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Front Page Story

a WorldNetDaily not so exclusive

by arthur Weinreb,

august 11, 2004

Canada Free Press editor Judi McLeod wrote a story entitled, "Tessie’s Cuba Libre?: Canadian arm of Heinz-Kerry electronic octopus hooked Cuba up to Worldwide Net." Published on July 19 of this year, the story reports a link between Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of Democratic Party presidential nominee John Kerry, and the Toronto based company Web/Nirv that provided internet access to the Island of Cuba.

On the morning of august 10, Canada Free Press received an email from a spokesperson for U.S. Representative Lincoln-Diaz-Balart (R-FL). She advised us that the Congressman was holding a press conference later that day "on the story you did regarding, Heinz, Tides, IGC and Castro’s internet network".

Later that day the Congressman, together with fellow Florida representatives, Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen did, in fact hold the press conference. Needless to say the sitting congressional members notified the media of their pending announcement--after all, what’s the sense of holding a press conference if you forget to tell the press. according to Lincoln Diaz-Balart’s office, media kits were sent out to over 1,000 media outlets, containing not only the reason for the press conference but copies of McLeod’s July 19th article as well.

The internet site, WorldNetDaily posted a story later that night. according to WND’s information, it was posted on their site at 11:02 p.m. Eastern, well after the press conference was completed. Under the headline of "Teresa denies financing Castro’s Internet network: 3 members of Congress charge Heinz Kerry with funding Cuban propaganda project", World Net Daily purports that the story is a "WORLDNETDaILY EXCLUSIVE".

The Oxford Dictionary defines "exclusive" in respect of a newspaper article as being something that is "not published or obtainable elsewhere". Judi McLeod first made the connection between Teresa Heinz Kerry and Cuba in her July 19 story and that formed the basis of the press conference held by the members of Congress. By the time World Net Daily posted its article, the media had already had the facts from the press conference and the information was in the public domain. In fact, CNN had run with it on their website much earlier in the day.

Under Oxford’s or anyone else’s definition, the WND story was hardly exclusive.


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