi Germany and essentially called for armed action against the state over it.
P.S. Ironically, WND editor Joseph Farah has long denounced Project Censored as being run by people who believe that "the U.S. is now in the grip of a cartel of scary clerics, corporate plutocrats, white men in white hoods and gun-loving, misogynist tree-murderers." Presumably, he backed off a little after the project gave an award to WND's Jerome Corsi for his fearmongering over "NAFTA superhighways."
