Topic: WorldNetDaily
The last time we saw John Griffing at WorldNetDaily, it was as a highly biased reporter. Now, Griffing is writing as a columnist, and he's even more biased and shaky with the facts.
Griffing's May 22 WND column is based on the faulty premise that anyone who criticizes vicious right-wing attacks on Muslims is somehow anti-Semitic -- in particular, Facebook trying to put a lid on anti-Muslim extremism. At one point, Griffing bizarrely calls Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg a "Jewish anti-Semite criminal mastermind" and "Darth Vader to George Soros’ Emperor Palpatine" because "The George Soros-funded Poynter Institute was hired by Facebook last year to censor 'fake news.'" Actually, Poynter itself received no Soros-linked funding; a separate Poynter division, the International Fact-Checking Network, received money from Soros' Open Society Foundation.
And here's where Griffing's relationship with the truth breaks down considerably. He adds that "there’s another important fact about Soros that indisputably colors his worldview: He’s a Nazi, and not metaphorically. He’s an actual historical Nazi. Soros helped confiscate the property of Jews during World War II."
Wrong. Soros was a 14-year-old Jew in trying to hide his identity in Nazi-occupied Hungary by posing as the godson of his Christian protector, who had been tasked with inventorying property already confiscated from a Jew who had fled the country.
Griffing also huffed that "1,000 Muslim refugees raped hundreds of women on NYE in Cologne," Germany. In fact, desite that number being accepted as gospel by anti-Muslim activists like Griffing, the truth is that no more than "several dozen men" were involved.
Griffing also defended at length anti-Muslim activist Pamela Geller with disclosing he has published several articles at Geller's website.
Griffing is apparently promoting himself these days as a media consultant; his LinkedIn page declares: "When objectivity and intellectual freedom are increasingly under attack & harder to find in traditional media outlets, it is essential that those who are carrying the torch of freedom are equipped for the task. I equip them." It's clear from his column, though, that Griffing wouldn't know objectivity and fact-checking if they bit him.
