WND’s Insanely Biased And Negative Coverage Of Tim Walz

WorldNetDaily went well beyond its usual right-wing partisan bias to publish numerous falsehoods about the Democratic vice presidential candidate.

Nov 20, 2024

Even more so than in 2016 and 2020, WorldNetDaily has given up the pretense that it’s a “news” organization and is completely dedicated to being a (Paid?) pro-Trump propaganda rag. For instance, WND’s initial reaction to the naming of Tim Walz as Kamala Harris’ running mate, WND made a post on Witter/X that was parroted right-wing talking points against Vance, claiming he “Let BLM rioters burn Minnesota down” (not true, given that Minnesota is obviously still standing), “Abandoned his military unit” (not true), and “Made schools put tampons in boys bathrooms” (also not true).

Bob Unruh embedded that post in his Aug. 6 article on Walz that made no effort to prove any of those claims.

Indeed, WND’s coverage of Walz has been wildly and extremely biased and negative. Here’s a sampling of Walz-bashing articles WND has published over the past couple of months:

This outrageous bias unsurprisingly spread to WND’s coverage of the vice presidential debate. Unruh huffed in an Oct. 1 article:

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a far-left extremist picked by Kamala Harris to be her vice presidential candidate this year, turned up ready for the vice presidential debate with GOP candidate JD Vance on Tuesday night in New York.
And in answer to the first question, about whether Israel should take a first-strike attitude in response to Iran’s terrorist attack just hours earlier, delivered a word salad.
Much like Harris has done over and over.

Unruh even worked WND’s false narratives about the 2020 election into his debate coverage:

Walz delivered a lot of claims about Trump, including some that were false and lacked facts and context, to try to portray outrage over January 6.
In fact, he trotted out falsehoods like the one that multiple officers died. Those who died, in fact, died by suicide.
The facts around that election are that it was under the undue influence of the $400 million plus Mark Zuckerberg handed out to elections officials who often used it to recruit Democrat voters, and the FBI’s interference when it claimed that the scandals about the Biden family, truthfully documented in Hunter Biden’s laptop, were Russian disinformation.
In fact, evidence shows that Trump tried to allocate National Guard troops to prevent any disruption on that Jan. 6 day, but he was refused by multiple Democrats, including then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who later was caught on video admitting her own culpability.

Unruh is lying about that last part. The next day, Unruh touted a meaningless snap poll conducted by a right-wing British tabloid:

Polling by the Daily Mail just hours after the vice presidential debate between GOP candidate JD Vance and Democrat Tim Walz has revealed a clear victor.
“Donald Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance can leave New York as the victor after his one and only debate with vice presidential rival Tim Walz, according to DailyMail.com’s exclusive snap poll,” the major publication documented.
The two tangled over “abortion, immigration, gun violence and the Middle East” and “bigged up their bosses.”
“But it was Vance who left the best impression with viewers, after a strong start against a nervy opponent and despite dodging a question on if Trump lost the 2020 election,” the report said.

Unruh refused to disclose the Daily Mail’s partisan bias. WND also published an Oct. 3 column by Larry Elder weirdly declaring Trump the winner of a debate it didn’t take part in.

There was also an Oct. 10 article by Unruh claiming that in a chat with Dr. Phil, a self-proclaimed “body language expert” appeared on Fox News to claim that “Walz was panicky, and tried to avoid answering” when asked about his ties to China during the debate. Unruh offered no reason to trust what this guy was saying.

There has never been any reason to treat WND is a serious and credible source of news, and its decision to turn itself into a pro-Trump propaganda rag means there’s even less reason to do so now.

WND lies about Walz

Unruh began an Aug. 23 WorldNetDaily article with a journalistically unprofessional, highly misleading partisan attack:

Tim Walz, the leftist Minnesota governor now campaigning as Kamala Harris pick to be No. 2 on the Democrat presidential ticket this year, has revealed some hidden depths already.
For example, his repeated claims to be a retired “command sergeant major” when he never actually earned the requirements to claim that rank in retirement.
And his various claims about carrying weapons of war in war, when his military duty sent him to Italy, as a lawyer, not a combat zone.
Then there are the details of that drunken driving arrest record in Nebraska.
And his leftist ideologies, shepherding into law in his state a provision for social workers to take custody of children if their parents don’t adequately push for their transgenderism.

Then comes the smear:

Now there’s another factor, spotted as he was walking on stage at the Democrat National Convention this week with his family, including son Gus.
He appears to jerk his son’s arm, and in a not too friendly way.
[…]
Social media commenters explained Walz’s apparent actions with, “That’s the universal grab saying ‘Shut up and pretend that you’re happy!” and “Definitely a non-verbal reaction fueled by some sort of rage.”

As we’ve come to expect from WND, Unruh is lying. As fact-checker Snopes pointed out when WND’s fellow misinformers spread this lie:

In August 2024, users on X promoted a video clip they claimed showed Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz being “abusive” toward his 17-year-old son, Gus, pulling on his arm “out of anger” when his family joined him onstage following his acceptance speech as the vice-presidential nominee at the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
However, a close examination of video from Walz’s Aug. 21 speech revealed that he pulled his son’s arm to ensure he didn’t walk directly into a teleprompter. In the same video, Walz’s daughter, Hope, can be seen walking around the opposite side of the same teleprompter.
As we previously reported, Walz and his wife, Gwen, revealed to People on Aug. 7 that Gus “has a nonverbal learning disorder, ADHD and an anxiety disorder — all conditions that they call his ‘secret power.'”
According to both the NVLD Project and the Cleveland Clinic, nonverbal learning disorders can affect visual-spatial awareness. The NVLD Project website specifically mentions, “spatial awareness (bumping into people and things).”

Unruh censored that information from his readers. Snopes also noted that some right-wing misinformers corrected the record — something Unruh and WND can’t be bothered to do. Instead, Unruh published a statement from right-wing website Twitchy trying to deny it was mocking Gus Walz: “Please note, we are in no way attacking or picking on Gus Walz, it’s not his fault his dad grabbed his arm and yanked him into place in that way. We had to watch the video more than once to truly see Walz’s face as he yanked his son around on that stage. … He was angry. He was maybe even enraged.”

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Or, you know, he was acting like a concerned parent by trying to keep Gus from hurting himself by running into a teleprompter. As always at WND, the lazy smear gets more attention than the truth.

Unruh returned to rant in an Aug. 27 article:

Gov. Tim Walz’s ban on faithful Christians from teaching in Minnesota’s public is set to hit the state’s schools in just months.
It also bans adherent Jews and Muslims.
And a report at the Federalist warns that he is “poised to make similar bigoted, totalitarian and unconstitutional policies” for the entire nation, “should he be elected vice president.”
The report from the publication’s executive editor, Joy Pullmann, explains the state has new teacher licensing rules that will take effect in July 2025, and they will “ban practicing Christians, Jews, and Muslims from teaching in public schools.”
It’s because under the plans of the leftist governor, the state will demand that teacher license applicants “affirm transgenderism and race Marxism.”
No license? No job for anyone to teach in the state’s public schools. Or private schools if they require that certification.
Specifically, the rules will demand: “The teacher fosters an environment that ensures student identities such as race/ethnicity, national origin, language, sex and gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical/developmental/emotional ability, socioeconomic class, and religious beliefs are historically and socially contextualized, affirmed, and incorporated into a learning environment where students are empowered to learn and contribute as their whole selves.”
Administrative law judges already have approved the anti-faith ideologies.

But the Federalist article upon which Unruh based his article — and clearly didn’t fact-check before publishing — is a lie. As Snopes documented:

The argument that such a requirement bars Christians or other religious individuals from receiving a teaching license in Minnesota is that it supposedly forces teachers to “reject their faiths’ declaration that God has created only two sexes, male and female.” These are talking points that have been pushed aggressively by Koch-linked, dark money conservative legal groups opposed to teacher licensing requirements.
The most recent round of headlines originated with a story in The Federalist written by Joy Pullman — author of a book arguing that “queer politics mean the end of America.” Pullman published a nearly identical article about the new licensing requirements in January 2023. Her sources included Upper Midwest Law Center, a think-tank partnered with the Koch-linked State Policy Network, and the Minnesota-based Child Protection League, described as an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The claim that the new Minnesota licensing requirements ban religious individuals from teaching is a politically motivated, bad-faith talking point. Because the law does not ban Christians, Jews, or Muslims from teaching in Minnesota, the claim is False.

Snopes also called the “aggressive and inflammatory” headline WND put on Unruh’s article.

But such lies get more attention for WND than the truth, so it publishes lies — never mind that it further diminishes what little credibility WND might have left after its years-long embrace of lies (at least one of which cost it money).

Columnist meltdowns

When Walz was first selected as Harris’ vice presidential candidate, WND’s columnists had a collective meltdown. Here’s a sampling of their rants:

The most important criterion for a vice president is the capability to serve competently as the president, should that become necessary. Some say that is the only necessary test, as a vice president’s job is mostly to stand around in case there is a vacancy at the top.
Tim Walz, Harris’s surprise pick for VP, flunks that test badly. His career was as a high school geography teacher and assistant football coach. Perhaps Walz was chosen as impeachment insurance for Kamala Harris, because as bad as Kamala would be, no one would want the clueless Walz running our country. This ticket of Harris and Walz reminds of the hit comedy, “Dumb and Dumber.”
[…]
Walz’s alma mater Chadron State College ranks only #132 out of 167 regional universities in the Midwest, according to the annual U.S. News & World Report rankings. Democrats are delusional if they think voters in the key swing states of Michigan and Wisconsin feel any connection with this underachiever from Minnesota, as Midwestern states are rivals of each other.

— Andy Schlafly, Aug. 6 WND column

As governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz could have stopped the riots at any time. The violence of that summer could have been nipped in the bud if Walz had an ounce of courage. Instead, he excused the riots as a natural consequence of America’s failure to enact enough left-wing social justice programs. Walz did nothing when rioters burned a Minneapolis police station to the ground.
Responsibility for the damage and death from that summer rests squarely on the shoulders of Tim Walz and Kamala Harris.
Beyond the chaos of 2020, Walz has overseen some of the most extreme left-wing policies in America. He has signed laws allowing abortion until the point of birth and encouraged parents to bring their children to Minnesota for transgender drugs and surgeries.
[…]
Walz has tried to cloak this radical agenda under a Minnesota Nice veneer, once saying, “one person’s socialism is another person’s neighborliness.” Nevertheless, the results speak for themselves. Under Walz’s watch, Minnesota has gone from the quirky leftism of Garrison Keillor to the radicalism of Ilhan Omar. What Walz has done in Minnesota – abortion on demand, child gender mutilation, open borders, unconstitutional lockdowns, and open season on police and small businesses – is the Harris/Walz plan for America.
Make no mistake, a Harris/Walz administration would be anything but nice.

— Brian Almon, Aug. 8 WND column

Have you heard about Tim Walz’s folksiness?
Surely you’ve noticed the “folksy demeanor” and “folksy manner” and “folksy appeal” and “folksy mannerisms” of this “folksy former soldier”? If you somehow missed it, the “folksy governor of Minnesota” exudes a “folksy … informal vibe” and “folksy relatability.” But don’t forget his “folksy rebukes” and “folksy plain-spoken and sharp-tongued approach,” either.
All these quotes are taken from major media outlets.
Kamala Harris’ vice presidential pick is a dedicated cultural and economic leftist who happens to inhabit the body of an average middle-aged bowling team drinking buddy. And because he doesn’t live in D.C. or NYC, the political media has settled on a nonthreatening description. Who doesn’t like folksy?

— David Harsanyi, Aug. 8 WND column

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, one of the most prolific gaslighters in history, let out enough gas this past week to power the entire West Coast.
Asked about the Democrats’ choice of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to run for vice president alongside presidential nominee Kamala Harris, she emitted this:
“Tim Walz I know very well. He served in the House. To characterize him as left is so unreal. It’s just not – he’s right down the middle. He’s a heartland of America Democrat,” she said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Aug. 6.
Which tells you a lot about current-day Democrats no matter where they’re found.
“Right down the middle” comes from a woman who never saw an abortion, socialist agenda or bizarre lifestyle that she didn’t like. To her, deviancy is being an evangelical Christian or a conservative Catholic.

— Robert Knight, Aug. 12 WND column

Unless there’s an unexpected defense of democracy at the upcoming Democrat Convention, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are going to be the party’s candidates in November. Tim Walz is pretty much an enigma to American voters as opposed to Kamala who we pretty much know is a disaster. If you say Tim Waltz fast enough, his name sort of sounds like a snack you might buy at a mom and pop store that was eliminated from existence during the COVID lockdowns.
You would go into the store and say, “I’d like a bag of ‘timwalz'” real fast, and you’d be getting a crunchy treat. But as a person and politician, he doesn’t look crunchy. Tim looks like a cuddly bit of poison. He’s kind of a quirky, personable guy who has ideas that will bite the average American and leave him in a cloud of pain and hurt.

— Nim Privitera, Aug. 14 WND column

WND’s Insanely Biased And Negative Coverage Of Tim Walz

WorldNetDaily went well beyond its usual right-wing partisan bias to publish numerous falsehoods about the Democratic vice presidential candidate.

WND lies about Walz

Columnist meltdowns

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