Huffington Puffington

Is there anyone out there who has been dredging up dirt on Arianna Huffington for the last decade and would like a place to dump it?

If so, I may have a spot for you.

That's my reaction to the Huffington Puffington Post's publication of a piece written by a professional (read George Soros-funded) WND hater by the name of Terry Krepel under the poetic headline: "Anti-Obama Author Corsi Reflects the (Lack of) Journalistic Values of his Employer, WorldNetDaily."

Normally I ignore the slop Krepel dishes out daily in his screeds against me, my family, my business and my employees because, despite his paid work with Soros' Media Matters, he pretty much labors in well-deserved obscurity.

But because the Huffington Puffington Post actually has an audience, largely because of the deep pockets of the divorcee whose name it carries, I cannot let this kind of lying trash talk go unanswered.

One thing I learned long ago, when talent-challenged slugs like Krepel sling invectives like "right-wing journalist" around to describe you, it really is more of a statement about themselves than it is about you. Krepel sees the world neatly divided between the right and the left – just as his new self-infatuated sponsor Arianna Huffington does. The truth is, as those who read my column or books know, I am as uncomfortable with labeling others politically as I am of labeling myself. That's because Krepel got one thing right. I am, unlike him, and unlike Arianna, and unlike anyone over there at Media Matters, an actual lifelong, working journalist – one of the few who is fearlessly independent and has actually eschewed ties and alliances with Democrats and Republicans and who considers himself neither a liberal nor a conservative.

Let me illustrate the differences between them and me.

If I make a charge, as Krepel and the Huffington Puffington Post did, that someone (in this case, Jerome Corsi) made errors in his New York Times No. 1 best-selling book, "The Obama Nation," I would actually point out some of those alleged errors. Krepel and the Huffington Puffington Post do not bother with such journalistic niceties.

If I suggested, as Krepel and the Huffington Puffington Post do, that 17 years ago under someone's management (in this case, mine) the Sacramento Union lost 30 percent of its circulation, I would feel the necessity of citing some source or evidence for that information. Krepel and the Huffington Puffington Post do not. Why? One reason could be there is none – because the Sacramento Union actually gained circulation under my watch. Indeed, the paper did go out of business, as Krepel and the Huffington Puffington Post state, "a few years later." I would add, long after I left. I'm afraid I cannot take the blame for the Sacramento Union's demise in my absence any more than I can take credit for hiring Mark Twain, Bret Harte and Herb Caen, all of whom worked at the paper before I arrived.

Krepel and the Huffington Puffington Post then try to tie me with "conservative moneybags" Richard Mellon Scaife. Is that the "conservative moneybags" who endorsed Hillary Clinton, is working with Bill Clinton on his so-called "Global Initiative" and who owns a news site launched specifically to compete with WND? No, that must be some other Richard Mellon Scaife.

Krepel and the Huffington Puffington Post say that WND doesn't live up to its billing as a "watchdog on government – to expose corruption, fraud, waste and abuse wherever and whenever it is found." They say it only attacks Democrats and promotes conservatives. Of course, that's not what George Bush thinks, nor John McCain, nor, I suspect, most of WND's 6 million monthly unique visitors.

But the assumptions of Krepel and the Huffington Puffington Post are all based on their belief that the whole world is made up of partisan hacks like themselves – people who would prostitute the truth in a heartbeat for political gain, recognition, money or five minutes on MSNBC.

That's why, for the life of them, they can't figure out WND – no matter how hard they try, no matter how long they work at it, no matter how much of Arianna's divorce settlement or Soros' blood money they spend in the process.

That's why they believe when WND exposes Bush or McCain that it is actually some kind of sophisticated parlor trick we're pulling. After all, we couldn't possibly be seeking the truth without fear or favor. Could we? They make the mistake of thinking everyone else in this business is as compromised as they are by ideological blinders.

That's why, for instance, they can't understand how and why WND's heroic Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein actually talks to Middle East terrorists. Krepel and the Huffington Puffington Post say Klein has never explained "why a member of Hamas would willingly chat up a right-wing (there's that word, again) reporter who opposes Hamas." Actually, yes he did – in his book, "Schmoozing With Terrorists." I guess I forgot to send Krepel and the Huffington Puffington Post free review copies. It's all explained in there, guys. It's called reporting.

Since Arianna and Krepel want to impugn my journalistic credentials and ethics, I suggest they post their own resumes on their respective sites and let the world compare who, of the three of us – and, just for fun, throw in the rest of the Huffington Puffington Post staff – has a more impressive reporting and editing background.

Let me conclude with this: I have something neither Krepel nor Arianna have – an actual 30-year track record of accomplishment and achievement in daily journalism. I didn't buy my success or sell my services to the highest bidder. Anyone and everyone who knows me, including Arianna, knows I can't be bought. She tried. And, if what Krepel writes is true, it certainly raises the question of why she tried repeatedly to buy my services and seek my help.

If I were the nasty guy Krepel and the Huffington Puffington Post portray prior to my launch of WND in 1997, why is it that Arianna was so eager to procure my editorial services back then? If my career up to that point was checkered with ethical lapses, why would the founder of the Huffington Puffington Post relentlessly recruit my assistance with her own books and other projects? Why was I a frequent guest in her home? Why was my advice solicited – even over a meal in the House dining room with her then-husband, Rep. Michael Huffington? If my collaboration with Rush Limbaugh was such a disgrace, why did she ask to attend the gala book party? And why did she ask me to introduce her to the king of talk radio?

By the way, who is the only one among us who was married to a millionaire Republican member of Congress? Hint: It wasn't me and it wasn't Krepel.

Who? What? When? Where? Why? The questions never end.

So why are they really ripping me and Klein and Corsi?

Here's my honest assessment: Because Krepel and the Huffington Puffington Post are possessed of an almost demonic, spiteful, hateful jealousy – and because they tend to project their own venomous attributes on others.

In short, they're paid character assassins with really bad aims.

Order Farah's latest book, "Stop the Presses: The Inside Story of the New Media Revolution"