There’s a very good piece on the Think Progress web site about the Drudge Report’s role in sending tens of millions of web surfers to two right-wing conspiracy sites, Alex Jones’ libertarian-conspiracist Prison Planet, and Joseph Farah’s apocalypse-watching WorldNetDaily. Here’s an excerpt:
The final count [of 30-million visitors sent to these two sites from Drudge in the last year] does not include Drudge’s 7 permanent links to WND columnists and 2 permanent links to Infowars. Here are brief summaries of just 5 of the stories Drudge linked to directly on conspiracy websites over the past year. An excerpt, detailing some of the stories that Drudge has promoted:
1. Obama secretly worked for the CIA in Pakistan. “Database reports from the National Student Clearinghouse have contradicted President Obama’s claim he attended Columbia University for two years…Swirling amid the black hole of information are a host of theories about Obama’s whereabouts – particularly during the 1981-1982 school year – including speculation he was working for the CIA in Pakistan.” [WND, 7/8/12]
2. Andrew Breitbart assassinated to prevent release of damaging information about Obama. “In a stunning coincidence, It appears Andrew Breitbart suffered his untimely death just hours before he was set to release damning video footage that could have sunk Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign.” [InfoWars, 3/2/12; WND 3/1/12]
3. Conservative journalists will be ‘hunted down like dogs’ in an Obama second term. “World Net Daily editor and prominent Obama administration critic Joseph Farah revealed how his secluded property was buzzed by a spy drone – part of what Farah fears is a ‘war’ being waged by the administration against its political adversaries…’ Look – this is the first term – if he’s re-elected it’s going to be war – they will be at war – we will be hunted down like dogs, keep that in mind, that’s what the stakes are,’ said Farah.” [InfoWars, 7/6/12]
4. Angelina Jolie should be arrested for war crimes. “The United Nations’ history of war crimes and massacres is legendary, and just as Joseph Goebbels operated as a propaganda minister for the Nazis, Jolie, who is officially employed by the UN, is their mouthpiece.” [InfoWars, 3/11/12]
5. Bill Ayers’ family paid for Obama to attend school as a foriegn student. “Did former Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers help finance Barack Obama’s Harvard education? Did Ayers’ mother believe Obama was a foreign student?” [WND, 3/19/12]
Read the rest here.
