Any day now, expect to see a major hit piece on WND in the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report.
I was informed by Leah Nelson, an SPLC intelligence project fellow, that the fear-mongering scam is preparing a "profile" of WND in the next issue. Nelson was soliciting an interview with me – kind of like the executioner granting the wrongly convicted the opportunity to speak his last words.
No thanks.
I already know the SPLC's conclusions about me and WND.
How much worse could it be than what the racketeers at SPLC have already published?
- "Conspiracy theory buffs need an endless supply of fuel to keep chugging along. And no one out there seems to provide more of that than Joseph Farah, the archconservative and slightly mad publisher/editor of WorldNetDaily (WND). From obsessively attempting to debunk the legitimacy of President Obama's birth certificate to stoking anti-Muslim fear that Shariah law is about to topple the Constitution, Farah is the supermarket tabloid publisher of the radical right. Farah doesn't limit his propagandizing to his apparently popular website. In recent years, the self-described Christian has branched out, publishing books and producing movies, even while regularly speaking at Tea Party events. Farah boasts that his WND book operation has produced a higher percentage of New York Times best-sellers 'than any other publishing company in the U.S.' – a claim that some may dispute. The latest WND book, 'The Harbinger: The Ancient Mystery That Holds the Secret of America's Future,' suggests parallels between ancient Israel and what's occurring today in the United States – and an imminent judgment by God. Farah's name recognition jumped significantly when he was at the head of the 'birther' pack, attacking the legality of the Obama presidency based on the theory that he wasn't a legal U.S. citizen at birth. 'My dream is that Barack Obama … won't be able to go to any city, any town, any hamlet in America without seeing signs that ask, Where is the birth certificate?' Farah said in 2010 at a National Tea Party convention in Nashville, Tenn., where he shared the stage with former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Despite all his clamorous pot banging, it was not Farah but multimillionaire developer Donald Trump who ultimately became such a pain that President Obama released his 'long-form' birth certificate last year. That didn't satisfy Farah, who, along with his attack-dog writer Jerome Corsi, continues to insist Obama is no citizen. Farah later traveled even further down the citizenship road, questioning the birth of Sen. Marco Rubio in early 2012, when the Florida Republican was mentioned as a possible vice-presidential candidate. 'Rubio is not eligible,' Farah told Fox News host Sean Hannity. Farah is so hard-line in certain views that he's perfectly willing to turn on fellow ideologues of the far right. In 2010, when right-wing raver Ann Coulter agreed to speak at a gay GOP group's event, he attacked her. In return, Coulter called Farah a 'publicity whore' and 'fake Christian' – what may be some of the few truly accurate phrases to ever come out."
- "Joseph Farah is the founder of the right-wing website WorldNetDaily (WND), which stokes fear with articles on topics like 'Stocking Up on Guns and Ammo' and advertisements for survivalist-style solar and food products. WND, which boasts nearly 5 million monthly visitors and spices up its 'news' reporting with 'WorldNetDaily Exclusive' articles like this March's 'Girl Scouts Hiding Secret Sex Agenda?', claims to be 'fiercely independent.' It certainly is unique. Farah, who could not be reached for comment, has served as the opening act at Tea Party events headlined by Sarah Palin this year. He is a leading fomenter of the baseless claim that President Obama was not born in Hawaii, but in Africa, and so is not qualified to be president. Farah has repeatedly demanded that Obama release a full-form birth certificate. 'It'll plague Obama throughout his presidency,' he said. 'It'll be a nagging issue and a sore on his administration.' Farah is a veteran practitioner of conspiracy 'journalism,' having repeatedly hawked the tale of the supposed cover-up of the death of Clinton aide Vince Foster – thought to be a murder, not a suicide, by anti-Clinton conspiracy-mongers like Farah and his ilk. Like many publications of the far right, Farah's website, which he started with his wife in 1997, also carries countless product ads with scary headlines like 'Will You Survive the Coming Dark Age?' ('Don't leave your family's safety in the hands of the government.') Remarkably, Farah sprang from a California newspaper background. He was executive editor at the now-defunct Los Angeles Herald Examiner in the 1980s. In the early 1990s, he edited the dying Sacramento Union, where staffers have said he ordered them to favor conservative views in news coverage and even book reviews and give short shrift to liberals. While at the Union, he gave a page-one column to a local radio host named Rush Limbaugh.
There's plenty more like this. I count dozens. They come under headings like "hate watch." And now they want to interview me for a "profile" of WND.
I think not.
I like doing interviews. But I'll pass on this one.
For the record, besides the predictable leftist ad hominem slurs and twists on reality, here are a few factual errors:
- WND Books is not the publisher of "The Harbinger," though I wish it were.
- I never "attacked" Ann Coulter. I politely disinvited her to speak at a WND conference. The attacks all came from the other direction. (She still pens a column every week at WND.)
- Rush Limbaugh was not a "local" radio talk host when I hired him to write daily front-page commentary at the Sacramento Union. He was a nationally syndicated superstar.
I've let the SPLC have their say about me. Now it's my turn.
Who is the SPLC? I think Reason writer Jesse Walker may have said it best when he wrote: "The Southern Poverty Law Center … would paint a box of Wheaties as an extremist threat if it thought that would help it raise funds."
The SPLC's leader is Morris Dees whose stock-in-trade is raising hundreds of millions of dollars through fanning the flames of phantom threats posed almost exclusively by those who love America and its Constitution. He also files lots of lawsuits, sometimes even on behalf of real victims of racism, and pockets most of the money raised through heart-wrenching direct-mail pitches.
The most famous example was a judgment he won for a black woman whose son was killed by the Ku Klux Klan. While Dees and company raised $9 million sending out solicitation letters featuring a gruesome picture of the victim, the mom received a total of $51,875 in the settlement. Dees pays himself more than $280,000 a year from the "charity."
Do you get the picture?
The SPLC is a smarmy, money-driven pseudo-charity that leans to the left of the Communist Party USA whose specialty is attack pieces.
Consider this column your inoculation for what's coming.
And, keep in mind, the SPLC doesn't waste its ammunition on ineffective enemies.
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