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Breaking News from the Lunatic Fringe
Yesterday when I was skimming Politico, I saw a surprising number of posters refer to the Wall Street Journal as a “right wing rag,” “conservative shill,” or practitioner of “trash journalism.” Now I could point to the New York Post, which once ran a cover story in which it photoshopped the heads of weasels onto UN delegates (U.N. Meets, Weasels to hear new Iraq evidence) or Drudge, where Obama’s every sneeze merits a flashing red link and sirens to show just how cloistered these people must be. But I won’t. Because that’s no fun. Let me introduce World Net Daily.
World Net Daily makes the Washington Times look like Pravda. It features columns by Joseph Farah (the founder), David Limbaugh (brother of you-know-who), and Chuck Norris (no, I’m not joking). I thought about trying to explain WND here but I’ve got exams to do and honestly I could never do it justice, so I’m going to go ahead and share a few recent headlines verbatim:
Resident evil?
What do you think of Census Bureau taking GPS coordinates of your home? –WNDNext on Senate agenda? ‘Pedophile Protection Act’
‘Hate crimes’ law definitions would protect 547 sex ‘philias’ –WNDBillion-dollar drug company discovered cure for cancer…
And told no one! They hid the cure to sell you more drugs –Health Sciences InstituteThe ultimate special report on eligibility
Why millions still demand proof Obama is constitutionally fit for office –WND
I don’t know what more I could say about most of these, but let’s play a game: which of these is not like the others? I’ll spoil it: number three. That’s right, WND mixes ads in with its reporting in the exact same font and format (and seems to make sure they’re on par in craziness for that matter too). People get their news from this website. Let me repeat myself. People get their news. From. THIS SITE.
For those interested in a more thorough exploration of WND, I particularly recommend their “Laugh Line” jokes section, where roughly nine out of ten jokes revolve around Barrack Hussein Obama (never forget that middle name) being black. I could spend another 500 words just covering WND’s bizarre conspiracy theories about our president but I’ve earned my pay and frankly they could never possibly compare to this article.
If you don’t click that link I cannot even begin to describe how sorry I feel for you.
More posts by Wyatt »
Wyatt MacKenzie
Wyatt MacKenzie, like Venus, was formed spontaneously from sea foam and emerged carrying an IBM Selectric. He is physically incapable of producing anything but the most perfect reporting imaginable and has won seven Pulitzers for his work investigating CMC cafeterias. He hopes one day to report a story so hard that it stops ethnic conflict in the third world.
21 Comments
2009-05-06
10:29:37
Wyatt, I cannot believe you didn't link these good God-fearing people to the most important document of our time: Joseph Farah's Second Declaration of Independence! http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=94298
But thank you for introducing people to this site, which fully exposes the (apparently soy-based) New World Order Stealth Jihad Invasion of America (by Mexicans) led by Henry Kissinger responsible for purposefully destroying the economy to elect Barack Hussein Obama, a Muslim (GASP) non-American who wants to give the United States over to Islamic Royalty after creating a North American Union and stealing all our children and forcing them to learn evolution in public schools while outlawing Christianity and mandating homosexuality for EVERYONE. We must be aware of the threats we face.
2009-05-06
10:55:49
I am also a fan of the reader poll, "What are the most important non-fiction books of all time, besides the Bible?" and "Your nominations for the most under-reported stories of the year" which include the existence of giants in North and South America. This is better than Wonkette.
2009-05-06
16:17:30
I suppose I shouldn't admit to reading WorldNetDaily then....
Of course, Wyatt decides what's news, didn't you know?
Rather than taking a more balanced view of WND, which admittedly has some sensationalist claims, he could have just as easily pointed to the rather nutty things said by the more mainstream-line, Huffington Post or DailyKos.
But no, it's just too easy to beat up on the ever dwinding right. It's become chic, trendy, and cool to hate on the Right. Oh,aren't we so edgy...
2009-05-06
16:44:06
Dear "Reader,"
I definitely hear ya. You really might want to stop eating at Collins, though. They "secretly" put "soy" in "everything," and we both know you don't want to turn "gay."
Your friend in the truth,
St. George
2009-05-08
13:17:58
The only examples Wyatt MacKenzie lists are opinion columns and advertisements (number 4 is an advertisement, too.) In case MacKenzie doesn't know it, opinion columns are the opinion of the listed writer or editors and are not expected to be relied on as you would a news article. WND does post some news articles; however, none were cited in this opinion piece.
It seems to me that WND assumes it's readers are intelligent enough to know the difference between opinion columns, news articles and advertisements but perhaps they are mistaken to believe that.
2009-05-08
13:52:31
Wayne, your comment betrays a remarkable ignorance about WND. As an avid reader for a couple of months now, i can say that there is very little difference between WND's news articles and their opinion articles. I would list hundreds of examples here if I could, but i have a paper to write so i'll stick to two. Lets take.. for instance the two top headlines on WND.com right now. both, of course, have a flashing "BREAKING NEWS" thing next to them, in case you had problems identifying the news articles and opinion pieces.
The first: http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=97374
The second: http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=97460
lets take a little look at the second. It starts with the completely unbiased title: 'Pedophile Protection Act' stirs 200K letters to Senate'. Say what you want about hate crimes legislation. I personally am against it in fact. but a title like this has no place in any legitimate news organization. which is why it ends up at WND. The article gets even more biased and idiotic, if it were possible, from there. but i don't want to ruin the surprise. When I'm done with this paper i'll try to give you some more examples. (Also, for the record, number 2 in wyatt's list is a news article. i can see why you'd be confused, seeing as there is no such thing as Wnd.com news.)
2009-05-08
13:40:10
Soy makes people gay? Well, that explains a lot, doesn't it?
2009-05-08
13:57:31
Complete misrepresentation of my politics? Thinly veiled insults to my intelligence? Lack of basic reading comprehension? Whoda thunk it.
First of all, as anybody who's ever met me could tell WND Reader I'm a right-leaning libertarian. I've worked at the Hudson and Goldwater Institutes and happen to take offense at WND because it represents everything wrong with conservatism. If you don't see the connection between a political movement taking this website seriously and its dwindling you're blind.
Wayne- Number four is not an advertisement, it's an endorsement and announcement thus the "-WND." Number two is a news post not a column. I can see how it might be hard to tell since WND writes the two in exactly the same way. But hey I'll expand on it for you. Here are two clearly labeled news stories. Homophobic, paranoid, politically loaded.
WorldNetDaily Exclusive
U.S. Senate bombarded on 'Pedophile Protection Act'
Campaign to stop 'hate-crimes' bill takes off on 1st day
--WND Exclusive
WorldNetDaily
'Gay' day coming to California public schools?
Lawmakers vote to make children honor Harvey Milk – without parent consent
--WND
And, in case anyone is actually falling for the idea that WND is no worse than any other politically aligned news source, here's one of their Jokes of the Day. If this sounds like anything other than racism to you I don't know what to think.
Obama walks into a bar with a parrot on his shoulder... Bartender looks up and says, "Where'd you get that?"
Parrot says, "Kenya, they're all over the place!!"
2009-05-08
14:36:36
Wyatt, I think you're actually secretly bitter that you didn't come up with all the brilliant conspiracy theories yourself. That's ok. We love and accept you anyway. Soy fetish and all.
2009-05-08
15:20:18
Sorry, I still think it's a straw man.
Conservatism is big enough to have its cranks.
2009-05-08
17:47:06
Wyatt is just unlimbering the "morning gun" of socialist despotism: declare all opposition to be a form of insanity. If you will remember those halcyon days when communist liberalism was on the march, communist despots routinely sentenced people who disagreed with their views to the insane asylums. The same was true in the Fascist strain of liberalism as well. Wyatt is just doing his part to bring that kind of "change" to the United States. Remember this, every time people who believe like Wyatt gain absolute power, millions of innocent people are murdered in the name of perfecting the state. Time to try scrubbing those red spots off of the old pea pickers, Wyatt for you are holding hands with a movement that is drenched in innocent human blood.
2009-05-08
23:41:19
Say what you will, but he jokes on WND do not revovle aroudn Obama beign black. The claim fo Racsm for those on the right is getting old...
2009-05-09
11:27:45
Neither are the claims for unintelligible internet conservative trolls for those on the right, darling. It's very hard for me to explain to people that I am not an unintelligible internet conservative troll.
2009-05-09
17:25:04
Seeing as few will defend WND in print, I suppose that that burden might fall to me.
I agree with those who dislike the use of labeling one's ideological adversaries as "lunatic fringe." I doubt very much that WND is the lunatic fringe, given its traffic.
Wyatt, if you're really a "right leaning libertarian," as you say, you must concede that there are a whole host of nuts. Indeed, Barry Goldwater, a man I'm certain you admire as you worked for his institute, was branded as insane, so too was Reagan, Thatcher, and a whole host of other right leaning members of our society. The only difference between those nuts and the geniuses that get things done in our world is the willingness to see things that no one else does or to ask questions that others refuse to ask. Maybe you're like a lot of the other RINOs and hoping to get scraps from the ever ascendant left. Who knows.
Nevertheless, you're disingenuous citation of a few cranky articles on WND belies your ignorance of the news website generally.
There are dozens of stories that they have written that have made our nation a much richer, more informed populace. Here are your links.
From 2008, http://o.wnd.ha-hosting.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=68468
From 2007, http://o.wnd.ha-hosting.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=61392
2009-05-14
16:07:00
so its been a while, and i'm coming back to this late, (there were papers to write, forgive me). But Charles, are you really comparing Reagan and Thatcher to Joseph Farah? Wyatt's citation was not at all disingenuous. Sure, not all of the articles on WND may have quite as much comedic potential, but a good portion of them, every day, are just completely nutso. I consider myself a conservative democrat, and have many close friends who are smarter than me and more conservative than me, so I have no real problem with the right as a whole, just complete fucking idiots like those at WND. Not only are most of them idiots, they are also shoddy journalists. Take my favorite example (because I am a Springsteen fan). Joseph Farah, the man who runs this website, wrote an opinion piece criticizing springsteen for joining in a lawsuit against ticketmaster: http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=90615. Problem was this never happened. Farah cite's a quote from Springsteen's "blog". I did some hunting and found the quote here: http://springsteeninformationcenter.wordpress.com/2009/02/04/ anyone who thinks that this is Bruce Springsteen writing, or it is in any way an official blog, should probably go jump off the nearest bridge.
Wyatt isn't labeling wnd the lunatic fringe because he disagrees with them ideologically. He is labeling them the lunatic fringe because they are lunatics. and if you are right, and they have enough traffic to make them no longer the fringe by whatever definition we want to use, that is a very sad day for conservatives, and Americans, everywhere.
2009-05-09
20:13:11
CJ,
There's nothing wrong with admitting that some people on your side of the political spectrum are off their rockers. In fact, it can be a good way of distinguishing yourself from the crazies (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sister_Souljah_moment).
You risk discrediting the whole conservative movement by so readily lumping Goldwater and Reagan in with the aluminum foil hat types at WND. Claiming that soy makes you gay or continuing to question Obama's citizenship is not "cranky"-- it's batshit insane!
I don't think Wyatt was trying to criticize the state of the Republican party. I think he was just sharing a wacky website that he found funny. Anyone who has ever had a political conversation with Wyatt would not question his libertarian credentials...
2009-05-09
21:29:46
Ok, Charles. I'm just going to point out one problem I have here.
"There are dozens of stories that they have written that have made our nation a much richer, more informed populace. Here are your links"
Um, those links were from the crazy people's website...
Watch this:
http://www.thestaghen.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=91:the-staghen-is-reliable-we-scoop-stuff&catid=44:about-the-staghen
What? I won 15 pulitzers? that is sooo tight! Finally those hard months of making random stuff up has paid off.
2009-05-09
23:21:02
ZAROVE, is there a reason you capitalized "racsm"?
2009-05-13
10:01:04
[...] few favorites I heard come on today. Feel free to post your own in the comments (or to call me a liberal-fascist mass murderer, whichever). Anyway, here goes: Officer [...]
2009-05-19
08:32:44
hello,
Seems that this is definitely a grea board.
Just thought I'd make my first thread my introduction
I'm looking forward to acquaint myself with every one of you here =)
2009-10-22
12:03:06
Second, no one is making some big deal out of the chronological fact that we are in a new century. ,