The rise and almost tragic fall of WND – after 25 years

By Joseph Farah

Editor’s note: This is the third part of a series of columns by WND founder Joseph Farah as the pioneering, trailblazing, independent, alternative online news site celebrates its 25th year in business May 4. Read Part 1 and Part 2.

We did it! We were successful. We did good journalism. And we were the biggest, baddest, conservative AND AVOWEDLY CHRISTIAN publication in the world.

We were at our pinnacle until 2016 – and over the next three years, we nearly became extinct.

Does that year on the calendar mean anything to you?

It was the year Donald Trump ran for president – the first time!

We were quick to support him. He won! But at a great cost to WND.

Do you remember who the president was just before Trump?

Yes, it was Barack Obama.

He took a dismal view of our No. 1 bestseller on him titled “Where’s the Birth Certificate?” You may recall it came out when he was seeking reelection in 2011. We beat the drum on that issue for years, starting even before he was elected. Until the book’s release, NO ONE COULD PRODUCE THE SIMPLE DOCUMENT – including the governor of Hawaii. But then Obama turned the search over to his favorite law firm – later to become notorious as his “fixers,” Perkins Coie, later to become even more notorious for the hoax they conspired in for Hillary Clinton – the lies about Trump known as the “Russia, Russia, Russia” hysteria. (It’s still being adjudicated by the John Durham probe, which continues in court May 16.)

If you always thought we were wacky for promoting the birth certificate story, just imagine what Clinton wove in this provably false story that has plagued Trump for more than five years now. It got him spied upon by the government before he ever took office! And at the core of it was Perkins Coie, which is now a defendant – or at least Clinton attorney Michael Sussman is.

Perkins Coie had a hand in the now-infamous anti-Trump dossier. The unverified dossier was authored by Christopher Steele, an ex-British intelligence officer, and commissioned by Fusion GPS.

To support the opposition to compel and justify the assertion of attorney-client privilege, Hillary For American provided declarations from Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook and Clinton campaign chair John Podesta.

Mook, in a declaration filed in court last month, said that in April 2015, Hillary for America “engaged Marc Elias and the law firm of Perkins Coie as its general counsel.”

“It was my expectation that the law firm would be responsible for providing legal services and legal advice to HFA,” Mook states. “When HFA engaged Perkins Coie as its general counsel in April 2015, Donald Trump had not yet announced his candidacy for the presidency. He announced his candidacy in June 2015.”

Other than WND, none in the press was skeptical about the birth certificate story. No one else even examined it – not in the blue state of Hawaii or elsewhere. We did. Perkins Coie got a free ride for the story – just for releasing the document.

Suspicious?

I think so.

WND has been DEMONETIZED by Google and YouTube as of last year. WND is on its own, unlike many other news services. We get by purely by donations now. It’s amazing were still alive – but we are, because of people like you. We’ve lost $15 million year over year just because of Trump proving to be the BEST PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES SINCE RONALD REAGAN. Maybe ever.

And to top it off, Big Tech played a major role by censoring Trump, us and the rest of the independent media during his reelection bid in 2020. In fact, as you will see in the new movie, “2000 Mules,” it was stolen, fixed. The Democrats cheated – big time.

If you want to help us keep our dignity and honor for our continued commitment to publishing and persisting despite what we’ve endured over the last five years – which has cost us the book company, the film company, the digital weekly magazine and countless reporters and employees – you have the opportunity over the next two months as we raise at least $100,000 in new donations.

See what you can do at HELP WND! While we can’t be sure what God projects for the future, we want to be here for another 25 years!

Content created by the WND News Center is available for re-publication without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].

SUPPORT TRUTHFUL JOURNALISM. MAKE A DONATION TO THE NONPROFIT WND NEWS CENTER. THANK YOU!

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.


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