Posted on 05/20/2007 10:56:48 PM PDT by monomaniac
WASHINGTON, May 18, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - WorldNetDaily, the largest and most successful independent news site on the Internet is celebrating its 10th year online this month. The brain-child of Arab-American Joseph Farah, the independent website challenges even mainstream media giant NBC for website success. LifeSiteNews.com spoke with Farah last week about his life, his success and his new book "Stop the Presses."
Farah's motivation in his work and his principal guidance comes from his devout Christian faith. Growing up in a slightly more than nominal Catholic home, Farah was a radical liberal in his younger years. He was arrested and spent three days in jail for demonstrating against the Vietnam War, touted John Kerry as his hero, voted for Jimmy Carter twice and worked as a devoted body guard to Jane Fonda.
The Radical
Farah told LifeSiteNews.com that he would not even describe himself in his former days as merely a 'liberal'. "That would have been an insult to me to be called a liberal. In high school and early part of college, I would have proudly described myself as a radical, a revolutionary, maybe even Marxist."
On how he ended up a body-guard for Fonda, Farah explained, "I was a junior or senior in high school and Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden were touring the Northeast with their so-called 'Indo-China Peace Campaign' and I was chosen to be one of the people who got to travel around a little bit with them and serve as a de facto body guard."
Years later, the same body guard would become one of the most vocal critics of Fonda's communist sympathies. "At one point her PR person called me to get me to ease up on the criticism," he recalls.
Christian World View Gave him an Edge in the News Business
Farah became an evangelical Christian in college, thanks to the influence of friends he met. "It was not until I was in college that I really came to know (Jesus) in a real way and truly began to understand the whole concept of repentance and grace and all of those beautiful things," said Farah. "You know - had the born again experience."
"That began to change my perception of the world, in general. It gave me a new world view," Farah told LifeSiteNews.com. "It wasn't by any stretch of the imagination, overnight or instantaneously but over the next few years and through the early part of my journalism career, it really affected me in a profound way."
This altered perspective on the world, suggests Farah, is what gave him an edge in the news world. At the tender age of 27 Farah was running the news department of the LA Herald Examiner.
"I remember very vividly looking around the news room - big urban news room with about 200 editorial employees - and I was kind of pondering what it was that made me see the world so differently than all of my friends and colleagues in the newsroom and it clicked one day when - I was pretty sure, knowing all of these things as well as I did, that I was the only one who went to church on Sunday," said Farah.
"That definitely changed my perception of the world and it was an advantage for me," explained the WorldNetDaily founder. While some feel Christianity may be a burden, Farah saw it as an advantage. "I really believed that the different set of eyes that God gave me, because of my belief in the Bible, my acceptance of Jesus as Lord - it was an advantage all the way," he said. "I am in the news business and I saw stories that my colleagues didn't see and I really believe that it was one of the central reasons that I was able to move quickly through the ranks and get positions of authority and have some very early success."
"News stories are the commodity with which we trade in the news business, it's the commerce, it's the product," he explained. "I was blessed by seeing stories that nobody else saw and I was rewarded for that. That is kind of my story."
Sticking to his Guns in the Face of Pressure
After leaving the LA Herald Examiner he became editor of the Sacramento Union, giving the paper a new, decidedly conservative, stance.
That did not go over well with homosexual activists who launched a major protest against the paper. "In Sacramento there was a time that there was a huge homosexual rally - I think in 1991 - and they set certain targets and one of the primary targets was the Sacramento Union," recalled Farah. "After they finished at the capitol, they marched down the street to the Sacramento Union and surrounded our building," he continued. "Their only demand was that I be fired."
"We had about 17,000 people surrounding the building at one point and I was on the phone with Dr. (James) Dobson (of Focus on the Family) giving a live account of what it is like to be surrounded by 17,000 screaming homosexuals demanding my head on a platter."
The Launch of WorldNetDaily
After nearly a year and a half at the Sacramento Union, Farah left with the feeling that print media was on the wane. "The fact of the matter is I recognized that the entire newspaper industry was dying and it was a hard thing to come to grips with because I loved it," Farah told LifeSiteNews.com. "I absolutely loved the newspaper business. If there was ever anyone born with ink in their veins, it was me."
Covering technology in the Silicon Valley says Farah, he had a "vision of the future" where news was going to be distributed electronically. So after much talk and with the encouragement of his wife Elizabeth - a home schooling Mom, Farah launched WorldNetDaily on May 5, 1997.
When it launched it was basically Farah and his wife manning the ship and what Farah describes as "smoke and mirrors." But the phenomenal response they received drove them to delve into the project more seriously and full-time.
The Secret to Success - Talk Radio
Asked about his success, Farah attributed it to God first and foremost and added that "the role that talk radio played in moving WorldNetDaily forward cannot really be overstated." He added, "It is a tremendous thing - the symbiotic relationship between talk radio and the internet."
In his book he describes the stories of his meetings and friendships with the giants of the talk radio scene. "I think I am the only person who probably has a great relationship with every single major radio, talk show host from Rush to Hannity to Dr. Laura to Michael Savage - you name it," Farah told LifeSiteNews.com.
Giving the example of Rush Limbaugh, Farah explained that Rush, who got his start in talk radio in Sacramento, was eager to take up an offer from Farah to do a column for the Sacramento Union, which eventually led to their co-authoring the book "See, I told You So."
$4.5 Million and Moving to Small-Town Oregon
By 1999 Farah got more serious about WorldNetDaily and spun off a new corporation, WorldNetDaily Inc., with its own central headquarters. As Farah explains, "Because the internet was seen by everyone at that point as a very potentially lucrative venture, we were able to raise the capital necessary to do that." They raised $4.5 million.
"We decided that the best thing was for the entire staff to work together. We chose a very isolated, rural location so that we could establish a distinct and separate corporate culture because I knew that we would only be as strong as our weakest link. So, we set up shop in Southern Oregon and we leased a ranch on a beautiful location. We asked everyone to come there. Which was a big sacrifice for some people. It was very different for me being a city boy my whole life but I thought it was very important. For, about two years, that was how we operated - we all worked in the same building, we all lived within close proximity of one another and we got to the point where everybody could anticipate what the other person was thinking. We were all on the same page. At that point, probably by 2001, I gave everybody permission to go wherever they wanted to go and live wherever they wanted to live and work at home if that was what they chose."
Look out Washington Here I Come
Since then the Farah's have moved to the Washington, DC area and the WorldNetDaily founder told LifeSiteNews.com that the corporation will soon establish its main headquarters there. Speaking of the national capital he said, "This is the place where we are going to grow in the future and we will have to hire more staff here, more reporters and this is going to be where our new corporate headquarters will be eventually."
"Although we still technically have our corporate headquarters in southern Oregon, we are in a transition period where we are moving things slowly back east over time."
The Future and thoughts on a Hilary Clinton Presidency
Farah distinguished himself as a prominent enemy of President Bill Clinton, following up ruthlessly on White House scandals in the Clinton era. One of the most scandalous episodes which Farah exposed was the fact that Clinton was using the IRS to target his political enemies with audits. Farah broke the story in the pages of the Wall Street Journal and caused havoc for the Administration.
Thus he's no stranger to Hillary Clinton and does not have a rosy outlook for the future of America, or the freedom of the press under her leadership.
However he remains unsure whether or not a Hillary will emerge as President in 2008.
"I go back and forth on this," Farah said. "She has a lot of things going for her and a lot of things going in the other direction. She starts with as strong a negative impression among the American people as anybody could ever start running for president and when I think about that, I lean towards saying that she could never be elected. On the other hand she has these years of experience of fundraising and she has incredible visibility and name-recognition. She has a great organization and she has her husband who is obviously one of the most gifted politicians, ever."
Likely most significant, says Farah, is that "She also has very weak opposition."
"It takes somebody to beat somebody and I look around at the current Republican field and I don't see anybody emerging that I can say they are so strong that it is a slam-dunk that Hilary can't win. I think it's a very real threat that we will see Hilary Clinton in the White House again."
While he admits that a race between Hillary and Rudy Guiliani would be very close, he dismisses it as a reason for hope. "I look back and I see what Guiliani was saying during the Clinton years and among the things he was saying was 'I have almost no disagreements with Bill Clinton' and on the substantive issues of the day, I don't think he does."
Concluding the point Farah says, "I wouldn't be able to vote in that kind of an election and I think a lot of American people would be extremely disenfranchised by such a race."
While he may alter his views on a Clinton Presidency, Farah says that neither fame nor fortune, will alter his positions in defense of life and family. Recalling his experiences at the Sacramento Union when homosexual activists were demonstrating by the thousand in demand of his resignation, he said: "God gave me these experiences for a reason and there has been no temptation to change our view or to soften it. You can't. Either we believe what the Bible says or we are not believers and that is not an option for me and I would say that that is true of our staff."
To order a copy of Farah's new book Stop the Presses click here: http://shop.wnd.com/store/item.asp?ITEM_ID=2040
Visit WorldNetDaily online: http://wnd.com/
I understand how this can happen and how we grow wiser as we grow older. At 16, I worked for Goldwater’s campaign. Unfortunately, I apparently lost my mind for a few years and voted for Carter.
FAscinating journey. Some others have made similar journeys, including David Horowitz, Philip Abbott Luce, Whitaker Chambers, and others.
My first vote was to unseat Carter.
Thanks for posting - I had no idea that was his background.
It’s good to provide this information about Joseph Farah. Even so, there is a certain crowd here on Free Republic who persist in deriding Farah and calling the publication “WorldNutDaily” — as if that’s going to dissuade anyone who does know about Farah. For a while there were people who protested every time someone posted an article from WorldNetDaily. Hopefully those “nuts” who were protesting all the time will have finally slinked away..., but we’ll see (if we get any protests here about Farah)...
My first vote was for Richard Nixon.
I did vote for Democrat Bob Casey for Governor once, when he ran against abortion enthusiast Barbara Hafer.
btt
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Wise choice. If you had voted for Hafer, you’d still have been voting for a rodent, as she later switched. ;-)
Very fascinating journey of Joseph Farah. Thanks for posting. Hooray Joseph!
If you’re not radically Liberal in your youth, you have no heart.
If you don’t become more Conservative with age, you have no soul.
What happens is that reality has a way of slapping one in the face. Not all liberals become conservatives when this happens. For many liberals, 9/11 was just a call for them to stick there necks further in the sand. Others got the wake up call.
These days the kook liberals are running the U.S. House and Senate. They will only be successful if they can muzzle the media and keep it quite about their assault on the 1st admenment and tax increases.
All I can say is "Thank God for the Blogs "
“...their co-authoring the book “See, I told You So.” “
The leap from helping write to “co-authoring,” is huge on and the difference is with great distinction.
As a journalist, he should correct his record.
ping
My first vote was for Nixon. I was so angry that he lied and dishonored the presidency, by reaction was the vote for Carter. What a mistake.
The content is what disuades people. It’s toned down as of late but used to be on par with Debka for reliability and accuracy.
Well, I never saw a problem with the content since I've been reading it from about 2000 on. It's been a good source of information since the time I've been reading it and I'm sure it was long before I was reading it. And I can't see that it's changed one bit in the meantime.
As far as DEBKAfile, it's also been a good source for information, too. I noticed that the very same people who were decrying Farah were also decrying DEBKAfile, which looked mighty suspicious to me. But, I never paid any attention to them. Apparently they didn't like DEBKAfile's Israeli focus on the news and intelligence and they didn't like the fact that they had their sources in the intelligence branch over there. For those people decrying DEBKAfile, it was just like those decrying Farah, they did not like the focus of their articles (which on the one hand for Farah, was a decidedly Christian focus, and on the other hand for DEBKAfile, was a decidedly Israeli focus).
So, too bad for them. The rest of us kept right on reading them...
Regards,
Star Traveler
Farah is one of my favourite people in the world. If you haven’t reade TAKING AMERICA BACK, you have a heck of a treat in store for you.
No, I haven't read it. I've got a backlog of books that have come in from Amazon and I haven't finished them yet.... LOL! But, I'll put that on my list over on the Amazon account and keep it for when I catch up again.
There was a lot of people who didn't like Farah's decidely Christian focus on the news that he put out. So, they were always harping about one thing or another. That's what drove the harping, was the Christian viewpoint that he had. And that's why I read the news from that site, as I could find news that I couldn't find elsewhere in the MSM, because it had been suppressed.
But, that Christian viewpoint was (and still is) too much for some people to even tolerate -- even here on Free Republic (not all, but a certain vocal minority here). And so there this harping and harping on Farah, all the time.
And those very same people who were harping on Farah were also harping on DEBKAfile intelligence reports and news with an Israeli focus. That was also too much for them. They did ot like reports coming out of that region with a decidely Israeli focus. And so, they joined in harping and harping on DEBKAfile, too. And there are those who still persist in that to this day. But, DEBKAfile has been a very interesting source for certain news over there in the Middle East and as it pertains to Israel.
Regards,
Star Traveler
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