Joseph Farah
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Joseph Francis Farah (born July 6, 1954) is an American author, journalist, and editor-in-chief of the far-rightTemplate:Refn website WorldNetDaily (WND).<ref name="Black"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Farah gained prominence for promoting conspiracy theories surrounding the suicide of Vince Foster<ref name="Roig-Franzia_4/2/2019" /><ref name="Holt_2/3/2020">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and is a proponent of birtherism, a debunked conspiracy theory that Barack Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States.<ref name="Martin_2/25/2009" /><ref name="Babington_Ramer_4/27/2011" /><ref name="Stelter_4/27/2011" />
Early life
Joseph Francis Farah was born in Paterson, New Jersey, on July 6, 1954.<ref name="Goode"/> He is of Syrian and Lebanese ancestry.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> His father was a schoolteacher.<ref name="Goode"/> He graduated from William Paterson University, in Wayne, New Jersey with a B.A. in Communications.<ref name="Goode"/>
Career
Farah worked for six years as executive news editor at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner until the paper shuttered in 1989.<ref name="1991 LT"/><ref name="Roig-Franzia_4/2/2019">Template:Cite news</ref>
On July 22, 1990, Farah became editor of The Sacramento Union. The paper had been losing up to $3 million annually, and in early 1990 it was purchased from Richard Mellon Scaife by Daniel Benvenuti Jr. and David Kassis.<ref name="new editor" /> Farah and the paper's owners envisioned the paper as a conservative alternative to The Sacramento Bee.<ref name="1990 WP" /> "We just thought the way to go was to be unabashedly conservative in our approach," explained Farah to The Washington Post.<ref name="1990 WP" /> Among other things, Farah convinced Rush Limbaugh to write a daily column, which ran on "Page 1."<ref name="1991 LT" /> Farah prohibited advertisement for films rated NC-17 in the newspaper.<ref name="Roig-Franzia_4/2/2019" />
In 1991, Farah left the Union and co-founded the Western Journalism Center.<ref name="director says"/> He writes a weekly print column for The Jerusalem Post which is nationally syndicated through Creators Syndicate.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
He launched the online WorldNetDaily in 1997.<ref name="conservative media"/> The website has been categorized as far-right<ref name="far-right" /> and is known for publishing unreliable or fringe material.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In April 2019, WorldNetDaily announced that Farah had suffered a stroke and would withdraw from the website's day-to-day operations until he recovers.<ref name="Roig-Franzia_4/2/2019" />
Promotion of conspiracy theories
Farah gained prominence for promoting conspiracy theories surrounding the suicide of Vince Foster.<ref name="Roig-Franzia_4/2/2019" /><ref name="Holt_2/3/2020"/>
Farah is a proponent of birtherism, the conspiracy theory related to President Barack Obama's status as a natural-born citizen of the United States and resultant eligibility to serve as U.S. president,<ref name="Martin_2/25/2009">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Babington_Ramer_4/27/2011">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> stating, "It'll plague Obama throughout his presidency. It'll be a nagging issue and a sore on his administration, much like Monica Lewinsky was on Bill Clinton's presidency" and "It's not going to go away, and it will drive a wedge in an already divided public."<ref name="court won't"/> Despite the release of President Obama's notarized birth certificate abstract,<ref name="factcheck">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> he continued to promote birtherism.<ref name="Stelter_4/27/2011">Template:Cite news</ref> Farah offered a $15,000 award for the release of the certificate, but did not pay the award after its release.<ref name="Balleck 2018">Template:Cite book</ref>
Personal life
He is married to Elizabeth Graham and is a conservative evangelical Christian.<ref name="Goode" /> He has five children, including Alyssa Farah Griffin, who served as the Press Secretary for Vice President Mike Pence and later served as Deputy Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Media Affairs and Press Secretary for the Department of Defense.<ref name="Goode"/>
Books
- Collaborated with Rush Limbaugh on See, I Told You So (1994)<ref name="Goode"/>
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References
External links
- 1954 births
- Living people
- 20th-century American male writers
- 20th-century American non-fiction writers
- 20th-century evangelicals
- 21st-century American male writers
- 21st-century American non-fiction writers
- 21st-century evangelicals
- American conspiracy theorists
- American critics of Islam
- American Evangelical writers
- American male non-fiction writers
- American newspaper editors
- American political writers
- Lebanese evangelicals
- New Jersey Republicans
- Syrian Protestants
- WorldNetDaily people
- Writers from Paterson, New Jersey