History
In 1997, Joseph Farah created the news website WorldNetDaily as a division of the Western Journalism Center. It was subsequently spun off in 1999 as a for-profit organization with the backing of $4.5 million from investors, Farah owning a majority of the stock. The site describes itself as "an independent news company dedicated to uncompromising journalism." In 1999, WorldNetDaily.com, Inc. was incorporated in Delaware with offices in Cave Junction, Oregon. According to its website, World Net Daily has a staff of approximately 25 people. In 2007 it was headquartered in Medford, Oregon.
Seeking credentials to cover the U.S. Congress in 2002, WND was opposed by the Standing Committee of Correspondents. This panel of journalists was charged by Congress with administering press credentials. Until 1996, internet-only publications had been deemed unacceptable. It was argued by some that the conservative position of the publication may also have been a stumbling block. WND turned to the United States Senate Committee on Rules and Administration for help, arguing that the panel's decision had violated the site's constitutional rights to due process, equal protection, and freedom of the press." Faced "with legal threats and negative publicity, the panel reversed itself, voting 3-2 to award WorldNetDaily its credentials." Shortly after, the rules were formally adjusted to clarify the participation of online publications.
Description
WND provides news, editorials, commentaries, letters to the editor, forums and conducts a daily poll. It claims its editorial content has a diverse range of viewpoints, though predominantly from a right wing or conservative perspective. Besides providing articles authored by its own staff, the site links to news from other publications. Notable staff includes Jerusalem Bureau Chief Aaron Klein, White House Correspondent Lester Kinsolving, and Staff Writer Jerome Corsi. Its commentary pages feature editorials from the site's founder, Joseph Farah and other social conservative authors such as Pat Buchanan, Ann Coulter, David Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, and Chuck Norris. It also has featured weekly columns by libertarians Walter Williams, Vox Day, Ilana Mercer, as well as liberals such as Maralyn Lois Polak, Bill Press and pro-life moderate Nat Hentoff. WND also offers products for sale, typically these are products sold by its related book service, WND Book Service, by its publishing house, WND Books, or by its retail operation, ShopNetDaily. The site also runs a printed magazine, Whistleblower, and other companies such as the G2 Bulletin, a subscription-only website described as an "intelligence resource" for "insights into geo-political and geo-strategic developments."
WND Books
WorldNetDaily also publishes books under the imprint WND Books. The imprint was launched in 2002 through a partnership with Thomas Nelson Publishers (a Christian publishing house) and released books by politicians and pundits like Katherine Harris, Michael Savage and Farah himself. The partnership with Thomas Nelson Publishing ended shortly before the 2004 election; Thomas Nelson continued the division for a time under the Nelson Current imprint. The WND Books imprint was subsequently published under a partnership with Cumberland House Publishing and released books by Jerome Corsi, Tom Tancredo and Ken Blackwell, among other authors. In 2007, Los Angeles-based conservative publisher World Ahead Publishing became the publisher of WND Books. In January 2008, WND announced it had acquired World Ahead Media. In April 2011, the liberal British newspaper, The Guardian, called WND Books "a niche producer of rightwing conspiracy theories, religious books and 'family values' tracts".
Controversies
WND has published articles that have created controversies and criticism of the site by other media outlets.
9/11 attacks
All about: 9/11 attacks
On September 13, 2001, WND published a commentary by Anthony C. LoBaido regarding the September 11 attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., two days earlier. In his column, LoBaido outlined what he regarded as the moral depravity of America in general and New York in particular, asking whether, "God (has) raised up Shiite Islam as a sword against America." Commentators Virginia Postrel of Reason magazine and James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal criticized LoBaido and Joseph Farah for the piece and called for columnists Hugh Hewitt and Bill O'Reilly to sever their ties with WND, prompting Farah to respond with a column of his own explaining that the article did not reflect the viewpoint of WND, and that it, like most other commentary pieces, had not been reviewed before being published.
Barack Obama citizenship conspiracy theories
WorldNetDaily has emerged as a leading outlet publicizing conspiracy theories about Barack Obama's citizenship status, claiming that Obama is not a natural-born American citizen and is thus not eligible to serve as president. Such claims are considered unsubstantiated or debunked by most news sources. After the 2008 presidential campaign, WND began an online petition to have Obama's Hawaiian birth certificate released to the public. The website also unsuccessfully urged Supreme Court justices to hear several lawsuits aiming to release Obama's birth certificate.
Libel lawsuit
On September 20, 2000, WND published an article claiming that a Savannah, Tennessee car dealer, and fund-raiser for then-Vice President Al Gore, had interfered with a criminal investigation, had been a "subject" of a criminal investigation, was listed on law enforcement computers as a "dope dealer," and implied that he had ties to others involved in alleged criminal activity. In 2001 the car dealer, Clark Jones, filed a lawsuit against WND; the reporters, Charles C. Thompson II and Tony Hays; the Center for Public Integrity, which had underwritten Thompson and Hays' reporting on the article and related ones and various Tennessee publications and broadcasters who he accused of repeating the claim, claiming libel and defamation. The lawsuit had been scheduled to go to trial in March 2008;but, on February 13, 2008, WND announced that a confidential out-of-court settlement had been reached with Jones. A settlement statement jointly drafted by all parties in the lawsuit stated that a Freedom of Information Act request showed that the allegations had been false, and that WND had misquoted sources.
Feud with LGBT conservatives
WND has also come out against LGBT participants in the Republican party and their associates. In 2010, when writer and pundit Ann Coulter accepted the invitation to attend and speak at GOProud's Homocon 2010 event, Farah announced the withdrawal of Coulter's name from the list of speakers at the company's Taking America Back conference. Coulter responded by saying that speaking engagements do not imply endorsement of the hosting organization; however, after Farah published private emails between himself and Coulter, Coulter called him a “publicity whore” and a “swine” in an email to the Daily Caller blog.
Feud with Salon.com
In April 2011 an "Article War" developed between WND and Salon.com. Salon journalist Justin Elliot first contacted WND on April 11, 2011 seeking evidence of WND's claim that the Obama Presidential Campaign had spent over $US 2 million on lawsuits pertaining to President Obama's birth certificate. An hour and a half after this request was sent and without a reply from WND, Elliot published his piece "Trump and Palin's $2 million Birther lie." Joseph Farah again reiterated WND's claim that Obama had spent $2 million on lawsuits about his birth certificate and dismissed Elliot as an "over sissified, left-wing blogger."
Elliot followed this article on April 11 with quotes from a later email discussion he had with Farah with claims that Farah called him a "Smear Merchant." Elliot responded with a story run by WND claiming that a photo of Barack Obama as a child with his Grandparents in New York was Photoshopped, a claim that was later disproved but WND had not retracted. In response Farah, replied, "Jack Cashill is an OPINION columnist. Admittedly, we publish some misinformation by columnists, as does your publication and every other journal that contains opinion. Bill Press seldom gets anything right in his column, but because we believe in providing the broadest spectrum of OPINION anywhere in the news business, we tolerate that kind of thing. Yes, Cashill’s column contained an egregious error, which we corrected almost immediately, which is far more than I expect you to do in what I assume is a NEWS piece you wrote." When asked why there was no correction present on the photoshopped story Farah responded "How long have you been in this business, punk? My guess is you were in diapers when I was running major metropolitan newspapers. You call what you wrote a news story? You aren’t fit to carry Chelsea Schilling’s laptop. Worm."
The article war spread over to Alex Parene's Salon column with an article entitled "The biggest, dumbest wingnut site on the Web.
All about: September 11 attacks, New York City, Washington, D.C, Joe the Plumber
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