World Net Daily Rebuts Esquire's 'Fabricated Attack' on Jerome Corsi's New Book, Where's the Birth Certificate? — UPDATED!!

It's a prank.

The Esquire story is here: "BREAKING: Jerome Corsi's Birther Book Pulled from Shelves!" (via Memeorandum). Pretty sensational, right? Well, WND is not pleased, suggesting it's a White House-backed disinformation campaign to destroy the book's credibility and that of the author and publisher. See, "National mag publishes fabricated report attacking Corsi book: Esquire claims best-seller being disavowed by publisher, 'pulled from shelves'":

A major national publication that endorsed Barack Obama for president in 2008 today published a completely fabricated news story claiming Jerome Corsi's new best-selling "Where's the Birth Certificate," published by WND Books, has been disavowed by the publisher and taken out of stores nationwide, with refunds offered to purchasers.

Esquire, established in 1932, alleged on its website today under a "BREAKING" headline that Corsi's book was "pulled from shelves!"

Media are calling WND from around the world about the false report.

WND founder and CEO Joseph Farah confirmed he never spoke to Esquire.

"Never uttered these words or anything remotely resembling them to anyone," he said. "It is a complete fabrication."

Farah said, "The book is selling briskly. I am 100 percent behind it. This has all the earmarkings of a White House dirty trick – but, of course, only the Nixon administration was capable of dirty tricks like that, according to our watchdog media."

More at the link above.

Daily Caller reports on the prank. Mark Warren, the author, says he has no regrets for posting it, and he's got strong words for Jerome Corsi: "He is an execrable piece of shit ..." Typical progressive "civility."

Anyway, turns out Doug Mataconis didn't catch the parody, although that stuff happens.

Anyway the book's selling pretty good, so check it out: Where's the Birth Certificate?: The Case that Barack Obama is not Eligible to be President. Apparently there's significant demand, which is understandable given the president's rank duplicity. See Gallup, "Obama's Birth Certificate Convinces Some, but Not All, Skeptics."

UPDATE: This is getting pretty ugly . See James Taranto, "How Not to Write Satire" (via Glenn Reynolds). And especially, Chris Moody, "Joseph Farah says he may sue Esquire for ‘parody’ story on Jerome Corsi book."