Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily's coverage of the Las Vegas massacre took a conspiratorial turn early, and it's staying that way.
WND's Leo Hohmann -- taking a break from his Muslim-hating crusade -- has apparently signed on as the PR person for ISIS, in an Oct. 6 article headlined "5 days after Vegas slaughter, only ISIS offers a narrative":
Despite the persistent claims by the Islamic State that it was behind the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, the Clark County Sheriff’s Office said again Friday it has no evidence of any connection between the killer, Stephen Paddock, and the Islamic terrorist organization.
In fact, a Sheriff’s spokesman said Friday authorities remain unable to tie the shooter to any other person or organization and remain totally baffled on what may have motivated him.
Law enforcement is so devoid of answers, in fact, that the FBI has partnered with Clear Channels, a chain of radio broadcasters, on a project to seek the public’s help in solving the mystery of who or what may have inspired Stephen Craig Paddock to gun down hundreds of country music fans at an outdoor concert on Oct. 1 in Las Vegas.
Aside from his bizarre cheerleading for ISIS, Hohmann gets that last part completely wrong. First, the name is Clear Channel, not Clear Channels. Second, the radio division of Clear Channel renamed itself iHeartRadio in 2014. Third, it's actually the billboard division of the company, named Clear Channel Outdoor, that's helping with the investigation, not the radio division.
As the timeline of the massacre shifts as new information is being discovered, Hohmann's conspiratorial spidey sense just keeps tingling:
- Las vegas shooting probe totally rocked
- Owner of Vegas hotel rejects police timeline of mass shooting
- Stranger by the minute: Vegas 'hero' security guard goes missing
In that last article, Hohmann complained that the sheriff in Las vegas "reportedly barred two conservative, independent journalists from entering the Friday press conference. They said they were stopped from entering by armed officers." Of course, if they're conservative, they're not "independent." One of them,Laura Loomer, is a far-right writer best known not for any journalistic exploits but for interrupting a stage production of "Julius Caesar" to yell "CNN is ISIS!" The other, Mike Tokes is, like Loomer, another alt-right figure more interested in agitprop than anything resembling actual journalism.
Meanwhile, terrible lawyer Larry Klayman discovered Hohmann's earlier article about shooter Stephen Paddock being a "federal agent" because he was a mailman and Defense Department auditor 30 years ago and ran with it in his Oct. 12 column:
I have seen it many times before. An FBI or law-enforcement informant, or some other “politically sensitive person,” commits a crime, and federal, state or local government authorities cover it up. This is the likely scenario in the wake of the Oct. 1, 2017, massacre in Las Vegas, perpetrated by an alleged mysterious man named Stephen Paddock.
[...]
If I had to guess, given just the few examples of government deceit detailed in this column, I would say that Paddock was in some way an informant or working for the local police and/or the FBI. Given that Las Vegas is a “Mafia haven” for the gambling industry, and since Paddock was a gambler who frequented high-end casinos and wagered large sums of money – rubbing shoulders with other gamblers and likely Mafia figures – could it be that he was doing undercover work for law enforcement? And, if this is so, there would indeed be a strong motive for the local police or the FBI not to want it known that one of theirs committed the biggest mass murder of its kind in American history.
Also, we know that Paddock worked for three different federal agencies during his career – the Postal Service, IRS and Defense Department – so he would have been a man known to the feds.
We at Freedom Watch are moving forward to investigate this likely cover-up.
Klayman clearly has too much invested in the conspiracy theories to give it up -- as does the rest of WND.
