A day in the life of Joseph Farah

You think you've got it rough?

Indulge me for a few moments so I can give you a little insight into what it's like being me.

About a week ago, I got an email from one of my top executives. He sent me a link to an Amazon page listing all my books for sale. He zeroed in on one of the offerings and asked the question, "Did you write this?"

I think he knew the answer.

I had not written it. But there it was, plain as the Lebanese nose on my face, a book with my name as the author and, just so there could be no mistake with another guy named Joseph Farah, my unique bio: "Joseph Farah is founder, editor and chief executive officer of WorldNetDaily.com. …" Etc., etc. etc.

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I was stunned.

Had I written a book I forgot about? I mean, I know I've written quite a few – sometimes, in my advancing years, I even forget the names of some of them. What the heck was going on here?

I'll bet this has never happened to anyone else in the history of publishing. I'm sure it's never happened to you.

Now, I'm a busy guy. I run this growing enterprise. I try to stay on top of the news, which is harder and harder all the time. I run WND, WND Books, WND Films. I have five kids, three grandchildren. It's not easy.

I do have lots of books I want to write, but "The Third Angel's Message and the Book of Joel" is not one of them.

Amazon screenshot:

How could this happen? And what does one do when you discover that someone else's book you've never read or heard of is being attributed to you – a whole book!

I'll tell you what I wanted to do – sue the publisher, sue Amazon, sue anyone and everyone who had anything to do with it. After all, I have a new book coming out in a few months, and the last thing I need is to have some impostor hawking a book with my name on it.

I mean, after all, it's hard enough taking responsibility for all the millions of words I have written in my life, I sure don't want to have to defend words put in my mouth by others.

My wife, Elizabeth, calmed me down. Take a deep breath, she counseled. Find out how this happened, she said.

So we called the publishing company responsible for the book. It was a Friday. The answering machine informed us that the company was closed on Friday. Now I had a whole weekend to stew over this injustice, this outrage, this case of identity theft, fraud and unlawful impersonation.

I painstakingly filled out a form on Amazon's website informing the retail giant that I had nothing to do with this book. I got a form email back explaining the matter would be investigated. Investigated? What is there to investigate? I didn't write the book. Isn't the onus on the publisher and the retailer to prove the validity of their claims?

Anyway, bottom line is this: It was all a big, unfortunate mistake. There really was another guy named Joseph Farah who wrote the book. He's a doctor from Connecticut – obviously Lebanese like me. And we Lebanese Christians stick together. He was not impersonating me. I'm convinced his publisher bore no responsibility for the mistake on Amazon. Who knows what kind of algorithm was used by the retailer to allow a book I didn't write to bear my identification. But it appears to be gone now – following Amazon's "investigation."

Good thing, too, for Jeff Bezos. I was very close to suing him for the purpose of redistributing his Amazon fortune in my favor. Or, if that didn't work, I thought about publishing a book he didn't write under his name and seeing how he liked it.

Instead, I took a chill pill and wrote this column. Now I feel better.

Experience more of Joseph Farah's no-nonsense truth-telling in his books – ones he really wrote! – audio and video products, featured in the WND Superstore

Media wishing to interview Joseph Farah, please contact [email protected].