Just about a year ago, I remember celebrating with my wife because
WorldNetDaily, our 6-month-old Internet newspaper project, had begun
clearing 10,000 hits a day. This week, for the first time, WorldNetDaily
began averaging more than 1 million hits a day.
Everyday brings a new record. Because of deadlines I can’t give you
yesterday’s stats. But Wednesday’s traffic was 1,168,931.
To put that in perspective, more people are viewing WorldNetDaily on
an average day than are watching Geraldo or Larry King. In fact, more
are reading WorldNetDaily than all but a very tiny elite group of
national newspapers such as USA Today, Wall Street Journal and The New
York Times.
WorldNetDaily may not be a household word in most homes in America.
It may not be uttered by the media elite as often as the Drudge Report.
But the exploding audience of this Internet news source is virtually
incomparable. For hundreds of thousands of Americans and people living
in about 120 foreign nations, WorldNetDaily is the standard by which
news is measured.
What makes them come? It’s not bells and whistles. It’s not a slick,
multimillion marketing campaign. No. It’s content. WorldNetDaily is
substantively different from any other news enterprise on the planet.
The biggest difference is our commitment to traditional principles of
American journalism. Even though we work in the “new media,” we do
journalism the old-fashioned way — we work hard and get our hands
dirty. We make the extra phone call. We do the primary research. And we
focus our efforts on performing the long-forgotten central role of a
free press in a free society — to serve as a watchdog on government.
Exposing government fraud and waste is our bread, and laying bare
official corruption and abuse is our butter. This is the way it used to
be at American newspapers. This is the way it is supposed to be at
American newspapers. This is not the way it is today at American
newspapers.
Anyway, people apparently appreciate our unique commitment to this
simple mission. They like the fact that we skewer the sacred cows of the
corporate-establishment-government-media complex. This is a commodity
they can’t get anywhere else. WorldNetDaily is, thus, habit-forming.
They come from the left and the right and the center — all skeptical
of what the experts in big government and big business have in mind for
them. WorldNetDaily is the meeting place for establishment media
refugees who flock to cyberspace seeking truth like boat people fleeing
some God-forsaken, tyrannical hell-hole in search of freedom.
But, yet, Big Brother is always lurking in the shadows, sniffing for
any evidence of a loss of control.
Yesterday, that sniffer was working overtime on computers at 1600
Pennsylvania Avenue. Yeah, the White House makes regular stops — daily
stops — at WorldNetDaily. But yesterday the snoop-dogs were working
overtime — transferring some 255 files and nearly two megabytes of
data.
Well, I guess they want to know what’s going on, too. You can’t blame
them. Maybe WorldNetDaily has become the official news source of the
White House. Perhaps the Clintons would like to perform a public
service, given our tax-deductible status and all, and publicly give
their blessing and imprimatur to this noble journalistic endeavor. NOT!
The truth is, they would no more give it than we would receive it.
It’s not a matter of partisanship or politics. It’s a matter of right
and wrong, good and evil. This news organization is not for sale to the
highest bidder nor to any causes other than truth, righteousness and
freedom. That scares people at the White House. They want to build
dossiers on characters who think like that. No doubt, their goon friends
Larry Flynt and James Carville are cooking up some schemes right now to
try to discredit us.
I speak from experience. I’ve been through this before. They’ve
peddled dirt on me and my operation and sicked their IRS-Gestapo on us.
But we’re still standing. In fact, with the explosive growth of
WorldNetDaily, I’d have to say we’re standing pretty tall.
So here’s a news flash just for the boys in the bunker at 1600
Pennsylvania Avenue: You think you’re coming after me? I got news for
you. We’re coming after you.
Syria and America’s bloody diplomacy
Mike Pottage