World Net Daily Signs on to Nazis-Were-Gays Tall Tale
World Net Daily (WND) is generally known for its right-wing and conspiracy-oriented bent. However, along with its long-time support for birther arguments and dark warnings about the Federal Reserve, the site also is thick with hard-line anti-gay propagandizing. In November 2010, for example, WND released an edition of its magazine devoted entirely to "America's Gay Obsession." It included articles by long-time anti-gay propagandists like Peter LaBarbera, who directs the hate group Americans for Truth about Homosexuality and was recently heard fretting about gay TSA agents accosting people in security lines. But that's par for the course for an online publication that once ran a six-part series on how soy products cause homosexuality.
So it should come as no surprise that WND is now selling a "new edition" of the anti-gay fairy tale, The Pink Swastika, via its website.
Written by Kevin Abrams and anti-gay activist Scott Lively, whose Abiding Truth Ministries is an SPLC-designated hate group, the book claims that the Nazi Party was full of homosexual men who largely orchestrated the Holocaust. In fact, according to the book's authors, "the Nazi party was entirely controlled by militaristic male homosexuals throughout its short history." Furthermore, Lively and Abrams argue, persecution of homosexuals during Nazi Germany is largely a myth.
On the WND Superstore site, the book's description says that it "makes the case that the Nazi Party is best understood as a neo-pagan, homosexual cult." Joseph Farah, WND's editor-in-chief, chairman and CEO, is quoted in the description as saying that "with the mandating of open homosexuality in the military and the widespread promotion of same-sex marriage," Americans can now see the book's "relevance." Farah dismisses the criticism of the book, much of which comes from authoritative historians, and makes the claim that "[t]he book more than stands up to all the attacks I've seen, most of which are completely baseless."
Really? For a site that purports to be "dedicated to uncompromising journalism, seeking truth and justice and revitalizing the role of the free press as a guardian of liberty," Farah seems to have missed a few things about The Pink Swastika.
Warren Throckmorton, a professor at Christian-based Grove City College in Pennsylvania, has authored several blogs about the inaccuracies and misleading use of sources in The Pink Swastika. In one series, Dr. Jon David Wyneken, a historian at Grove City College who specializes in German history from 1933-1955, carefully analyzed the claims in the book (here and here), concluding, "Lively’s book is simply not good history and is, in fact, not really history at all." Instead, Wyneken said, "[I]t is a book that uses history as a weapon in a contemporary political battle," and is "completely outside the historical context of Nazi Germany."
None of which matters to Farah, who has made a career out of peddling conspiracy theories, unsubstantiated claims, and anti-gay propaganda since 1997. Small wonder that the site's nickname among those who don't buy into its message is "World Nut Daily."
