It's been 24 hours since I demanded a correction from fake-news Newsweek.
No acknowledgment. Needless to say, no correction.
My demand was solely based on this sentence in a story published Monday written by Alexander Nazaryan: "On social media sites like Reddit and news outlets like World Net Daily (sic), it is all but an article of faith that (Seth) Rich, who worked for the Democratic National Committee, was the source who gave DNC emails to WikiLeaks, for which he was slain, presumably by Clinton operatives."
Since I am the founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of WND, I think I would be well-positioned to know whether anyone at the news organization has ever said or written anything remotely resembling this unattributed and unsourced assertion. I can promise you that no one at WND has ever made such a suggestion – publicly or privately.
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But, of course, that's what one should expect from fake-news Newsweek. This is not, after all, your mother's Newsweek – a respectable place for journalists to work back in its heyday. This is the Newsweek that lives on the fumes of that legacy, the Newsweek that would have long ago gone out of business had the name alone not earned a degree of respect. This the new Newsweek, owned by a cult that worships its founder as the second coming of Jesus and which also runs a knockoff fake Christian site known as Christian Today, not to be mistaken for Christianity Today.
And who is Nazaryan?
You might recall an earlier correction and apology Newsweek was forced to make publicly as a result of one of Nazaryan's tweets last January when he compared Sen. Ted Cruz and his supporters to Nazis.
Newsweek's editor in chief, Jim Impoco, released this statement at the time: "I would like to express on behalf of Newsweek our disappointment that this occurred and reiterate that this does not align with our editorial values. I apologize for any doubt that this might have cast on Newsweek's editorial integrity or credibility. We've addressed the situation with Alexander and the rest of the staff and will be reviewing and reiterating our social media policy in coming days."
Nazaryan had tweeted an image depicting Nazi soldiers, writing, "Ted Cruz has a strong ground game in Iowa." Nazaryan wasn't as contrite as his boss, tweeting: "I deleted my tweet calling Ted Cruz a Nazi. Not fair to his totally decent supporters, as much as I dislike the man himself." He had previously called Cruz "an atrocity of a human being," for which he offered no apology.
But, more to the point, why was I taken aback by the total mischaracterization of WND by Newsweek?
Because, I have found, politically motivated insults like this that go unaddressed wind up defining you and your company. Even now, this charge is probably being repurposed by the social activists at Wikipedia and the hate-mongers at the Southern Poverty Law Center to expand their public dossiers on me and WND based on nothing but conjecture.
Notice Nazaryan's approach: "It's all but an article of faith," he claims, at WND that we believe Hillary did in Seth Rich and that he provided the DNC emails to WikiLeaks. Does he know anyone at WND? Did he talk to anyone? Is there any published evidence of this fantasy? Does he cite any? Of course not. In fact, he has no track record as an actual news person. He's always been a commentator, a pundit, an editorialist. He has no idea what he's talking about.
And what does he or Newsweek know about the Seth Rich case?
Have they done any reporting on it? No.
Meanwhile, that's just what WND has done. And that apparently worries left-wing political activists posing as journalists – people like Nazaryan.
Maybe they should rename his magazine Newsweak.
Media wishing to interview Joseph Farah, please contact [email protected].
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