Joseph Farah
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Joseph Francis Farah is an Evangelical Christian American journalist. He is the founder of WorldNetDaily (WND), for which he writes a daily commentary.
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[edit] Biography
Farah made a name for himself in 1990, when he became editor of the Sacramento Union newspaper under the ownership of Daniel Benvenuti, Jr., and David Kassis when the three turned the paper in a more conservative direction.[1] Benvenuti and Kassis bought the newspaper from billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, who was also a conservative and would eventually fund the Arkansas Project in an attempt to bring down Bill Clinton. After fifteen months as editor of The Union, Farah stepped down, in part from the 30 percent decline of the paper's circulation. (The Sacramento Union was bankrupt by 1994, but became an online monthly magazine in 2004.)[1] Prior to working at The Union, Farah was the executive news editor of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner (now closed) and served as editor-in-chief for various California dailies and weeklies.
Farah began working with Rush Limbaugh on the book See, I Told You So, which was released in 1994. Yet, by 1997, Farah co-founded the Western Journalism Center with James H. Smith, (former publisher of The Sacramento Union and former CEO/publisher of the revived Sacramento Union webpage). This group supplied Christopher W. Ruddy (founder of NewsMax) with "additional expense money, funding for Freedom of Information Act requests, legal support and publicity during his" investigation of a Clinton conspiracy surrounding the suicide of Vince Foster.[1] In the 1994-95 course of the Center Scaife-connected foundations gave $330,000 in donations to the group.[2]( By May 1997, Farah set his eyes on the internet and set up WorldNetDaily (WND) as a project of the Center. In 1999, WorldNetDaily.com, Inc., with offices in Cave Junction, Ore. was incorporated in Delaware as a for-profit subsidiary of the non-profit Western Journalism Center with the backing of $4.5 million from investors.[3] As a result, Farah and the Western Journalism Center possess the bulk of the WND stock, but the remainder is owned by about 75 private investors. In August 2001, Business Week cited Farah who claimed WND had began to profit employing 25 workers.[4] Currently the webpage has a staff of 20 people. His second wife, Elizabeth Farah, also contributes to WND.
In 1996, Farah wrote a book with Richard Pombo concerning property rights.
In addition to directing the news-gathering operation at WorldNetDaily, he is also a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and nationally syndicated columnist. His radio service contains a variety of shows focusing on current affairs as well as topics on conservatism, liberalism and Christianity. However, on December 20, 2005 Farah announced he was "calling it quits on his national radio show next year" with the last day on January 13 2006. Farah said this was to spend more time with the WND website & his family [5] He is also the founder of ShopNetDaily where books on Christianity, politics and other world issues are sold.
He is considered a trailblazer as an architect of the "anti-liberal establishment" news outlets, which include talk radio, conversative publications, and on-line sources.[citation needed]
[edit] Worldview
Farah stated "We are not conservative. We are the largest independent news site on the Net"[1].
In his work he proclaims, "The choice is simple: The world of standards and morality, of marriage, order, the rule of law, and accountability to God? Or the world of anything-goes, aberrant sexual behavior, doing-your-own-thing lifestyles, and moral codes that change with the speed of the latest public-opinion poll?"[6] Also tied to WND is Farah's "G2 Bulletin", an online "intelligence newsletter" which focuses on world events viewed through a conservative perspective. Farah is also known for his strong support for Israel and is possibly one of the most notable and outspoken pro-Israeli Arab writers[citation needed]. He has criticized the Israeli government for negotiating too much with the Palestinians and abandoning lands which he believes were given to the Jewish people by God.
[edit] Plagiarism Controversies
Farah has received criticism for replicating wire service reports in his articles without proper attribution.[7][8]
[edit] Personal Life
Farah divorced his first wife, Judy, in 1995. They have two adult daughters together.
[edit] Books
- Farah, Joseph. Taking America Back. (World Net Daily Books, 2003)
- Farah, Joseph and Pombo, Richard. This Land Is Our Land: How to End the War on Private Property. (St. Martins Press, 1996)
- Farah, Joseph and Salamon, Kathleen. Seceding from the Union: Kathleen Salamon's explanation of why she left the "Sacramento Union." (Columbia Journalism Review, 1991)
- Farah, Joseph and Limbaugh, Rush See, I Told You So (Pocket Press, 1994)
- Farah, Joseph: How Islam Plays the Press, in Muhammad's Monsters, editor David Bukay.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c L. Brent Bozell and the Media Research Center ConWebWatch
- ^ "'Arkansas Project' Led to Turmoil and Rifts" (May 2 1999). Washington Post: A24.
- ^ WorldNetDaily: World's 'No. 1 website' goes for-profit
- ^ BW Online | August 28, 2001 | On the Web, Small and Focused Pays Off
- ^ WorldNetDaily: Farah ending radio show
- ^ Shop.WND.com - A WorldNetDaily Exclusive!
- ^ ConWebBlog "Farah Plagiarizes again," 11/8/2006
- ^ Terry Krepel "WorldNetDaily's Junk Journalism," 9/12/2005
