Bach in March, we wondered why WorldNetDaily’s Joseph Farah was begging for money to run commercials for Jerome Corsi’s birther book. Now we must wonder what happened to those commercials — and the money.
In a March 27 article, WND kicked off its publicity campaign for Corsi’s “Where’s the Birth Certificate?” by declaring that “WND needs to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to air these commercials on television networks and stations throughout the country” and begging readers for money, with only the promise of a signed copy of Corsi’s book in return.
But to our knowledge, no commercials for the book have ever aired on TV. And the page at the WND online store to donate to the ad campaign now redirects to a general page about Corsi’s book, with no mention whatsoever about the donation drive.
So what happened? Did nobody answer Farah’s pleas, perhaps concluding that, since WND is a for-profit operation, he can use his own money to buy ads? Or did Farah decide that the book received enough free publicity (i.e., from Drudge) that paid advertising was superfluous?
And if people did donate to the ad campaign, what happened to that money? Did Farah return it, or is he hoarding it for some future Obama-bashing endeavor?
Farah has generally declared himself exempt from the accountability he demands from others. Given that this is a case that involves him publicly soliciting money from others for his business ventures, it would be prudent and moral of him to just as publicly account for where the heck that money went and prove that it wasn’t diverted to, say, WND’s day-to-day operations or remodeling his house.
Then again, he never promised accountability, so one could say that Farah’s scam of profiting off other people’s money appears to have been a success — not exactly a business model most reputable schools teach.
Caveat emptor.