What is up at World Net Daily, a source of information for many Americans that are focused on illegal immigration? They presented a story yesterday as breaking news about Mexican military personnel allegedly crossing our border and engaging our law enforcement personnel. Turns out that the story was actually a rehash of a story they ran in early 2006, presented as new material. Why?
Look at the similarities in the articles:
From January 24, 2006 From October 17, 2007 According to a report in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin of Ontario, Calif., both Texas law enforcement and the FBI stated nearly 30 American agents were part of the incident. Mexican soldiers and civilian smugglers engaged in an armed standoff with nearly 30 American law enforcement officials on the southern U.S. border, according to Texas police and the FBI. Chief Deputy Mike Doyal of the Hudspeth County Sheriff’s Department told the paper Mexican military Humvees were towing what appeared to be thousands of pounds of marijuana across the border into the United States.Border Patrol agents called for backup after seeing that Mexican Army troops had several mounted machine guns on the ground more than 200 yards inside the U.S. border – near Neely’s Crossing, about 50 miles east of El Paso. At a spot more than 200 yards inside the U.S., Mexican Army troops set up several mounted machine guns when U.S. Border Patrol agents called for backup Monday, the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin of Ontario, Calif., reported.The paper said Mexican military Humvees were towing what appeared to be thousands of pounds of marijuana across the border into the U.S., according to Chief Deputy Mike Doyal of the Hudspeth County Sheriff’s Department.The incident took place on the Rio Grande near Neely’s Crossing, about 50 miles east of El Paso. Andrea Simmons, a spokeswoman with the FBI’s El Paso office, confirmed the incident, saying, “Bad guys in three vehicles ended up on the border. People with Humvees, who appeared to be with the Mexican army, were involved with the three vehicles in getting them back across.” Confirming the afternoon encounter, FBI spokeswoman Andrea Simmons told the paper, “Bad guys in three vehicles ended up on the border. People with Humvees, who appeared to be with the Mexican Army, were involved with the three vehicles in getting them back across.” “I do think we have to be prepared for the fact that as we press hard on these criminal organizations, some of them will want to fight back,” Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told reporters. But Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff today played down the reports of Mexican military incursions, suggesting many could have been mistakes or criminals dressed in military garb. Last week, Mexican officials denied their military made any incursions.
Screenshots from yesterday and today:
I’ve seen an awful lot of people screaming about bias in the liberal media but where is the outrage about this? When this was mentioned yesterday, people started screaming and hollering again about how porous the border is, how the government is doing nothing to close it and Bush is evil. But when they found out it was an old story trotted out to produce new outrage, they just shrugged their shoulders and continued bashing Bush and the administration’s efforts.
The fact is that tremendous strides have been made at closing the border and slowing the influx. Absolutely, we need to continue to stress the need to stop the flow completely and to address the violence along the border. But do we not have to resort to exaggeration and deception to get our message across. We’re conservatives for goodness sakes, not liberals!
(hat tips to Squawkbox Noise, Hamous and RickG on this)
UPDATE: If you didn’t click fast, you missed the fake article. WND has pulled it down. Of course, we still have the screenshot. (hat tip to texpat)
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55 Responses to “Is World Net Daily ‘Helping’ Fan the Flames on the Border?”Search
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From what I saw in the ” border movie” this could happen frequently. I’m not defending World Net Daily. I wonder how often the same tactics are used to get the drugs here. If it works, why would the smugglers change things?
I detect an agenda….. Who cares about accuracy in the news as long as we can whip the proletariat into foaming anger.
AW, would you be so nonchalant about this if the article was reversed and it made the illegals look good, not bad?
Is it possible we have passed the point where the two sides of the border argument can have a civil discussion based on facts? Both sides seem to be focusing on rhetoric and biased stories to prop up their support. I am even beginning to hear people who are otherwise very reasonable become knee-jerk reactionaries on this topic.
World Nut Daily - your source for propaganda and disinformation.
Anyone who relies on WND for info not verified elsewhere risks looking like a dupe. Some look like dupes with an audience.
duhmoose,
In a direct answer, no, I don’t think it’s possible.
How can we possibly overlook stuff like this and at the same time rail against bias in the MSM?
4. Duhmoose
Good point. Not only possible, but probable. I think the sides started talking past each other during the amnesty debate and never looked back. Now it seems like we are approaching the point where the end justifies the means for both sides, a sort of no-truth-zone.
And if you want to see something even stranger, check out this video of the woman the Nuts used as their original source. In it, she says that she’s been involved in protecting both of California’s borders, the south and the north.
What, are people from Oregon invading too? Makes you question everything about Nut Daily.
http://lang.dailybulletin.com/projects/video/012406_interview.wmv
bigjolly, maybe she’s keeping those crazy Californian’s in instead of trying to keep others out.
8 bigjolly
Obviously, World Nut Daily has no standards. Even the lib publications fire people who are found to have lied (remember Jason Blair), and WND does what? Will we hear Michael Savage or other talk-show hosts railing against the liars at WND? Doubtful.
There you go again Bigjolly, you’re just being a squishy headed communist lefty sympathizer!
Good call! I know this stuff happens. There are too many real incidents to resort to crap like this. I used to read WND, but not any more. They are more like the right wing version of Weekly World News. I’m waiting for a ‘Bat Boy’ story….
http://www.weeklyworldnews.com/
big jolly
The link to the article yesterday is a dead end. They have taken it down. Nothing turns up on the WND internal search or on Google. You caught them !
ITS STILL A Problem, FAN THE FLAMES,
When I cant get an interview for a job I am over qualified for because I dont speak spanish, I have a problem.
When asked why I need to speak spanish for a position in the US as a quality manager I was told that because the production people speak spanish.
DELETED
Opinions are welcome, cursing is not. LST Moderator
Ha, that’s funny texpat.
I suspect they monitored the trackbacks and saw your post. What a bunch of creeps.
I have requested an explanation from the WND editors on this “breaking news” story. If I receive one I’ll post it here.
WND
Started the Ramos and Compean outrage when they stated that Prosecutor Kanoff received a conviction when she screamed at Compean that he did this to his own people
Of course, the transcripts have no record of Kanoff saying anything close to that
Liberal.
Congratulations BJ and Hamous on tracking this to the end, wherever and to whomever it leads. Fake is fake regardless of source or agenda.
Good to see the crowd here at LST is learning to be skeptical of ALL media. I know it always made a good story to say that the “Media” was “Liberally” Biased. And, no doubt that is out there, but, “fixing” the problem with bias that leans towards your side does nothing to fix the problem.
I probably wouldn’t hate foxnews so much if they’d just get rid of their “fair and balanced” BS and come out directly and say that they are a news organization that leans to the right.
But, alot of people like to be fed BS b/c it makes them feel good. I’m glad to see that people here are becoming skeptical of bias from all sides
I notice when you go to responces on the thread about John Cornyn getting it done, there is a World Net Daily poll right here on Lone Star Times.
Could posting an old story have any thing to do with the head of Homeland Security claiming that it didn’t happen and the fact that NOTHING has been done to correct the possibility of it happening again?
trl3,
That isn’t what they did. They reworded the story and presented it as a new incident. There’s no need to make things up to make your case that we need to continue to focus on the border.
And after reading the old story, it’s highly doubtful that it happened as presented then.
WND, almost as bad as the NYT. Really, I quit reading them years ago and generally dismiss any argument referencing one of their articles. If they were a blog, they would be Kos.
#20 Vic
WND has never been considered reliable source of information for contributors here. That is not to say everything they publish is wrong, but they have proven themselves to be suspect. I will quote and link to any source I can corroborate and if I can’t, I’ll state it as such. That includes CBS, NBC, ABC, The Nation, The New Republic or Fox News Channel. Just because I link to a Reuters story doesn’t mean I endorse their demonstrated bias or condone the documented deceptive reportage they have delivered in the past. I don’t trust them anymore than I trust Farah’s WND.
#2 Heh
I think we have always been skeptical, no matter what the source. Bias is one thing. Deception is quite another.
*sidebar alert*!!!
If yall think Dubbya’s oratorial skills are less than stellar (maybe because they ARE? snikker)
Eagle Pass TX Mayor was on O’Reilly last nite ‘trying’ to discuss the border issue……..Lordy Dubbya’s skills match Oliver Wendell Holmes next to THAT guy!
BigJolly
It is highly doubtful that it happened as presented then?
I have heard the Sheriff of Hudspeth County interview about the incident and he supports the story. That nothing has been done to eliminate a similar incident is evident from recent pictures.
Of course the Sheriff of Hudspeth county could have been making it up since we know BigJ can not possibly be wrong.
trl3 - It seems to me that the fact another incident hasn’t occurred, and WND had to resort to posting a two-year-old story as “breaking news”, is a pretty good indication that maybe something has indeed been done to eliminate similar incidents.
UREGENT!! URGENT ALERT!!!
Red Meat Shortage At WND!!!!
News at 11.
trl3
“the incident” happened. Only “the incident” in question happened over a year ago. WND tried to pull a fast one and got caught.
Your accusations against Bigjolly are unfounded, petty and trite.
And furthermore there are 3 other names associated (note the hat tip at the bottom) with the LST story, are you suggesting that “we made stuff up” too?
So the article was false? No BigJ, I don’t approve of World Net Daily, placing phony articles to fire people up. My post this morning was meant to say……… if we are critizing their article because it sounds like the first one, it’s because they bring in drugs the same way repeatedly. I do not understand why World Net Daily needs to lie about a problem where there is enough info to have something new and fresh daily. Would I be as incensed if this story were run by the other side? My bias is for my point of view.
AW, I hate to belabor the point, but if they continue to bring in drugs the same way (Mexican Army with machine gun turrets on US soil) why have there been no new stories? Why did WND have to resurrect an almost two year old story? If this was routinely happening I would be ticked off if every news media outlet didn’t have it plastered all over their front page.
#35 Hamous, In the Border Movie, they stated the Mexican Army with machine guns in turrets are on our side all the time…. they run into each other. Sometimes, they get lost, sometimes it’s for other reasons. The point is it happens frequently. There is no outcry about illegal drug smuggling on the boarder, period. When have you seen the MSM say anything? It happens nightly, one way or another. I meant…….. there is enough info nightly, if anyone cared, to write articles about the smuggling that goes on. Those on the border know the Mexican military is on American soil frequently. That’s not such an outrage to me, as the mule trains of drugs coming in nightly, or being smuggled in, in other ways.
AW, I googled drug smugglers mexican border and found news stories from:
AP
Fox
Houston Chronicle
Dallas Morning News
ABC
CBS
NBC
Fort Worth Star Telegram
Seattle Times
and about 350 other hits. Most of us agree there is a serious lack of control on the border. The point of this story is there is no need to whip up a frenzy by misleading your readers. There is enough real news to do that. It’s intellectually dishonest and WND knows that. That’s why they took the story down as soon as people started smelling a rat. I hoped they would respond but no word yet.
Hamous I agree there is no reason to run a false story. I don’t go to the internet for news, maybe that’s why I’m not hearing much. I get it from the radio.
I thought that that article sounded familiar when I skimmed it yesterday. I meant to look at it more closely later on, to see if it was a similar occurrence, or one of their “on this day in 200x” posts, but I didn’t get around to it. It didn’t occur to me that it might be microwaved news. I hope they come up with a good explanation for what happened, because up to this point I’ve always liked and trusted WND for the most part.
Oh, I read Drudge. Sometimes Breitbart ……
I just emailed corrections@worldnetdaily.com and gave them the permalink.
#32
Squawk
Unless I’m misunderstanding you, BJ said in his #23 he thought the original story was doubtful after last night saying the story was reported all over the place when originally reported.
Can’t speak for BigJolly and his beliefs GJT.
However from all that I read and heard when the “first story” broke I believe it was legit. Guess I shoulda made that distinction. Thanks for keepin me straight.
GJT,
I said that it’s doubtful that it happened “as presented”. I’ve no doubt that something happened, I too heard the sheriff at the time. But listening to the reporter in the link I put above, she’s not “right”. She’s enjoying her 2 minutes of fame a little too much and I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a bit of “embellishing” going on in her story in the Daily Bulletin, which is where WND first got it.
#30 #32
The breaking news is that both the Mexican Government and the Department of Homeland Security just declared that it never happened.
THAT IS WHY THE STORY WAS REPEATED!!!
trl3
Where did they “just declare” that it never happened? I can’t seem to find it but if you point me in the right direction, it might help to clear this up.
Thanks.
BTW, they didn’t mange to get it taken down before the Google bot got it.
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:7vmiHVrC4i4J:www.wnd.com/news/article.asp%3FARTICLE_ID%3D58196+homeland+security+mexican+army&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us&client=firefox-a
Read the last paragraph of the story you supplied above.
Possibly, It should have been the first paragraph so that it was clear that it was due to the denial of an old story. I would have made it the first paragraph.
Now whether the paragraph was placed last to make it look like a new incident may be debatable but the fact remains the the DHS just tried to minimize the incident the day of this latest printing and Mexico denied it altogether about a week before the latest printing. I believe that is why the story was reprinted.
I also believe the Sheriff and his accounting of the event, So I still believe that it did in fact happen and Photographs supplied by “eyes on the border” a month or so ago indicate nothing has been done to stop it from happening again.
Have a good day and a great weekend, I have to go to the farm and finish the plowing so I can plant the wheat.
trl3, two years ago the Mexican government denied it. And two years ago Chertoff didn’t say it never happened. According to the WND articles (the old one and the false one) he “downplayed” the incident.
There is no excuse for fabricating a story. WND knows that. Why else would they quietly remove it and walk away whistling? If they were reputable they would print a retraction for attempting to mislead their readers.
btw, still no reply from them.
trl3
C’mon. The proof is in the pudding. They pulled the fabricated story. Unfortunately, it is all over the net still as true. Check Liberty Post, FreeRepublic, etc.
A complete fabrication is making it around the net. Not good.
trl3
I just finished Googling everything Chertoff has said and the papers have picked up for the last month. Guess what. Nothing was said about the border incursions. So I did a lexisnexis search (hat tip to one of clients for sharing his subscription with me) and guess what, to my dismay there was nothing found there.
I stand by our assertion that the recent WND article is a bogus misrepresentation of CURRENT EVENTS. I still want to know the motivation.
Finally
Don’t you find it just the least bit suspect that the two stories are near mirror images of each other and not one “major publication” picked up on the story?
Guys deny it all you want, The same piece is about DHS down playing the story and Mexico denying the story is in every attachment BigJolly posted including No. 47.
I you do not want to believe that is your god given right a an American.
One other final word before I start North to the farm,
Failure to recognize an event for what it is or was, and the failure to take any preventive messures is why IT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN. Remember you heard it here first.
Have a Great weekend, I know I will.
I agree. I recognized the fake article for what it was. I’m taking preventive measure to make certain that whenever I see people source WND, I won’t bother to read it.