For months now, WorldNetDaily has attacked Hillary Clinton by forwarding armchair analyses by so-called health experts who have never examined her (and Dolly Kyle) pontificating on Hillary’s purportedly fragile health. Well, as part of WND’s effort to avoid discussing Donald Trump’s mental health issues, it got to do so again in an unbylined article regurgitating dubious speculation by other dubious right-wing websites:
In this heated presidential race where being “fit” and “stable” have become terms in the arsenal of both campaigns, startling photographs emerged Sunday showing Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton apparently getting help in climbing up some stairs.
[…]
The photos, published by the Reuters and Getty news agencies, show Mrs. Clinton, 68, receiving help as she tries to ascend a staircase in front of a home. The images were actually taken in February when the former first lady was campaigning for president in South Carolina.
The popular Drudge Report splashed a banner headline Sunday evening that stated, “2016: Hillary conquers the stairs.”Reporter Kyle Olson of the American Mirror asked in a brief article about the new photos on the stairs, “At what point is the mainstream media going to question Clinton’s health status?”
Of course, a six-month-old of Hillary being helped up stairs proves absolutely nothing — not that WND will ever admit it, of course. As the Washington Post’ David Weigel pointed out, this barrage was part of how “the Drudge Report, WorldNetDaily and a small army of would-be Twitter sleuths tried to build the case that the Democratic nominee for president has serious health issues and only they had noticed.”
Weigel goes on to further bust WND:
Indeed, for other websites critical of Clinton, the “stairs” photo was just one part of a #HillarysHealth mosaic. It gave WorldNetDaily a hook to resurrect “a July 21 video posted on YouTube [which] shows Clinton’s head suddenly turning and shaking vigorously for several seconds.” That video, titled “Hillary Clinton has seizure/convulsions – tries to play it off making fun of seizures,” was also robbed of its context. Two clips of Clinton bobbing her head had been looped and slowed down, as ominous music and voice-overs played behind them — a combination that helped the clip score 1.4 million views.
The clip wasn’t from July 21, and (as the scrum of media should have indicated) it wasn’t rescued from pro-Clinton censors. It was from June 10, when Clinton, fresh off a series of wins that effectively locked up the Democratic nomination, held a few events ahead of the District of Columbia’s primary. Beat reporters followed Clinton to a coffee shop in the Shaw neighborhood; CNN’s Dan Merica, to her left, asked her about the breaking news of President Obama’s official endorsement. Then, to her right, the Associated Press’s Lisa Lerer asked a question about Elizabeth Warren, whom Clinton had met with as vice presidential speculation swirled.
The reporters, who had covered Clinton for a year, interpreted her exaggerated head-bobbing as a joke at how she’d been suddenly surrounded — and as a successful attempt at ending the scrum. It did not occur to them that it would become seen as evidence of a “seizure,” as people suffering from seizures do not typically laugh and continue to hold cups of coffee.
In WorldNetDaily’s coverage, the evidence that Clinton’s bobble-head moment resembled a seizure is that bloggers said it did.
WND’s article, meanwhile, devolves into a rehash of its previous attempt to avoid talking about Trump’s mental health issues by trying to raise questions about Clinton’s mental health — which is lazy padding and, frankly kinda sad.No wonder WND is in financial trouble.