This year, the far-right news site WorldNetDaily has been consumed with “investigating” Barack Obama’s eligibility to be president. But with the climate summit in Copenhagen approaching, WorldNetDaily has found some time to chase another big scandal: the coming era of one-world government, to be engineered by a secretive gaggle of world leaders using climate change as a cover. In order to report on this unfolding conspiracy, WND sought media credentials for its staff writer, Jerome Corsi. But the United Nations denied the request—and now WorldNetDaily is threatening to sue.
According to WND, a media co-ordinator named Axel Wuestenhagen turned down the website’s request on the grounds that “advocacy publications of non-governmental or non-profit organizations do not qualify for media accreditation.” WND’s editor, Joseph Farah, counters that WND is an independent for-profit media corporation (the site also claims to be “the largest English-language independent Internet news agency.”)
The UN announced earlier this week that it was suspending credential applications after receiving 5,000 requests, more than the venue at Copenhagen can hold. But it’s possible that WND’s journalistic track record didn’t help its case, either. This year, WND published a document circulated by the queen bee of the birther movement, Orly Taitz, who claimed it was Barack Obama’s Kenyan birth certificate. It was quickly shown to be a fake. Corsi, the staff writer that WND wanted to dispatch to Copenhagen, is the author of Unfit for Command, the book that fueled the swiftboating of John Kerry during the 2004 election. His second book, Obama Nation, was packed with so many errors that FactCheck.org said it would take a separate book to list them all. Last month, he wrote a piece that falsely claimed that Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter, had advised the Obama transition team on homeland security matters.
WND’s coverage of climate change has been similarly disingenuous. The site has published pieces—including some by Corsi—stating that the Earth is cooling, not warming, that science does not prove the existence of climate change, and that Obama’s science czar, John Holdren, advocated forced abortions. Another piece observed that a British campaign to make children aware of energy efficiency was reminiscent of the Hitler Youth in Nazi Germany. WND has also sought to profit from its climate denialist stance. Its online store sells DVDs such as Global Warming or Global Governance? —just $14.99—which shows “how global governance puts global institutions that are not accountable to the American people in control of every aspect of our economy.” Or, as WND editor Farah puts it: “These guys are essentially trying to take over the world.” He’s threatening to “aggressively” pursue all legal avenues should Corsi be denied access to the summit.
