The Unrepentant Janet Porter

WorldNetDaily is Obama Hate Central, and WND columnist Janet (Folger) Porter is the perfect embodiment of that hate.

As ConWebWatch detailed, Porter's scare tactics prior to the 2008 election -- she penned a "news report" from just after Obama's inauguration in which "Obama campaign supporters from al-Qaida to Hamas to Hezbollah, to Islamic Jihad and the Muslim Brotherhood, continue to dance in the streets," that "President Obama thanked campaign contributor William Ayers by appointing him as director of Homeland Security," that "The only thing left of the abortion agenda not yet accomplished is the forced abortion policy of China" -- didn't work. After Barack Obama decisively won the election, Porter immediately embraced discredited conspiracy theories about Obama's birth, and she began to use her group, Faith2Action, increasingly for anti-Obama purposes.

Since then, Porter has continued to use Faith2Action for anti-Obama political activism without an explanation as to how that jibes with its declared mission to "win the cultural war together for life, liberty, and the family" and despite continuing to declare at the bottom of her column that her identification as president of Faith2Action "for identification purposes only." In practice, there is no difference between Janet Porter the Obama-hater and Janet Porter the head of Faith2Action.

As 2009 wore on, Porter used her WND column to hurl falsehood after falsehood at Obama, his administration and his policies:

• Porter repeatedly lied about the bill that added hate-crimes protection for gays. In an April 28, 2009, column, she falsely claimed that the bill "specifically targets anyone who dissents to the homosexual agenda as aiding in the commission of a crime, making them 'punishable as a principal.'" In fact, the bill specifically exempts "expressive conduct protected from legal prohibition by, or any activities protected by the Constitution," which would include the First Amendment protection for freedom of religion. In her May 12, 2009, column, Porter falsely claimed the bill protects those who fall under "the American Psychiatric Association's list of 547 sexual deviancies, which includes pedophilia." In fact, as the Minnesota Independent summed it up, "pedophilia is not considered a sexual orientation, a disability or a gender identity, and is instead a criminal act." Further, the Americans with Disabilities Act already excludes pedophilia as a disability, thereby precluding protection for pedophiles from the hate crimes bill. Amazingly, WND tried to legitimize this false claim by putting it in "news" article.
• Porter's June 9, 2009, column repeated the false claim that the hate-crimes bill will provide "elevated protection to hundreds of sexual deviances, including pedophilia," then embraced the conspiracy that only "Republican" Chrysler dealerships were closed when Chrysler filed for bankruptcy. As ConWebWatch has detailed, car dealers as a whole overwhelmingly support Republicans, so it's no surprise that the closing dealers would be mostly Republican as well.
• In her July 21, 2009, column, Porter falsely claimed that health care reform would mean "jail sentences for those who seek treatment outside the socialized health care system." That's an apparent reference to an Investor's Business Daily editorial claiming that the health reform bill contains "a provision making individual private medical insurance illegal." It doesn't. Porter also writes: "Even the Mayo Clinic, which Obama touted as the health care model, said, '… the proposed legislation misses the opportunity to help create higher-quality, more affordable health care for patients. In fact, it will do the opposite.' Duh." In fact, the Mayo Clinic did not criticize Obama's approach to health care reform; rather it criticized the House reform bill for not including "a fundamental lever -- a change in Medicare payment policy -- to help drive necessary improvements in American health care" -- a reform Obama supports.
• Porter's Sept. 8 column asserted that John Holdren, the administration's science czar, "wants forced abortions" and "forced sterilization." In fact, Holdren has never "advocated" those things; rather, he co-wrote a textbook noting such things had been discussed. PolitiFact has identified this claim as a "pants on fire" lie.
• Porter's Oct. 20 column began by declaring the Obama administration to be "downright evil," then moved on to lying about administration official Anita Dunn, asserting that Dunn "says Mao Zedong as one of the two people she turns to most." In fact, Dunn said that Mao and Mother Teresa are "the two people that I turn to most to basically deliver a simple point, which is, you're going to make choices." Porter also claimed that Dunn "told the Dominican government that she and the Obama campaign 'absolutely control[ed]' the media. They control what's reported and how." Actually, Dunn was talking about the campaign managing media coverage of Obama, which every major political campaign attempts to do. Porter also wrote of the Obama White House's attacks on Fox News: "They don't like that Fox News standard of: 'We report, you decide.' No, they want it to be "You report what we decide." Of course, the Bush White House similarly pushed back against news coverage it didn't like as well -- primarily targeting the New York Times -- but Porter didn't mention that.
• Porter even falsely attacked Al Gore in her Dec. 8 column, claiming that he said in his documentary "An Inconvenient Truth that "The polar ice caps will melt sending 20-plus-foot flood waves into coastal cities worldwide." Porter added: "The problem with Gore's theory, as explained by another guest on my F2A program yesterday, is something called the 'Archimedes Principle: when a less dense solid like ice melts in a liquid like water, the liquid level drops.'" But Gore didn't claim what Porter claims he did. He was speaking specifically about ice shelfs in Antarctica and Greenland, which sit on land. If they were to melt or slide off the land into the sea, they would indeed contribute to rising sea levels since they would be an addition to the sea and not merely displacing ice with water.

Porter also popped up in WND's birther video, "A Question of Eligibility," peddling the false suggestion that Obama could not have visited Pakistan in 1981 on an American passport. In fact, as ConWebWatch detailed, Americans could have easily visited Pakistan on a U.S. passport at that time.

WND and Porter's Faith2Action teamed up for various anti-Obama promotions. One effort charged people $10.95 to send letters to all 100 senators opposing the hate-crime bill, "The Pedophile Protection Act." One can presume that activism based on an easily disprovable lie would be utterly ineffective, thus wasting the money of those being fleeced for the privilege.

This was followed by an effort to get people to shell out $29.95 -- "a remarkably low price based on economies of scale" -- to send "pink slip" notices to every member of Congress. But the "pink slip" substitutes false and misleading right-wing talking points for facts. The "pink slip" essentially threatened any member of Congress who would vote for "government health care," "cap and trade," "hate crimes" legislation and "any more spending" by asserting, "If you vote for any of these, your real pick slip will be issued in the next election." The argument against a federal hate-crimes bill that protects gays (which is the actual, unspoken issue here) is stated: "It protects pedophiles and sends pastors to prison for biblical positions and speech!" As noted above, that's a lie.

Related articles on ConWebWatch: Scaring Grandma Freshly Brewed Smears Faith2Hate People of the Lie WorldNetDaily's Obama Birth Certificate Lies Birthers Gone Wild: The Video

The case against "government health care" includes that "it has tax-funded abortion, rationing and euthanasia." The claim that health care reform mandates euthanasia (or "death panels") has been repeatedly debunked. As for funding of abortion, anti-abortion activists cite a convoluted path for how this occurs since no proposal at the time offered direct funding for abortion; as a Sept. 21 CNS article summed it up, "the House bills and one of the Senate bills includes language allowing federal funding for private plans that would pay for abortions. Thus, fungible money would allow for indirect funding of abortion." In fact, the final version of the bill contains no funding for abortion beyond those cases currently permitted under the Hyde Amendment.

These kinds of focused (if factually challenged) efforts at activism are not the norm; Porter's animosity toward Obama has mostly led to spew her hate and lies -- and also embrace conspiracy theories.

Porter's Aug. 18 column suggested that those "who refuse to take the potentially paralyzing swine flu vaccination" will be sent to "resettlement and internment camps." As blogger Richard Bartholomew pointed out, both things -- the existence of internment camps, and that Obama will put there anyone who didn't get a swine flu shot -- are baseless conspiracy theories. (WND has been a leading proponent of putting people's lives in danger by scaremongering about swine flu vaccinations.) Porter also fearmongered about the camps a week before: "Internment and confinement are for criminals ... for terrorists. And terrorists, according to DHS, are ... us."

Porter embraced the idea that Obama's speech to schoolchildren in September -- in which he encouraged students to "put your best effort into everything you do" -- was part of a sinister plan to indoctrinate the nation's children. Porter wrote in her Sept. 8 column: "America demanded a rewrite of Obama's speech he is to give to our children today. The indoctrination of the captive audience in public schools was going to be subjected to helping President Obama secure his radical agenda of government take over of health care – but instead of recruiting "Obama Youth," with written pledges, that agenda has been thwarted for another more opportune time – like when people aren't watching as closely." Of course, Porter cannot know if a previous version of Obama's speech ever existed, let alone that it was about "government take over of health care," and thus cannot credibly claim there was a "rewrite." Indeed, to the contrary, the White House stated that the speech was not altered.

Porter's March 23 column was a huge pack of lies in which she repeatedly and shamelessly suggested that President Obama wants to outlaw Christianity. Referring to her upcoming "May Day" rally, she writes, "We will be meeting on May 1 to stand for God at the Lincoln Memorial. But we don't face arrest for it. At least not yet." She later added, "The underground church risked arrest and torture to stand for God in the face of Communist rule. We don't face arrest just yet, but if we don't come to God on bended knee and receive his hand of mercy and rescue, there is no question that we will."

Porter didn't take the recent passage of health care reform well: "Desecrating the Sabbath, Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and her Democratic lynch men in Congress did exactly what they said they'd do when they were voted into office." She ranted that "Bart Stupak has blood on his hands, and he and his cohorts must be removed from office in November." She also claims that Stupak "voted for abortion funding in the health-care bill," adding that "this bill forces us to participate in killing innocent lives with our hard-earned tax money." Porter is lying.

Porter asserted that "Barack Obama, when he took over the car industry, closed only Republican dealerships (or those who supported his Democratic opponents or who gave less than $200 to his campaign)," adding that "he decided that the exceptionally successful Republican car dealerships weren't 'eligible' to remain open." That is a baseless conspiracy theory. Actually, let's call her claim what it is -- a lie.

Porter also insists that "the New England Journal of Medicine predicts a mass exodus of medical providers." That too is a lie.

With such displays of paranoia, it's probably no surprise that during the "Convergence 2010: A Cry to Awaken A Nation" conference in March, Porter prayed to God to take power and influence in the media of this country and of this globe from the unrighteous and give it to righteous people" like, presumably, herself.

Porter ratcheted up the hate and fearmongering in her April 6 column:

Be warned: The government that already controls access to the care you need to save your life has as its next target, already in its sites, the power to control your home's heat and your freedom to travel – all under the coldest "global warming" threat ever manufactured.

After that, be looking for a food shortage – another crisis you can rest assured Obama won't let go to waste. What happens when the government steps in to "rescue" the food industry? I would suggest you ask the survivors of such occurrences in Russia and Germany, but most all of them aren't around, of course. They were starved to death.

In World War II, we faced the National Socialist Party in Germany. Now we face it at home.

Porter's April 13 column endeavored to define "four kinds of people: the evil, the fence-sitters, the rock throwers and those willing to do what it takes to overcome evil with good." It's clear that she believes Obama belongs in the first category. She wants you to think that she's the fourth kind, but she's actually the third. From her description:

The third people group is perhaps the most annoying: They are the rock throwers. They know the difference between right and wrong; they recognize the evil and are familiar with the followers, but have decided to spend their lives throwing rocks at those who are actually doing (or trying to do) something good. ... The rock-throwers' best accomplishment is writing a letter to the editor, not aimed at eradicating evil, but rather, targeting those working for good. There's a plethora of imperfect people, so finding fault is easy and makes the rock-throwers feel better about doing nothing. These people never graduated beyond the junior-high mentality of making fun of the clothes people wear or the way they comb their hair. ... These are the time-wasters whose "work" isn't worth reading or a response.

If there's anyone who's engaged in vicious rock-throwing to no discernible end other than to vent hatred, it's Janet Porter.

Porter's May Day gathering at the Lincoln Memorial claims to have this agenda: "Join with Christian leaders of all denominations who love God to humble ourselves, pray, seek the face of God, and turn from our wicked ways—individually and as a nation." Porter was a little more honest about it in her March 2 column, she wrote that "America is under a curse" -- which she portrays as Obama -- and the goal of the gathering is to break that curse. This was prefaced by her Dec. 29 column, in which she asserted that "America made the choice of death last November."

Will Porter humble herself before God and seek forgiveness for the lies and hate she has spewed against Obama? Or is she so wrapped up in trying to destroy another human being that she has forgotten God?