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Joseph Farah is a conservative Lebanese-American journalist of 30 years, married to Elizabeth Farah and founder of WorldNetDaily (WND), for which he writes a daily commentary.

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. Benvenuti and Kassis bought the newspaper from billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife who was also a conservative and would eventually fund the Arkansas Project to bring down Bill Clinton. After 15 months as editor of the Union, Farah stepped down, in part from the 30% decline of the paper's circulation. (The Sacramento Union was bankrupt by 1994, but became a online a monthly magazine in 2004.) From there he moved to Los Angeles to become 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 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. In the 1994-95 course of the Center Scaife-connected foundations gave $330,000 in donations to the group. By May 1997, Farah set his eyes on the internet and set up World Net Daily (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. 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 turned began to profit employing 25 workers. Currently the webpage has a staff of 20 people.

The articles of the WND are often published which criticize Democrats , gays, Arab Islamists, and Liberals on many issues. He is also the founder of ShopNetDaily where books on Christianity, Politics and other world issues are sold. Nonetheless, he has claimed "We are not conservative. We are the largest independent news site on the Net". Clearly, this is incorrect because a "independent" source would be equal to all opinions considered.

In 1996, Farah wrote a book with Richard Pombo concerning property rights. Currently, Pombo is a US Congressman has been implicated in the Jack Abramoff scandal for political donations and stalling an investigation by federal banking regulators.

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 WND website & his family

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?" Also tied to WND is Farah's "G2 Bulletin", an online "intelligence newsletter" which focuses on world events viewed through a conservative perspective. His wife, Elizabeth Farah, also contributes to WND.

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)

References/External links

1. ""World Net Daily and Joseph Farah"". Con Watch. December 13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
2. ""Decades of Contributions to Conservatism"". Washington Post. December 13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
3. ""World's 'No. 1 website' goes for-profit: Starting today, WND is 'out of begging business'"". World Net Daily. December 13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
4. ""A Donor Who Had Big Allies"". LA Times. Jan 8. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
5. ""On the Web, Small and Focused Pays Off"". Business Week. December 13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
6. Disinfopedia article on Joseph Farah
7. "Washington Post Online Chat Session with Joseph Farah"

• Christian writers
• Journalists
• American newspaper editors