Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily is facing yet another "existential threat," according to a May 23 article by managing editor David Kupelian. Unfortunately, he doesn't make the best case for saving WND by lying at the very top:
Dear friend of WND,
We are in the middle of a war. No, I’m not talking about the war in the Middle East against our trusted friend and ally, Israel. I’m talking about the war inside America, which, among other things, led to the last two week’s attacks against Israel.
There is a Marxist revolution now exploding in America. That is no exaggeration.
For a reality check, consider that the top-selling books on Amazon right now include “American Marxism” by Mark Levin, currently #9, and “Irresistible Revolution: Marxism's Goal of Conquest & the Unmaking of the American Military” by Matthew Lohmeier, currently #10. (Lohmeier, you’ll recall, is the Space Force officer just ousted for exposing the rampant Marxist indoctrination going on within America’s Armed Forces.) Then there’s David Horowitz’s bestseller, “The Enemy Within: How a Totalitarian Movement is Destroying America,” and so on.
This is real. And let's be totally clear as to what we're really dealing with: What we cryptically refer to as "The Left" – code words for a godless, revolutionary movement steeped in pathological anger and churning rebellion against America as a uniquely blessed Judeo-Christian, constitutional republic – is at war not with “racism” and “inequity” and Trump supporters (whom they label “white supremacists” and “domestic terrorists”), but with America herself.
1) None of this has to do with an "existential threat" at WND. 2) Just because right-wingers are selling books about a purported Marxist threat to gullible readers doesn't mean there actually is a Marxist threat. 3) If anyone is expressing pathological anger, it's Kupelian.
Finally, Kupelian serves up some particulars:
The Southern Poverty Law Center, the wretched leftwing hate group that Big Tech companies rely on to identify hateful extremist organizations (and which the Biden administration just announced it is teaming up with to tackle “extremism”) characterizes WND as an “extremist group.” Apparently, your favorite news site engages in “manipulative fear-mongering and outright fabrications designed to further the paranoid, gay-hating, conspiratorial and apocalyptic visions … from the fringes of the far-right and fundamentalist worlds.” Translation: We’re conservative and Christian.
Kupelian finally gets the SPLC's description of WND correct -- for years, WND had falsely claimed that the SPLC called it a "hate group." (Not that it wouldn't be an accurate description.) And the SPLC's readout that WND is filled with "manipulative fear-mongering and outright fabrications" doesn't need to be translated, and even if it did Kupelian's translation would not be accurate.
A short while ago, WND posted a single video on its YouTube channel defending Trump mega-supporter, “MyPillow guy” Mike Lindell. As a direct consequence, YouTube de-monetized WND’s YouTube channel.
As we've pointed out, the likely real reason YouTube demonitized that video defending Lindell is because it included a clip from the podcast of Steve Bannon, who has been banned by YouTube for making false claims about election fraud.
A few months ago, Newsguard, the internet’s self-appointed guardian of truthful reporting, complained about a WND piece suggesting COVID-19 originated in a biolab, and not from a bat someone purchased to eat at a “wet market.” “Firstly,” Newsguard authoritatively informed us, “medical authorities have found no evidence that the virus was created intentionally or otherwise in a lab,” adding, “the CDC states that its research suggests ‘recent emergence of this virus from an animal reservoir.” Uh huh. Today, virtually all experts (except Dr. Fauci) – including even the CDC – are publicly conceding that the coronavirus pandemic very likely originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the level-4 biolab where dangerous “gain-of-function” research was being conducted on bat viruses, secretly funded by the U.S. taxpayer thanks to Fauci’s approval.
None of which provides proof that the virus was "created intentionally" at the Wuhan lab. Oh, and the U.S. money to an alliance that was working with the Wuhan lab did not go to gain-of-function research.
Three major international online ad companies – TripleLift, AppNexus/Xander and Teads – all recently canceled WND, seriously hurting our revenues. Why? One said we engaged in “hate speech” while another specifically cited an opinion article critical of allowing homosexual couples to adopt children. The way I see it, if WND has to go out of business for affirming such self-evident and vital truths, such as defending the innocence of our nation’s children, then so be it.
It's hard to find a way to twist "hate speech" -- which, again, WND is filled with -- as "defending the innocence of our nation’s children," but Kupelian sure gave it a shot.And, of course, those ad companies are private businesses who can choose who to have as its business partners.
Since last September, Facebook has massively suppressed WND’s traffic on its platform – by up to 90% – by confining us to what is known to insiders as “Facebook Jail.” This really hurts when you have close to a million followers. Why is Facebook doing this? I spent an hour with two Facebook reps to find out, but they could provide neither a reason for the radical suppression of WND, nor any real recourse for us.
Facebook is also a private business and is under no obligation to promote WND's content -- especially given how hateful and error-ridden it is -- or to provide a reason for doing so. Kupelian then ramped up the victimization even more:
Unlike most major news organizations – even many conservative ones – WND doesn’t have a billionaire sugar-daddy pumping money into our operation as needed. We’ve always done it the old-fashioned way, earning our own way. Of course, there’s a good side to that arrangement, since we’re beholden to no one but God. However, because the leftwing elites, Big Tech and cancel culture have made it almost impossible to operate by taking over the internet and suppressing, censoring and canceling truthful news reporting, we’re really struggling right now.
Kupelian seems to have forgotten about the years in which its major funder was Robert Beale -- father of longtime WND columnist Vox Day -- a businessman who later became famous for going on the lam rather than face tax evasion charges, and then threatening a judge. And if WND is only "beholden to no one but God," we have to wonder how it's explaining to the Almighty why it publshes so much false and hateful misinformation. He can't be pleased that WND is doing that in His name.
Then, finally, we got to the sales pitch of Kupelian begging readers to donate to the WND News Center; it's amusing given how often WND has defended tax protesters to see Kupelian make a point of stating that the News Center is "approved and designated by the IRS as a public charity." Of course, Kupelian provided no numbers regarding how much money it needs to get out of its "existential threat," nor did he explain how exactly the money will be spent.
Kupelian made one last pitch: "If you help us, we will be able to boldly report, like no one else, on the tremendous forces of anarchy, insanity and spiritual darkness that are now washing over our beloved republic. Help us push back against the tide of darkness!" Notice that he didn't say anything about telling the truth.
