An Irritated World Net Daily Denounces Terrible Reviews
For an organization that loathes the mainstream media, World Net Daily sure craves their acceptance. The book publishing division of the far-right, Obama-obsessed organization released a new title about the president last week and it’s furious about the contempt with which major news organizations have greeted it. So much so that WND sent out two E-mail alerts last week to complain bitterly about the hostility. And, in a novel marketing ploy, the publisher urges people to buy the book as a means of defying the same traditional media whose approval it covets.
The book — The Manchurian President: Barack Obama’s Ties to Communists, Socialists and Other Anti-American Extremists by Aaron Klein and Brenda J. Elliott — was among Amazon.com’s top 10 sellers last week; it had fallen to 16th as of this morning. It claims to have uncovered “copious new details” about Obama’s ties to one-time Weather Underground co-founder William Ayers and to a “radical, far-left church” during his childhood, as well as his supposed associations with the Nation of Islam and black political extremists. There also are claims linking Obama senior advisers Valerie Jarrett and David Axelrod to communist activists.
“The book seeks to expose an extremist coalition of communists, socialists and other radicals working both inside and outside the administration to draft and advance current White House policy goals,” says a WND press release.
This is standard fare at WND, which continues to obsess over Obama’s birthplace, even though there is no credible evidence he was born anywhere but Hawaii, making him a U.S. citizen.
Klein’s publicist was greeted, not with mere indifference, but downright hostility after she sent press releases pitching The Manchurian President to her list of media contacts. She couldn’t even give the book to some of them. Here were some responses she received, according to WND:
• “Ridiculous crap” — a New York Daily News editor
• “Absolute crap” — a Huffington Post editor
• “Never, ever contact me again” — a Time magazine writer
• “Sensational rubbish” — a Newsweek editor
• “Seriously, get a life” — an AOL writer
Some might see these responses as merely reflecting a lack of interest in searching for dubious links floated by often anonymous sources to draw predictable conclusions. WND, however, sees it as proof of that the media is protecting an undeserving president. The Web-based publisher breezily dismisses the mainstream news organizations as “the dying, dinosaur media” who are “not even interested in a good story! That’s why it’s important for you to crush the gatekeepers, stomp on them, destroy their temples, burn their groves, smash their false idols. You can do that by doing the opposite of what they want you to do. In this case, they don’t want you to know about Manchurian President, apparently because it dethrones one of their political icons. So be sure to read it.”
And then, WND helpfully displays a link and a telephone number to order the book and “poke them right in the eye by being aware of their efforts to control you and what you know” — and, of course, to help WND’s bottom line.
