Joseph Farah, my friend

[The natural born citizenship issue will] 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. … It's not going to go away, and it will drive a wedge in an already divided public.

~ Joseph Farah

This is a tribute article to my boss and my friend, Joseph Farah, who is the founder and CEO of WorldNetDaily, the leading independent news source on the Net.

Although I have never formally met Joseph Farah, I am intimately acquainted with the man through reading his daily columns, whose intellectual depth makes me feel like I am having a marvelous dialogue with a long lost friend who is now found. Although personally I have never spoken one word to this man, I feel that I know him better than many of my own relatives, people I attend church with, or even those with whom I grew up back in the day.

"Ellis, if you never have met or spoken to Joseph Farah, how can you call him your friend?" I'm glad you asked.

In a 2007 article, "Obscurity was good for me," I recalled my first encounter with Joseph, which had occurred 10 years earlier in 1997, during the maiden voyage of WorldNetDaily:

Ten years ago, Joseph Farah, founder of WorldNetDaily, had the vision, courage and intellect to start WND, and it has flourished exceedingly and abundantly. For 10 years, it was my daily bread as I wrote books nobody purchased or read.

A few weeks ago, at this most commendable milestone of WorldNetDaily's 10th anniversary, I received a note from Joseph Farah asking me to join the publication as a commentator. I did not give him time to change his mind, and I promptly accepted.

Joseph recently told me that for years he had watched my career grow from afar and had admired my work. (His unwritten words were that he knew that I had potential, but it wasn't time yet). My weekly column is called: "The Report from Washington" – the same title God put in my heart exactly 25 years ago!

While I don't want this tribute article to become unduly fawning, I really want the reader to understand how grateful I am to Joseph Farah and to WND for giving me, a unknown black American, a chance to be a weekly commentator for this invaluable news source after being in Sisyphus obscurity as an unknown writer and thinker since 1983, when I wrote my first serious articles on aesthetics and political philosophy. It was February 2007 when Farah by chance saw some sample articles I had sent to editors at WND as part of my application to be a commentator there and decided to publish them.

It was Farah working years as a professional journalist and editor at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and the Sacramento Union that gave him the discerning eye to recognize new, untapped talent. Without Farah's support, I think I would still be unknown to the state-controlled media, the law academy, the GOP, the RNC and conservative writers who claim they want to "help the disenfranchised."

Before I had met Joseph, I literally sent thousands of e-mails and hundreds of letters with my articles and books attached literally begging managing editors, think tanks, TV executives, Christian ministers, academics, scholars, intellectuals, the GOP and conservative media demigods to give me a chance; to interview me, print some of my work or mention my books on politics, the Supreme Court, constitutional law, culture and society. Their response over the past 26 years … NOTHING!

Joseph Farah and WND have been on the cutting edge of many stories that other media entities either are too afraid to report or too apathetic to be interested in. Farah has distinguished himself through WND to go where no media entity has gone before (to paraphrase the intro to the "Star Trek" TV show).

If you doubt me, pick any controversial story possessing substantive news interest, gravitas, constitutional or cultural issues, and chances are WND has either broken the story wide open or has been the lone wolf to continue the story long after other media entities have moved on:

The story of conservative radio host Michael Savage being blacklisted on May 5 by Great Britain in collusion with America and the Obama administration;
President Obama's failure to provide definitive proof of his natural born citizenship according to Article 2, Section 1, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution;
President George W. Bush bankrupting the country years before he ruined the U.S. economy;
Muslim fanatics committing genocide against Christians, Jews, churches and synagogues across the world;
WND derailed the amnesty-for-illegal-aliens bill;
WND exposed the cap-and-trade and the global warming hoaxes;
WND consistently exposed RINOs (Republicans in name only);
WND championed the tea party movement;
WND led the detailed exposure of Obama's universal death care bill and the public backlash currently taking place at town hall meetings throughout the United States;
Farah alone continues defending himself against universal blacklisting and vicious libel and slander leveled against his name by socialist radicals and the state-controlled media for 12 years since his cofounding of WorldNetDaily with his dear wife, Elizabeth.

These are just a few examples of the many important news stories the Stalinist news media are too gutless to tell the truth about to the American public.

In conclusion, Joseph Farah is a man's man. He is fearless and is loyal only to God, America and the truth. His indefatigable spirit and prolific output in writing an original and interesting column every day, as well as path-breaking books such as "Taking America Back: A Radical Plan to Revive Freedom, Morality and Justice," his informative online intelligence newsletter, Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, and many news articles from a career as a professional journalist spanning over 30 years, is an achievement that even conservative icon Bill Buckley would be envious of.

Exceeding gratitude to you, Joseph Farah, and to all the editors, writers and staff at WorldNetDaily for being a clarion voice of Veritas (truth), when all other voices have either been silenced or compromised.