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Inside the spectacular fall of the granddaddy of right-wing conspiracy sites (WND)
WaPo ^ | April 2, 2019 | Manuel Roig-Franzia

Posted on 04/03/2019 11:30:29 AM PDT by Seizethecarp

In the feverish heyday of the “birther movement,” conspiracy-hungry readers swarmed to a website called WorldNetDaily for the latest on the specious yet viral theory that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.

The site’s founder, Joseph Farah — a former newspaperman with a dense, jet-black mustache and a cloak-and-dagger mystique — boasted in 2010 that he was well on the way to generating $10 million a year in revenue. His Northern Virginia-headquartered news site, known by the acronym WND, was having its moment by stoking rumors about Obama.

But Farah — a conservative Internet pioneer who’d once been labeled by the Clinton White House as part of a right-wing media conspiracy and was known to sport a pistol on his hip in the office—saw bigger things. Years earlier he’d launched one of the first large-scale digital newsgathering operations; now he wanted to be a player in Christian-themed movies and book publishing, churning out titles by big-name conservatives, such as anti-feminist Phyllis Schlafly and future House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.).

He was building an empire.

A decade later, that realm is being sucked into a tornado of unpaid bills, pink-slipped employees, chaotic accounting, declining revenue and diminishing readership, according to interviews with more than 25 former employees, shareholders, company insiders and authors associated with the firm's flailing publishing units, as well as a review of hundreds of internal documents, including emails and financial statements obtained by The Washington Post.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: barackobama; birthcertificate; california; devinnunes; districtofcolumbia; dnctalkingpoint; dnctalkingpoints; farah; farahhealth; farahstroke; jeffbezos; joefarah; josephfarah; manuelroigfranzia; mediawingofthednc; naturalborncitizen; partisanmediashills; phyllisschlafly; presstitutes; rachelmadcow; rachelmaddow; smearmachine; thatsamanman; twitter; vrwc; washingtoncompost; washingtonpost; weirdnutdaily; wnd; worldnetdaily
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1 posted on 04/03/2019 11:30:29 AM PDT by Seizethecarp
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To: Seizethecarp

consider the source....


2 posted on 04/03/2019 11:32:40 AM PDT by DCBryan1 (Quit calling them liberals, progs, socialists, or democrats. Call them what they are: COMMUNISTS!!!!)
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To: Seizethecarp

From the Washington Post? No thanks.


3 posted on 04/03/2019 11:32:50 AM PDT by caver
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To: Seizethecarp

Bastards. The guy had a stroke so in their sick mind it’s the perfect time to attack him.


4 posted on 04/03/2019 11:33:18 AM PDT by DesertRhino (Dog is man's best friend, and moslems hate dogs. Add that up. ....)
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To: Seizethecarp

He should have stayed with being an informative site and resisted competing with Alex Jones.

I use to subscribe to WND, in the days when he mailed it in a brown paper wrap.

Luv’d it.

It was my version of conservative porn...


5 posted on 04/03/2019 11:35:32 AM PDT by Vendome (I've Gotta Be Me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BB0ndRzaz2o)
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To: Seizethecarp

“Birtherism” is the greatest Alinsky ever perpetrated. Those who use the term assist in the denigration of the Constitution
They have gotten the American people to reject one of the most valuable safeguards bequeathed to us by the founders.
The natural born citizen clause served us well until we allowed it to be ignored.
Barry Soetoro/Barack Hussein Obama should be proof enough of the wisdom of the founders when they tried to prevent him from being President by requiring someone who could only be a US citizen and nothing else.
Born here of citizen parents.
Naturally a US citizen because there is no other possibility.
One cannot be anything else and also be a natural born citizen.

It does not matter if he was born in Hawaii if his father was a foreign national.
Children of foreign nationals inherit the nationality of their foreign national parent(s).
Natural born citizen means born here of citizen parents.
People born with divided loyalties, allegiance and citizenship are not naturally Americans.
The children of foreign nationals are precisely who the founders were excluding from the office.
Only when one cannot be anything else can one be a natural born citizen.

No foreign birth.
No foreign parent(s)
No foreign citizenship(s)
No foreign influence on the Presidency is what John Jay stated in a letter to George Washington as the reason for insisting on a natural born citizen.

Obama told us he was born a British subject.

Who believes Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Jay, Monroe, Madison, etc. would have found him to be a natural born citizen?

Who believes they would have thought the recently deceased King of Thailand was eligible to be President?
He was born in Cambridge MA.

Usurpation Day, January 20, 2009, happened with the complete cooperation of both parties.
They want the Constitution changed without the hassle of amending the Constitution.
Confuse people about the clear meaning of a three word phrase and voila, every anchor baby and Winston Churchill is eligible.

The bench was the reason the GOP went along with the fig leaf resolution for McCain that was used by the Democrats as cover for Obama.
Jindal, Rubio, Haley, George P. Bush and Cruz were all up and comers and the future of the party and ineligible.

The truth of the Kenyanesian Usurpation will never see the light of day because both parties cooperated in the violation of the Constitution


6 posted on 04/03/2019 11:35:33 AM PDT by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizen Means Born Here Of Citizen Parents_Know Islam, No Peace-No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: Seizethecarp

A right wing conspiracy site? Anyone who is critical of leftists is now a conspiracy theorist.


7 posted on 04/03/2019 11:36:17 AM PDT by gattaca ("Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives." Ronald Reagan)
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To: bitt; LucyT; null and void; Cold Case Posse Supporter; Flotsam_Jetsome; circumbendibus; ...

Ping to WaPo reporting on the fall of WND and its reporting on the “specious yet viral theory that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.”


8 posted on 04/03/2019 11:37:36 AM PDT by Seizethecarp
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To: Vendome
I use to subscribe to WND, in the days when he mailed it in a brown paper wrap.Me too! The good old days of Clintonian conspiracy.

I lost track of them over the years as they got silly.

9 posted on 04/03/2019 11:37:46 AM PDT by dead (Our next president is going to be sooooo boring.)
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To: Seizethecarp
Written by one of Bezos Beotches?

No thanks.

10 posted on 04/03/2019 11:37:57 AM PDT by RckyRaCoCo (Please Pray For My Brother Ken)
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To: Seizethecarp
A decade later, that realm is being sucked into a tornado of unpaid bills, pink-slipped employees, chaotic accounting, declining revenue and diminishing readership

Wait, are we talking about WND or WaPo?

11 posted on 04/03/2019 11:38:37 AM PDT by ETCM
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To: Seizethecarp

Wouldn’t believe a thing the Washington Post says.


12 posted on 04/03/2019 11:39:35 AM PDT by DiogenesLamp ("of parents owing allegiance to no other sovereignty.")
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To: Vendome

Yep.

I remember when WND was a good news site. That was a long time ago. Click bait money is too good to pass up?


13 posted on 04/03/2019 11:40:11 AM PDT by jjotto (Next week, BOOM!, for sure!)
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To: Vendome
He should have stayed with being an informative site and resisted competing with Alex Jones.

I had typed something similar, would've been post #3 then thought better of it not wanting to get attacked for saying it.

Am glad you had the guts so I can at least say "I agree."

WND's best days are well in its rearview mirror. I haven't visited there in years, they skeered too far into nutjob land for my taste.

14 posted on 04/03/2019 11:43:37 AM PDT by usconservative (When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box Does. (What's In Your Ammo Box?))
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Comment #15 Removed by Moderator

To: Seizethecarp
WND was at its best when Paul Sperry was their investigative reporter. His series on the Clinton White House email and telephone system scandal was excellent.

WND hit their prime when they challenged the White House press credentials process that excluded the emerging web-based alternative media from access.

Finally, their multi-part series on the Gore family influence in Tennessee cost Al Gore the election when he lost the vote in his own state.

-PJ

16 posted on 04/03/2019 11:46:07 AM PDT by Political Junkie Too (The 1st Amendment gives the People the right to a free press, not CNN the right to the 1st question.)
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To: Seizethecarp

“the spending control was less than ideal”


17 posted on 04/03/2019 11:47:39 AM PDT by babble-on
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Comment #18 Removed by Moderator

To: Seizethecarp
“There has never been a force like the combined power of Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Amazon and Apple in the world before

True dat.

19 posted on 04/03/2019 11:50:08 AM PDT by Drango (A liberal's compassion is limited only by the size of someone else's wallet.)
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To: Seizethecarp

WP, you would’ve be dead and buried years ago, if it weren’t for Jeff Bezos.


20 posted on 04/03/2019 11:55:49 AM PDT by Robert DeLong
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