Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily gets quite devoted to the counterfactual when it suits its right-wing agenda -- like promoting right-wing victimhood.
An Oct. 1 WND article by Bob Unruh highlighted how Operation Rescue leader Troy Newman "has been detained in Australia based on 'false accusations' from a member of the nation’s parliament." The article is another one-source wonder from Unruh, quoting only Operation Rescue employee Cheryl Sullenger defending Newman:
The reason for the detention apparently, Sullenger said, was a letter from Terri Butler, an abortion-promoting member of parliament, who accused Newman of being an “extremist” and of arguing that abortionists should be “executed.”
“Newman has never advocated violence against abortion providers or facilities and has instead adamantly encouraged pro-life activists to work through the legal, legislative, and justice systems to bring abortionists who are breaking the law and harming women to justice,” Sullenger wrote.[...]
OR said the pro-abortion politicians “falsely” accused Newman of “advocating the execution of abortion providers, which [Australian Minister of immigration Peter] Dutton never bothered to fact-check.”
[...]
“Troy has been treated like a criminal even though he has never been convicted of a crime and is being detained and deported based solely on his religious and pro-life beliefs that are opposed by certain abortion lackeys in the Australian government,” said Sullenger. “This is unjust and as a representative of Operation Rescue, I demand his immediate release and an apology from Minister Dutton for the trouble he has caused by acquiescing to false accusations of those who oppose Newman’s pro-life stance.”
Curiously, Unruh never actually quotes from the letter by Butler, and Sullenger also fails to mention its contents. Presumably, that's because they both know that the facts don't make Newman look good and, contrary to Sullenger's claim, no fact-checking is necessary.
In her letter -- a copy of which is ironically posted at Operation Rescue -- Butler quotes from Newman's book "Their Blood Cries Out," in which Newman (and co-author Sullenger) did, in fact, call for abortion providers to be executed:
In addition to our personal guilt in abortion, the United States government has abrogated its responsibility to properly deal with the blood-guilty. This responsibility rightly involves executing convicted murderers, including abortionists, for their crimes in order to expunge bloodguilt from the land and people. Instead, the act of abortion has been elevated to a “God-given right” and the abortionists canonized as saints. Consequently, the entire nation has the blood-red stain of the lives of the innocent upon its head.
In a folow-up article later the same day reporting that news that Newman had been expelled from Australia, Unruh again uncritically repeated Sullenger's claim that Newman was the victim of "false allegations," again talked to nobody but Sullenger, and again refused to quote from the Newman book in which he did indeed call for abortion providers to be executed.
Meanwhile, over at the Operation Rescue, Sullenger and crew are spinning even harder to deflect attention from what Newman (and Sullenger) actually wrote:
Newman has never supported violence against abortion providers and statements from a book co-written by Newman have been taken out of context in order to twist the meaning to one that was never intended in the context of the book. Newman’s remarks were in the context of a theological study of a government’s ability to institute capital punishment, and was never in advocation of violent acts against anyone. What was never mentioned by Newman’s detractors was that the book also explained that in addition to judgement is mercy, and the ability to receive repentance, forgiveness, and restoration through Jesus Christ.
Note that this explanation does not provide the name of the book (which, by the way, is for sale elsewhere on Operation Rescue's website), the name of Newman's co-author (Sullenger) or any direct quote of the actual words from the book. That's the sign of an organization with something to hide.
Operation Rescue's insistence that Newman is being taking out of context doesn't really help him -- he may want abortion providers legally executed, but the fact remains that execution is still at the top of the list for dealing with these people. Indeed, he states that "lawful execution" of abortion providers "is commanded by God in Scripture."
And as Right Wing Watch states in a review of the book, Newman repeatedly uses violent and hostile imagery that is anything but moderate. For instance, Newman uses numerous passages in the book likening abortion doctor George Tiller -- murdered by Scott Roeder, who had connections to Operation Rescue -- to Hitler, argues that women who have abortions are guilty of murder and suggests they should be executed like the abortion doctors, declares that "The argument can logically be made that abortion is a sacrifice to demons," and declares that 9/11 and AIDS were God's warnings about abortion.
Newman, Sullenger and Operation Rescue really can't explain Newman's unambiguous words away. But Bob Unruh and WND are sure doing their best to try.
