WorldNetDaily has recently started running pleas for donations at the end of its articles , in a box that looks like this:
If that box looks familiar, it should. It appears WND stole its layout and basic content from a very similar box used in a very similar fashion by the British newspaper the Guardian — ironically, a liberal-leaning outlet:
WND cribs the gray background, the yellow highlighted text, the yellow bar at the top of the box, the overall typographical scheme, the random quote from a reader and, apparently, the credit card images from the Guardian’s box. Even the text of WND’s plea hits the same beats as that of the Guardian’s — ad revenues are falling, the desire not to impose a paywall, the attempt to flatter the reader into donating, the reference to “independent, investigative journalism.”
We know that WND has laid off people due to its current dire financial situation, and that it has had problems with plagiarism in the past (not to mention the outright theft of others’ content without permission or compensation that’s a key part of its business model), but this is ridiculous.