My war with the L.A. Times

I've basically been in a state of undeclared war with the Los Angeles Times since 1979.

That was the year 25-year-old Joseph Farah uprooted himself from his New York area home where he had been born, raised, schooled and employed as a newspaper reporter and editor to take on a job with the Hearst Corporation's largest paper, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner.

The mission of the Herald Examiner was simple – challenge the L.A. Times in every way imaginable. The Times was then a sleepy old, highly profitable, shamelessly politically correct rag. Today, it's just a sleepy old, shamelessly politically correct rag.

I spent almost 10 years mixing it up with the Times from my perch at the Herald Examiner before moving on to run a suburban daily where we snatched more advertising dollars away from the enemy.

In 1990, I left L.A. for good to run the Sacramento Union, the oldest daily west of the Mississippi. I thought my war with the L.A. Times was over, but I was mistaken.

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It didn't take the every-vigilant watchdogs at the Times to notice I was stirring things up in Sacramento, this time competing head-to-head with the flagship of the McClatchy chain, the Sacramento Bee. While I focused my attention on raking muck in the capital of California, the L.A. Times was gunning for me.

Having spent my entire professional career as a newspaperman uncovering fraud, waste, abuse and corruption in government, I was surprised to see my old enemy do a front-page hit piece on me. This wasn't a matter of friendly competition. This was a matter of going after a journalist who didn't toe their politically correct party line.

It was the first of many attacks. The Times came after me again and again – when I was pushing for impeachment of Bill Clinton and more recently with a sleazy, unethically prepared hit piece about my efforts to call Barack Obama to the same standards as other presidents.

Well, it hasn't stopped.

Recently, the L.A. Times discovered the growing controversy over the Conservative Political Action Conference – a controversy stoked by reporting at WND.

But the Times didn't interview me.

Instead it reported the following: "Some believe the issue of whether groups supporting gay marriage should be represented at CPAC has been stoked by frequent, outraged stories on WorldNetDaily, a conservative website run by Joseph Farah that has been a prime force in the movement that claims President Obama was born abroad."

I shouldn't have to say this, but it is worse than a lie to suggest that I am "part of a movement that claims President Obama was born abroad."

Though I write a daily column (a prolific feat unmatched by anyone else, I might add) and am not the least bit bashful about sharing my thoughts and opinions, I have never once said Obama was born abroad. No one at WND has made such an allegation. What I had done, and what WND (the oldest and largest independent online news organization, by the way, not some "conservative website") has done, is to try to find out what he is hiding through his steadfast refusal to release his birth certificate and pretty much every other document that could shed some light on his personal history – school records, travel records, health records, etc.

In trashing me, the L.A. Times discovered a new hero: "Conservative Internet entrepreneur Andrew Breitbart, who has clashed with Farah over the 'birther' movement, defended the inclusion of gay conservatives at CPAC." The Times is thrilled by Breitbart's plans to "throw a party of gay conservatives at CPAC": "I'm working on getting a venue," he said. "The first annual Roy Cohn CPAC Breitbart Homocon Welcoming 80's Extravaganza. I'm thinking of DJ-ing."

Given the fact that such an event will require a venue the size of a phone booth, this is not exactly a major expense Breitbart – the "Internet entrepreneur" – has embarked upon.

My lonely war with the L.A. Times continues.