Joseph Farah begins his Oct. 16 WorldNetDaily column by declaring, “Most WND readers have no idea how much the Big Media fear, loathe and dread this news site.”
Actually, there’s no fear, and the loathing has much more to do WND’s jettisoning of journalistic concepts like accuracy and fairness than any sense of dread about a competitor.
Nevertheless, Farah continues to peddle his fantasy:
The Big Media refuse to allow WND to buy any of their content – content they willingly sell to other websites.
For instance, WND editors really like Charles Krauthammer. He’s a brilliant commentator, analyst and pundit. He makes his living writing for the Washington Post. You’ve seen him often on television sharing his insights about the economy, foreign affairs and politics.
The Washington Post shops his writings to other newspapers and websites. But when WND editors inquired about purchasing rights to publish his columns, they were told, in no uncertain terms, not to WND.
A salesman eager to make the sale told WND the price, which was quickly accepted. The salesman said he would have to check with his superiors for a final approval. He came back with the following explanation for the turndown: The Post is fighting for the same eyeballs as WND; therefore, no.
“If a website is popular, we’d rather keep them on our site,” he said.
Perhaps such a rejection has more to do with WND’s own petty behavior than competitiveness.
The same day that Farah’s column appeared, WND also linked on its commentary page — as its daily token liberal opinion piece that purports to be a balance to the half-dozen-plus right-wing opinions elsewhere on the page — to a column by Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson. Note where WND links to his column:
That’s right — instead of linking to Robinson’s column at the Post, WND links to it at the liberal website Truthdig.
Is Farah really so bitter about the Post refusing to sell him Krauthammer’s column that he has forbidden WND from linking to any Post content? It appears so.
Such unprofessional behavior may very well be the reason his “Big Media” collegaues want nothing to do with him. Well, that and the plagiarism.