WND's Farah demonstrates why conservatives want to boycott WND

WorldNetDaily founder and editor Joseph Farah is responding to news of a conservative boycott against supporters of his “news” organization in the expected way -- by demonstrating why conservatives would want to boycott WND in the first place.

In his Sept. 1 WND column, Farah dismisses the Next Right writer who proposed the boycott, Jon Henke, as “this fellow I have never known nor associated with nor even heard of,” then misportrays Henke's post, suggesting he was moved to support a boycott solely “because of an article he read in the Boston Herald last week.” In fact, it's clear from Henke's post that the Herald article was merely the last straw, not the entire rationale.

Farah then complains that the Boston Herald article in question offered only a “partial quote,” taken “out-of-context,” from a Feb. 1 WND article by Jerome Corsi suggesting that the federal government wants “to create the type of detention center” that “could be used as concentration camps for political dissidents, such as occurred in Nazi Germany.” Corsi, Farah insisted, offered a “much more nuanced and accurate statement.”

But actual nuance would have required Corsi to tell all sides of the story -- not just the point of view of “those concerned about use of the military in domestic affairs” but what the sposnor of the bill in question, Rep. Alcee Hastings, has said about it.

On Jan. 22 -- nine days before Corsi's article was published -- Hastings issued a press release on his sponsorship of the National Emergency Centers Establishment Act, which would “create six National Emergency Centers throughout the United States to better respond to national emergencies”:

The Centers would provide temporary housing, medical, and humanitarian assistance, including education for individuals and families displaced due to an emergency. In addition, the Centers will also serve as a centralized location for the training and coordination of first responders in the instance of an emergency.

“The lack of natural disaster preparedness efforts and temporary housing options for disaster-stricken citizens has only exacerbated an unbearable situation. Deficient recovery responses have led to elongated recovery rates in my district and across this nation,” said Congressman Hastings.

“We have an obligation to better prepare and more adequately respond to the needs of communities hit by natural disasters. We have a responsibility to ensure that basic needs of disaster victims are met immediately following the devastation. Our nation was not prepared for the disastrous hurricanes that struck Florida and the Gulf Coast in 2004 and in 2005. The enactment of this legislation will help to ensure that our government is able to adequately respond to families and individuals displaced due to an emergency.”

Corsi reported none of this. Instead, the only quote of Hastings in his article was of a 2008 statement critical of Sarah Palin -- which is completely irrelevant to the bill in question. Corsi's only goal in this article was to ridicule Hastings and fearmonger about the bill he introduced.

Farah goes on to complain that other organizations reported on the boycott, including Media Matters. He then defends the organization he founded:

I didn't found WorldNetDaily to be esteemed by my colleagues.

I didn't found it to make People for the American Way or Media Matters happy.

I didn't found it because I wanted to be part of the “conservative” movement.

I founded it because there was a crying need for an independent brand of journalism beholden only to the truth.

WND is “beholden only to the truth”? Not so much.

Farah concludes: “I hope you appreciate that WorldNetDaily difference.” Of course, “that WorldNetDaily difference” -- fearmongering, hatred and falsehoods -- is exactly why people like Jon Henke want to boycott WND.