Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily is running to the defense of a former Marine by obscuring the offensive content of the Facebook postings that got him into trouble.
An unbylined May 25 WND article starts ominously:
It happens in China routinely. It frequently happened in the old Soviet Union. Undoubtedly in North Korea, although generally there’s no one around to witness it. But in the United States? It happens here, too, apparently.
A lawsuit has been filed by officials with the Rutherford Institute on behalf of a Marine who was jailed and held for the comments he made on Facebook – comments that expressed a dissatisfaction with the present direction of the U.S. government.According to officials at Rutherford, the civil rights action names as defendants members of law enforcement and the government who were involved in last year’s episode where Marine veteran Brandon Raub, 27, was arrested by a swarm of FBI and Secret Service and forcibly detained in a psychiatric ward for a week.
His crime was posting controversial song lyrics and political views on Facebook, the institute reported.
But the article fails to mention, as the Associated Press did, that one of those "controversial song lyrics" was the line "Sharpen my axe; I'm here to sever heads." That's a line from the obscure Canadian hip-hop group Swollen Members. The rest of the song, "Bring Me Down," also contains lyrics that could be construed as disturbing:
They'll say I'm a killer
I feel I'm as high as I can be
And now they gon' die as high as me
I can't be no realer
Y'all ain't gon' bring me down [3X]
I can't be no realer; y'all ain't gon' bring me down
WND also fails to mention that Raub has expressed truther beliefs on his website -- that the U.S. government was complicit in the 9/11 attacks. According to the AP, one of Raub's Facebook posts pictured the gaping hole in the Pentagon and asked "where's the plane?"
WND selectively quoted from a Raub posting in which he wrote that “The United States was meant to lead the charge against injustice, but through our example not our force. People do not respond to having liberty and freedom forced on them," but made no mention that it's part of a larger rant in which he rails against the Federal Reserve and the income tax and states:
You elected an aristocracy. They are beholden to special interests. They were brainwashed through the Council on Foreign Relations. Your leaders are planning to merge the United States into a one world banking system. They want to put computer chips in you.
These men have evil hearts. They have tricked you into supporting corporate fascism. We gave them the keys to our country. We were not vigilant with our republic.
There is hope. BUT WE MUST TAKE OUR REPUBLIC BACK.
Jerome Corsi performs a similar whitewashing job in a June 11 WND article, claiming that Raub merely made Facebook comments "expressing dissatisfaction with the present direction of the U.S. government." Corsi makes no effort to tell readers what Raub actually said.
Instead, Corsi tries to extrapolate into a larger, unproven claim by Raub's attorney that "The NSA is systematically monitoring the Internet posts and telephone conversations of U.S. military returning from Afghanistan."
Given Raub's disturbing postings, it's easy to see why they raised red flags. Instead, WND would rather protect someone who says such things. But then, they have promoted child abusers and stalkers, so why wouldn't they?
