It’s been sweet watching the Alex Jones empire crumble, and that tin-pot emperor getting his balls ground to goo in courtroom depositions, but this is even better: Whirled Nuts Daily, aka World Net Daily, is collapsing. Best of all, it’s falling apart in a whirlwind of mismanagement and corruption by its founder, Joseph Farah, and has been stiffing the conspiracy theorists they call “writers”.
Coburn recalled in an interview that he had a “very frank and disturbing” conversation last year with Farah about unpaid royalties for his 2017 book, “Smashing the D.C. Monopoly.”
“I accused him of not being honest,” Coburn said. “He doesn’t keep his commitments. He doesn’t keep his word.”
Other authors, initially attracted to WND by the image Farah crafted for himself as a devout evangelical Christian, have groused that they paid WND’s pay-to-publish division thousands of dollars to have their books printed but haven’t received the royalties they were promised or other items, such as audio versions of their works. Their complaints, requests for basic accounting statements and pleas for help were largely ignored, according to emails and interviews with more than a dozen authors.
The secret to keeping their scam afloat for so long was…religion. That was the brand they were peddling, that because they were devout Christians, they could do no wrong.
At points scattered across the country, others reached the same conclusion: They could trust WND because of its Christian values.
I long ago reached the opposite conclusion: if an organization brags about it’s piety, that’s a clear sign that they’ve got no integrity.
While WND provided blog fodder for years, I’m not going to miss them at all. Hillary had Vince Foster murdered, Ray Comfort and Kevin Sorbo as columnists (clearly rivaling the NY Times in quality), aliens, gay bashing, bomb the Muslims, all that kind of crap promoted by Farah and acting as an inspiration to people like Alex Jones…no, just fall into a pit of bankruptcy and die, WND.
mikehuben says
I’m afraid you’ll get no relief: some other religious scammer will see the opportunity and step into their place. Probably within a year.
Jeremy Shaffer says
Trying not to make broad generalizations, but so far every time I’ve encountered a business touting its Christian beliefs as bona fides the result has always been the quality of the service or goods provided lacking, especially in proportion to the prices being charged. And that’s when they’re honest, for a certain definition of honest; more than a few have been outright scams.
I’m willing to grant there are decent Christian organizations out there, but if I come across a group or business and their Christianity is all they’re presenting in favor of their selves I give it a hard pass.
To be fair, the NYT have Bret Stephens and Bari Weiss and don’t seem to have any inclination of booting them anytime soon.
Dunc says
“Never do business with a religious son-of-a-bitch. His word ain’t worth a shit – not with the Good Lord telling him how to fuck you on the deal.” ― William S. Burroughs
Dunc says
OK, let’s try that again, with some of the swears redacted… I guess the filtering is a bit twitchier than I thought.
“Never do business with a religious son-of-a-b****. His word ain’t worth a shit — not with the Good Lord telling him how to f*** you on the deal.” ― William S. Burroughs
chigau (違う) says
Dunc
It was probably the word “bitch”.
“shit” and “fuck” don’t usually matter.
chigau (違う) says
OK
maybe not
tbp1 says
Affinity scams are always in season.
thirdmill301 says
My father once told me that when someone goes out of their way to tell you how morally upright they are, grab your wallet with one hand, your zipper with the other, and get out of there as fast as you can. He tended to be a bit vulgar but his point was well taken.
davidc1 says
Serves them right ,them bastards did dun do deleted my account a few years back .Only able to post comments for one day before i was banned .Just because i pointed out what it says in the users guide about how christians are supposed to welcome strangers .
Marcus Ranum says
I won’t dance until the valkyries sing.
Leo Buzalsky says
Along the lines of what mikehuben said @1, it seems to me that this was also inevitable because of their target audience’s preferred medium having changed, which now seems to be YouTube. (Which, in turn, may be because of a generational shift in the target audience and WND didn’t adjust to that shift.) But not because there isn’t a target audience to cater to, unfortunately. :(
Jeff Flanagan says
“Never do business with a religious son-of-a-bitch. His word ain’t worth a shit — not with the Good Lord telling him how to fuck you on the deal.”
― William S. Burroughs
gijoel says
Well there’s your problem. Money should always flow to the author. Otherwise you have bought into a vanity press scheme.
Crip Dyke, Right Reverend Feminist FuckToy of Death & Her Handmaiden says
@Jeremy Shaffer:
Wait, did you think that parenthetical was facetious? I took it literally.
titolasvegas says
I, for one, am shocked (SHOCKED!!) to hear they’re going under. They were rated as the most reliable news site by Enumclaw.com!
Those of you from South King county are rightly wowed by that knowledge drop.
mountainbob says
Bob’s basic rule: if the ad or billboard touts Christian values or any related code-phrase, I refuse to consider shopping or buying there. That’s an absolute! Goes for the trinket shops as well as the funeral parlors. Car dealers and camper lots are included, as are campgrounds and repair centers. Yup, doctors and dentists, ditto. No exceptions.
Ishikiri says
@Dunc #4: The version of the quote I remember starts with the sentence: “If you’re doing business with a religious SOB, get it in writing.”
Oggie: Mathom says
Ishikiri @15:
However, one must always keep in mind that Christian writings are open to endless exegesis and anything that is written can be used to justify anything that the Christian wants because of their personal relationship with god(s).
Allison says
Ishikiri @15:
Getting it in writing is not enough, as people who were foolish enough to enter into contracts with Mr. Trump have discovered. It needs to be full payment in cash in advance.
WMDKitty -- Survivor says
~evil laugh~
markkernes says
Farah’s daughter is PENCE’S PRESS SECRETARY?!?!?!?!?!?!? Holy “Jesus”!!!