What’s wrong with the press?

By Joseph Farah

I don’t do this very often.

I don’t like to criticize the establishment press.

It’s just too easy.

It’s like shooting fish in a barrel.

I prefer bigger game.

And I prefer doing the job the press is supposed to do, rather than criticizing others for not doing it, or doing it wrong.

But, once in a while, it’s just too tempting to avoid. Once in a while, I see a story written so poorly, I just want to scream about it. Once in a while, I have to point out why what we do here at WorldNetDaily is so important.

Here’s a verbatim story from the Associated Press of last week:


S. Arabia Man to Get 4,750 Lashes

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – A Saudi court has sentenced a man to six years in prison and 4,750 lashes for having sex with his wife’s sister, a newspaper reported Sunday.

The woman involved in the case was sentenced to six months in jail and 65 lashes, the paper Al-Eqtisadiah reported, though the court found she had not consented to the relationship. She had also reported the affair to the police.

Having a relationship with one’s in-law is considered a serious offense under the strict Islamic judicial code that Saudi Arabia follows.

The court, in the port city of Jiddah, ordered that the lashes be administered to the man at a rate of 95 at a time.

Lashes are often handed out by Saudi courts, although rarely in such large numbers.

The court also ruled he was not eligible for a pardon “because of the ugliness and seriousness of his crime.”


Here’s how the same story was told at WorldNetDaily:


Raped woman to be jailed, lashed

Saudi court sentences victim as well as perpetrator

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – A Saudi court has sentenced a woman to six months in prison and 65 lashes for getting raped by her brother-in-law and reporting it to police.

The perpetrator of the crime received 4,750 lashes and six years in prison for the attack, reports the paper Al-Eqtisadiah.

The man’s sentence was for having sex with his sister-in-law, not rape. The court found the sex was not consensual. The victim reported the attack to the police.

Having a relationship with one’s in-law is considered a serious offense under the strict Islamic judicial code that Saudi Arabia follows.

The court, in the port city of Jiddah, ordered that the lashes be administered to the man at a rate of 95 at a time.

Lashes are often handed out by Saudi courts, although rarely in such large numbers.

The court also ruled he was not eligible for a pardon “because of the ugliness and seriousness of his crime.”


Do you see the difference? The AP version was what we call in the news business a “dog-bites-man story.” The brutal, totalitarian Saudis were beating a man for “having sex” with his sister-in-law. Big deal.

The real story, however, was that the Saudis were punishing the victim – a fact that would be lost on the average reader because of poor story construction.

Was this an oversight? Stupidity? Poor news judgment? Or is it an indication that the largest news-gathering organization in the world, the AP, is protecting the Saudis? Hard to tell.

But, again, facts are facts. You can see the evidence for yourself. Just so you don’t think I’m making this up, I’ve included hotlinks to the original stories so you can compare for yourself.

Sometimes how stories are told is just as important as which stories are told. A good story told badly might as well not be told at all. If readers have to work at making sense of a simple story, the impact – the news value – will be lost on most people.

That’s why I call my column “between the lines.” That’s a big part of what we have to do at WorldNetDaily to bring you the news. Sure we have a great deal of original content. We break a lot of major stories. But we also spend countless man hours reading between the lines of what other press organizations around the world are saying to bring you a complete picture – a comprehensive news report every day.

Am I just blowing our own horn? Yes and no. I’ve spent 25 years in the news business developing a certain approach, a certain perspective. I’m gratified 2.5 million unique readers find it a worthwhile approach. I’m gratified WorldNetDaily is the largest independent source of news on the Internet. I’m gratified you are reading this column right now.

But I want you to be able to explain why this is so valuable to others who haven’t yet discovered the WorldNetDaily difference.


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Joseph Farah

Joseph Farah is founder, editor and chief executive officer of WND. He is the author or co-author of 13 books that have sold more than 5 million copies, including his latest, "The Gospel in Every Book of the Old Testament." Before launching WND as the first independent online news outlet in 1997, he served as editor in chief of major market dailies including the legendary Sacramento Union. Read more of Joseph Farah's articles here.