Posted on 05/02/2002 11:37:28 PM PDT by PeteF
Posted: May 3, 2002
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com
WASHINGTON – Happy birthday, WorldNetDaily!
OK, OK, truth be told, today is not actually WorldNetDaily's birthday. The world's leading independent newssite actually turns 5 years old this Sunday. But since I don't write columns on the weekend, I thought this would be a good time to let you know.
And, yes, you're all invited to the party. It takes place right here in cyberspace. Just come as you are, bring your own and join us in celebrating all weekend long – in fact all month long – by reading WorldNetDaily.
We have much to celebrate. Not only do we mark the fifth anniversary of WorldNetDaily, I would argue we are also marking the renaissance of a truly free press in America.
May 5, 1997, is when it all started.
That was the historic, if inauspicious debut.
Elizabeth and I had grand aspirations from the start. But we didn't have confidence that others would share our enthusiasm for a news service that pulled no punches, that blazed new trails, that recaptured the watchdog spirit of the American press and that fearlessly skewered sacred cows.
Five years ago, my wife was the self-taught webmaster and high-tech guru and I was the editorial staff. The whole thing was cooked up nightly in our bedroom/office – mostly after we put the kids to sleep.
We started without fanfare because, truthfully, we had no idea of what we were doing. Nobody had done it before. We were creating a nightly electronic newspaper every day – just the two of us.
In the beginning, WorldNetDaily was primarily a place to go to get a picture of what was going on around the world through links. We always had a few original news stories and there was my daily column. Occasionally Elizabeth would write a column, too. She still does.
However, it didn't take long for us to see that we were on to something with the simple WorldNetDaily formula. Almost immediately, thousands of people discovered us. I don't know how, other than to say that we got a lot of help from hundreds of Internet links and talk-radio hosts from coast to coast.
In fact, we have heard from hundreds of talk-show hosts – some big names and other local radio personalities – who say WorldNetDaily is an essential component of their show prep.
Anyway, within a month or two, we couldn't help but notice we had thousands of people checking out WorldNetDaily every day. So, it inevitably became a bigger part of our lives each and every day for the next five years.
By the summer of 1997, we were adding other original columns (I think Geoff Metcalf may have been the first); Alan Keyes and David Hackworth joined shortly thereafter. We also began running news stories by Sarah Foster and a handful of other staff writers.
We've come a long way since then. We now have about 40 regular columnists, and three – Bill O'Reilly, David Limbaugh and Ilana Mercer – have been syndicated after first appearing only in WorldNetDaily.com. O'Reilly and Limbaugh have also gone on to become best-selling authors. We now have a full-time editorial staff of 13 responsible for maintaining a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week Internet newssite that literally millions depend upon as their main source of news. Our full-time reporting talent includes Washington Bureau Chief Paul Sperry – and we're planning more additions in that all-important den of iniquity soon.
As a result:
But, most of all, WorldNetDaily is leading an information revolution. I don't think I exaggerate when I say this. It is read in 180 nations around the world daily. It is read by the most influential newsmakers and by those in the media who report on them. But it is also the primary source of news for a growing number of regular people, particularly in the United States.
Pretty amazing, considering the humble beginnings. But, I believe, this revolution is still in its infancy. I will predict – right here and now – that WorldNetDaily will soon become the largest news force on the Internet. We're going after CNN and MSNBC. We're already competitive with the New York Times online and the Washington Post's Internet edition. We believe we've only just begun.
And to make this challenge more interesting, I'll even explain our secret right here in front of all the competition. WorldNetDaily is a hit because we do journalism the old-fashioned way. We believe the central role of a free press in a free society is to serve as a watchdog on government. We believe in investigative reporting into government waste, fraud, corruption and abuse. We believe we must be credible, relentless and fiercely independent to succeed. And we believe the truth will set all of us free.
That's our trade secret. And, with God's help, we're going to take it to the top.
Because of this historic anniversary, we decided to dedicate the May issue of Whistleblower magazine to the subject of the press. The result is a groundbreaking expose called "The News Mafia." Don't miss it.
I have recently noticed that the callers to local talk radio are, more and more, getting their information off the 'net. The hosts have been doing this for about a year and a half, but it's encouraging to find that regular folks are doing the same.
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