Topic: WorldNetDaily
As the Christmas season winds down, let's take a quick look back at how WorldNetDaily tried to profit off of it -- by invoking a certain right-wing snob appeal to draw visitors to its WND Superstore.
A WND article posted on Thanksgiving weekend touting its online store began like this:
Having a great Thanksgiving weekend?
Why ruin it all by driving to the crowded malls?
Instead, sit back home in your old easy chair and start your holiday shopping adventure in an online environment designed just for you – the freedom-loving, God-honoring WND visitor.
There are bargains galore on the best books, best movies and a lot more, including new and expanded departments on jewelry and accessories, bath and body, health and fitness, home and preparedness.
And be sure to check out the new department for your desktop and journals.
The WND Superstore isn’t just a bookstore any more. Now it’s an alternative place to shop for people who are sick and tired of corporate retailers who capitulate to political correctness just like the Big Media they so often support.
If you’re sick and tired of retailers who make their money at Christmas but resent it, maybe it’s time to give the WND Superstore a try. Everything you purchase there supports the pioneer in alternative media – WND, the first news agency created for the New Media.Don’t be part of the problem. Be part of the solution. Make the WND Superstore your first holiday shopping stop this year.
Notice the snob appeal WND is using, trying to position itself as a destination for those who are "an alternative place to shop for people who are sick and tired of corporate retailers who capitulate to political correctness just like the Big Media they so often support." The subtext of "political correctness" here is not hating gays like WND (and, presumably, the company that actually runs WND's online store, REKO Market Direct) does. WND regularly does articles obsessing over companies that refuse to discriminate against gays -- i.e., "THE BIG LIST of 'gayest' companies in America."
And, no, WND is not "the first news agency created for the New Media" -- online-only news agencies existed as early as 1974. That's not even the most ridiculous and demonstrably self-aggrandizement in this little promo; it goes on to tout "Christmas gift recommendations from Joseph and Elizabeth Farah, the couple that launched the New Media."
The promo concludes with a little more snob appeal:
If you haven’t been to the WND Superstore lately, it’s time. There’s a new look, new functionality and lots of new selections – the perfect first stop for the gift buyer with a real social conscience.
And you can rest assured that every penny you spend there will support your values, your beliefs, your principles – and your news.
That sounds like WND is settling for being a niche publication, albeit one for right-wing Christians for whom factual accuracy is a much lower priority than the desperate, false comfort of an echo chamber.
