An Open Letter to Mr. Joseph Farah (Founder and CEO of WorldNetDaily)

Dear Mr. Farah,

You have honored me greatly by leaving a comment on my humble little blog. I am amazed that a man of such prominence with so many responsibilities would even take notice of my recent post and take time to provide feedback. Thank you very much.

Your comment expressed concern that it was inappropriate to mention in my prior post that WorldNetDaily had been founded with an “unabashedly conservative” viewpoint. That same blog post also indicated that WorldNetDaily’s purpose was "exposing wrongdoing, corruption and abuse of power." Both phrases were in quotes in my post because I understood these to be your words. If these quotes do not reflect your actual words and I have therefore inadvertently misquoted you, please accept my sincere apologies.

Since receiving your comment, I have modified the blog post in question to cite the sources where I found those quotes. The quote, to which you object, was found in two places: (1) on the Wikipedia page providing your biography and (2) in an article in the Los Angeles Times. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Farah#cite_ref-1990_WP_5-0. See Faye Fiore, “Raking Up Muck and Rolling in the Dough,” Los Angeles Times (Jan. 27, 2010). After reading your blog comment, I re-read those sources, and realized that quote was apparently referring only to the Sacramento Union. I apologize profusely for initially interpreting the quote more broadly, i.e., as describing all publications on which you worked subsequent to leaving the Los Angeles Herald Examiner.

Please know it is never my intention to promulgate untruths or to sow confusion. If I have unintentionally done so, I offer you my deepest apologies and I would like to extend to you the opportunity to set the record straight in greater detail on my blog. If at any time you would like to submit a guest blogger essay (of any length) about the quote in question, or to express a different opinion than I expressed about WorldNetDaily or the lack of civility in modern American political discourse, please contact me. I would be greatly honored to publish your thoughts as a guest blogger essay.

Respectfully and sincerely yours,
Your sister in Christ,
Claudine Pease-Wingenter

P.S. I am writing this note as an open-letter to you because you did not leave an e-mail address when you left your comment on my blog.