GOP bloggers call for boycott of WND!

Surprise. It's not just the Obama administration and the left that's using intimidation tactics to malign and suppress WorldNetDaily. Now a few Republican bloggers are using the same bullying tactics in an effort to put WND out of business by calling on Americans to, and I quote, "boycott any of those organizations that will not renounce … support for WorldNetDaily."

I'm not kidding.

It started with someone named Jon Henke who writes a blog called "The Next Right." The title of his piece says it all: "Organizing Against WorldNetDaily."

What's his beef?

Apparently, this fellow I have never known nor associated with nor even heard of before is embarrassed that someone might connect WND with him and his beloved "conservative movement" because of an article he read in the Boston Herald last week.

Last Saturday, the Herald published an article titled, "Secret camps and guillotines? Groups make 'birthers' look sane." In that story, reporter Steven Thomma of McClatchy, a newspaper chain founded on the notion of promoting "public ownership of private property" (and doing its best to fulfill that mission, I might add), alleges "WorldNetDaily.com says that the government is considering Nazi-like concentration camps for dissidents."

To back up that complete misrepresentation, Thomma offers this excerpt from a brief news story in WND dating back to Feb. 1 and written by Jerome Corsi, a senior staff writer and two-time No. 1 New York Times best-selling author: "[A] proposal in Congress 'appears designed to create the type of detention center that those concerned about use of the military in domestic affairs fear could be used as concentration camps for political dissidents, such as occurred in Nazi Germany.'"

Joseph Farah's book "Stop the Presses: The Inside Story of the New Media Revolution" explains why traditional news sources are gasping for breath amid Internet, talk radio phenomena

Notice the partial quote. What's left out are some key words. Let's look at the full, unexpurgated sentence in Corsi's original story: "The proposed bill, which has received little mainstream media attention, appears designed to create the type of detention center that those concerned about use of the military in domestic affairs fear could be used as concentration camps for political dissidents, such as occurred in Nazi Germany."

Corsi's is a much more nuanced and accurate statement – acknowledging the fears of many Americans recently maligned by the Homeland Security Department as "right-wing extremists" and potential terrorists – than the Herald's allegation that Corsi and WND claim "the government is considering Nazi-like concentration camps for dissidents." But perhaps you need to be slightly more literate – or concerned about the truth – than Thomma to see the distinction.

By the way, Corsi was writing about an actual bill introduced into the House of Representatives by Rep. Alcee Hastings that called for the secretary of homeland security to establish no fewer than six national emergency centers for civilians on military installations. Apparently, that is less consequential and newsworthy than the fact that WorldNetDaily dared to report it!

But it gets even more bizarre from here.

That's where Jon Henke steps in. On the basis of this Boston Herald story, he decides it's time to put an end to WND.

He writes: "This is just hideously embarrassing for the Right."

He calls for an all-out jihad against WND.

"In the 1960s, William F. Buckley denounced the John Birch Society leadership for being 'so far removed from common sense' and later said 'We cannot allow the emblem of irresponsibility to attach to the conservative banner.'

"The Birthers are the Birchers of our time, and WorldNetDaily is their pamphlet. The Right has mostly ignored these embarrassing people and organizations, but some people and organizations inexplicably choose to support WND through advertising and email list rental or other collaboration. For instance, I have been told that F.I.R.E (The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) – an otherwise respectable group that does important work – uses the WND email list. They should stop.

"No respectable organization should support the kind of fringe idiocy that WND peddles. Those who do are not respectable.

"I think it's time to find out what conservative/libertarian organizations support WND through advertising, list rental or other commercial collaboration (email me if you know of any), and boycott any of those organizations that will not renounce any further support for WorldNetDaily."

But it didn't stop there!

Next, the George Soros mouthpiece Media Matters got into the act. Suddenly, it wasn't some guy named Jon Henke calling for a boycott of WND. It was "Conservatives seek to boycott WorldNetDaily."

Then World Magazine joined the fray, asking its readers to weigh in, but not before also offering a distorted take on WND's original story.

Then, "The League of Ordinary Gentlemen" blog jumped on the bandwagon, opining that the anti-WND Republican bloggers are "on to something" and advising "Republicans [to] start pressing their leadership to quit acting crazy and to quit giving the nod to crazy people like Corsi, Bachmann and Beck."

"Corsi, Bachmann and Beck" oh my! Yes, the Boston Herald article attacking WND also maligns Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann as being a right-wing wacko concerned about "mandatory [government] camps for young people." And Glenn Beck's Fox News show has been the target of a massive advertiser boycott recently.

But wait! Bachmann, next to Sarah Palin, is probably the most admired conservative woman in government today. And Beck's ratings are in the stratosphere.

Maybe our GOP bloggers are not "on to something." Oh well, one quarter that is enthusiastically supporting them is the left-wing Huffington Post.

Last, but not least – because more will surely be coming on this epic journalistic scandal committed by WND – the always thoughtful folks at People for the American Way got their two cents in by suggesting the out-of-context quote picked up by the Boston Herald should require an all-out boycott of any organization that "will not renounce any further support of WorldNetDaily."

Am I scared?

No, folks. I'm not.

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.

And we will continue to pursue the truth no matter where it leads.

I hope you appreciate that WorldNetDaily difference.

If you'd like to sound off on this issue, please take part in the WorldNetDaily poll.