Tuesday, January 18, 2005

WorldNetDaily refuses to tell its readers the full story about arrested anti-gay protesters.

Among the pro-protester talking points mentioned in nearly every WND story:
The group was merely "preaching God's Word" at Outfest.
The charges faced by the five protesters “could put them in jail for 47 years.”
The protesters were involved in a confrontation with a group called the Pink Angels, always described as "a militant mob of homosexuals"; it's also noted that "none of the Pink Angels were cited or arrested."
A video proves that the protesters were simply "peacefully evangelizing."
WND editor Joseph Farah spent a Dec. 20 column defending the protesters and railing against the police and prosecutors, taking care to repeat all the spin points. Farah wrote that the case of the "Christians are facing 47 years in jail for expressing their free-speech rights" is "one of the most brazen, frontal attacks on religious freedom and free speech I have seen in my lifetime." Farah claims that the protesters were "peaceful and calm at all times, despite what appears to be extraordinary provocation, intimidation and harassment," yet were arrested for "a long list of felonies and hate crimes that would make the Founding Fathers spin in their graves." Farah added: "If these charges stand, Christians across America will soon be hunted down like dogs as they are in many parts of the world today as the most persecuted religious group on the planet."
Yet for all of this apoplexy, WND has never reported what prosecutors and police have had to say about this case.

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