IN MY SHOES: What It's Like To Be Joseph Farah
This Los Angeles Times profile of Joseph Farah describes his appearance as “something out of a spy novel - suave, mysterious, bushy black mustache” and his 12-year old Website, WorldNetDaily.com, as having “the feel of a scandal sheet … and an infomercial”:
WorldNetDaily's unique visitors nearly doubled to 2 million a month after Obama took office, according to Nielsen's ratings. Farah says his traffic is at least twice that, citing private data from Google Analytics, a traffic-counting service. …
Revenue is on track to hit $10 million annually, Farah says. (That figure could not be independently verified.) His success comes in no small part from the storehouse of "birther" T-shirts, books, DVDs and postcards for sale in his virtual "superstore."
WorldNetDaily's book division publishes titles from high-profile conservatives … Perhaps one of Farah's greatest assets is the WorldNetDaily mailing list, recently rented by the Republican National Committee for a fundraising appeal. …
Farah has won fans in unexpected corners. In a 2008 testimonial, "Why a Liberal Jewish Feminist Likes WND," college journalism instructor Donna Halper praised Farah's "interesting and honest writing" and his reluctance to "blindly follow the 'party line.' " She makes the site required reading for her students at Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass. …
Farah, 55, is an evangelical Christian whose politics would be called conservative by any measure. But he resents the label - noting that he is devoted to muckraking journalism no matter which party is in charge - and likes to think of himself as a lone wolf in a pack of complacent reporters, particularly where Obama is concerned. …
"Just because one newsman or one news agency decides to pursue a story that nobody believes doesn't mean we're fringe," he said. "When Woodward and Bernstein started pursuing Watergate, had no one else gotten on the story. … Woodward and Bernstein would probably be viewed today as some kind of fringe characters." …
Its reportage has been known to rattle careers.
Van Jones, a mid-level White House official admired by the president's closest advisors, resigned last year after Farah's team reported that he had once declared himself a communist and a radical.
When Cass Sunstein, now Obama's top regulatory official, came up for a Senate vote,several Republicans who opposed him cited his views on animal rights and hunting gleaned from WorldNetDaily. (Sunstein was confirmed anyway.)
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