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George Farah

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(Redirected from George Farah (writer)) American author, pro-democracy activist and political commentator (born 1978)
George Farah
George FarahGeorge Farah
BornMay 14, 1978
Beirut, Lebanon
OccupationAuthor, Attorney, Political Commentator, Activist
CitizenshipAmerican
EducationPrinceton University (BA)
Harvard Law School (JD)
Notable worksBook: "No Debate"

George Farah (born 1978) is an American author, attorney, pro-democracy activist, and political commentator.

Background

Farah was born in Beirut, Lebanon in 1978 and moved to the United States at the age of three.

In 2000, Farah graduated from Princeton University with a B.A. in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. In 2005, he graduated from Harvard Law School with a J.D. He was the recipient of a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans.

While at Harvard, Farah advocated for the law school to help students find employment at plaintiff-side firms focused on rectifying injustices, rather than focus so heavily on recruitment by corporate firms.

Farah lives in New York City.

Career

Presidential Debates

U.S. News & World Report described Farah as a "political debate expert and election watch dog." PBS called Farah a "remarkable" author who exposed the "secretive process by which party handlers ensure there won't be a real discussion of the issues" at the presidential debates.

Farah is the author of the book No Debate: How the Republican and Democratic Parties Secretly Control the Presidential Debates, which was published by Seven Stories Press in 2004. He was also the founder and executive director of the non-profit organization Open Debates, which advocated reform of the presidential debate process.

In his book, Farah describes how negotiators for the Republican and Democratic nominees draft secret contracts that dictate the terms of the presidential debates. Those contracts, argued Farah, contain antidemocratic provisions that weaken debate formats and exclude third-party challengers. Through his investigative work, Farah secured copies of the 1992, 1996 and 2004 contracts and made them public for the first time, spurring criticism of the major parties for manipulating the debates.

Farah has repeatedly criticized the Commission on Presidential Debates, a private corporation that has sponsored general election presidential debate since 1988. He argues that the Commission on Presidential Debates was created by the Republican and Democratic parties to "seize control of the presidential debates from the League of Women Voters." Farah claims that the Commission implements and conceals debate contracts negotiated by the major party campaigns.

To reform the presidential debates, Farah has advocated replacing the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates with a "truly nonpartisan" Citizens' Debate Commission that would operate transparently, employ challenging formats and adopt democratic candidate selection criteria. He persuaded multiple newspapers and more than 60 civic organizations to endorse the Citizens' Debate Commission. He also helped convince three corporations to withdraw their sponsorship of the Commission on Presidential Debates.

Political Commentator

Farah has published many opinion articles addressing electoral reform issues, wage inequality, media concentration, and foreign policy in the Middle East. His articles have appeared in numerous newspapers and periodicals, including The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Denver Post, Christian Science Monitor, Extra! Magazine, and The Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Farah has been interviewed on many television programs to discuss presidential elections, electoral reform, Supreme Court decisions, and Middle East conflicts. He has appeared on ABC's Nightline, PBS's NOW with Bill Moyers, ABC's 20/20, CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, MSNBC's Countdown, Fox News' Fox & Friends, CBS Evening News, CNN's American Morning, MSNBC's Lester Holt Live, Al-Jazeera's Inside Story, and C-Span's Washington Journal.

Farah has also been interviewed on many radio shows, including NPR's All Things Considered, WNYC's The Brian Lehrer Show, Democracy Now!, and CounterSpin.

Class-Action Attorney

Farah is a co-founder and partner at the law firm Handley Farah & Anderson, where he litigates antitrust, wage theft, human rights, and civil rights cases on behalf of workers, farmers, and consumers.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Farah developed a historic class action lawsuit that resulted in a $1.8 billion jury verdict against the real estate industry and forced real estate brokers to lower commissions charged to homebuyers.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Farah launched a class action lawsuit against chicken processors for conspiring to depress the wages of hundreds of thousands of low-income workers. The lawsuit resulted in approximately $400 million in settlements.

Farah was part of the litigation team that sued President Donald Trump for violating the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution by accepting payments from foreign and domestic governments.

He developed and litigated a class action lawsuit accusing dairy processors of conspiring to inflate their profits at the expense of thousands of dairy farmers by misreporting data to the federal government. The lawsuit resulted in a $40 million settlement.

Farah litigated a class action that compelled the New York City Police Department to halt the unconstitutional practice of detaining people to conduct warrant searches when no justifiable suspicion exists to do so.

He developed and litigated a lawsuit alleging that a bank discriminated against African-American sugarcane farmers in Louisiana by providing loans on inferior terms than those provided to white sugarcane farmers.

Non-Profit Activism

Farah has participated in nonprofit organizations to strengthen democracy and address income inequality. He founded and directed the nonprofit Open Debates; served as Treasurer and General Counsel of the Campaign for a Living Wage; was a program associate at The Center for the Study of Responsive Law; served on the board of The Modern Classrooms Project; and served on the board of the American Independent Business Alliance.

Publications

Book

  • "No Debate: How the Republican and Democratic Parties Secretly Control the Presidential Debates," Seven Stories Press (2004), 232 Pages, ISBN 9781583226650

Articles

  • "Prominent Market Definition Issues in Pharmaceutical Antitrust Cases," Antitrust Magazine, Fall 2015 (Co-authored with Laura Alexander)
  • "Commission Prevents Debates from Informing," Las Vegas Review Journal, September 9, 2012
  • "Debates Could Be A Whole Lot Better," The Denver Post, October 13, 2008
  • "A Moral and Economic Case for a 'Living Wage' Law," The Washington Post, May 4, 2006 (Co-authored with Clayton Sinyai)
  • "The Debate Debacle," The Boston Globe, September 18, 2004 (Co-authored with Jesse Ventura)
  • "No Debate: Format's a Sham," Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, August 30, 2004 (Co-authored Tom Gerety)
  • "Save 'Genuine' Presidential Debates," Christian Science Monitor, August 10, 2004
  • "Get Debates Out of Parties' Grasp," Philadelphia Inquirer, November 14, 2003
  • "What's Not Talked About on Sunday Morning?" Extra! Magazine, October 2001, Cover Story (Co-authored with Justin Elga)

References

  1. ^ Spring 2004 Fellows, Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans
  2. "HLS Student Takes on the Presidential Debates," Harvard Law Today, April 22, 2004
  3. Farah, George "Where Are the Plaintiff Firms?" Harvard Law Record, February 17, 2005
  4. Flock, Elizabeth, "In a First, Debates Give Presidential Candidates the Topics Ahead Of Time" U.S. News & World Report, September 21, 2012
  5. "This Week", Now with Bill Moyers, PBS, September 12, 2004
  6. Bollier, David "The Presidential Debates Are A Scam" Alternet, October 14, 2008
  7. Wayne, Leslie, "In Staging Events, Debate Commission Gets Help from Corporate America" The New York Times, October 13, 2008
  8. ^ Stossel, John, "Was the Kerry-Bush Match a Real Debate?" ABC News, October 1, 2004
  9. Friedenberg, Robert, "Book Review - No Debate: How the Republican and Democratic Parties Secretly Control the Presidential Debates," Argumentation and Advocacy 1(2004):51, June 22, 2004
  10. Stelter, Brian, "Memo Outlines Format and Rules for Candidate Debates" The New York Times, October 15, 2012
  11. Stangler, Cole, "Stuck in Second Class Debate Gear" The American Prospect, October 11, 2012
  12. Murphy, Jarrett, "Debating the Debates" CBS News, September 27, 2004
  13. Sifry, Micah, "Debate Is Missing Chance at True Social Interaction" CNN, October 3, 2012
  14. Cotto, Joseph, "George Farah on the Bipartisan Campaign against Open Debates" The Washington Times, September 26, 2012
  15. "No Debate About It: These Face-Offs Are Snoozers", CBS News, October 13, 2008
  16. Goodman, Amy "As Obama, Romney Hold First Debate, Behind the Secret GOP-Dem Effort to Shut Out Third Parties" Democracy Now!, October 3, 2012
  17. "Presidential Candidates Debate Format" Washington Journal, C-Span, October 15, 2008
  18. Greenwald, Glenn, "The Lame Rules for Presidential Debates: A Perfect Microcosm of US Democracy" The Guardian, October 16, 2012
  19. Montopoli, Brian, "Do the Debates Unfairly Shut Out Third Parties?" CBS News, October 15, 2012
  20. ^ "Lou Dobbs Tonight", CNN, Transcript, September 24, 2004
  21. "Take the Gloves Off", Editorial, Los Angeles Times, June 12, 2004
  22. Byers, Dylan, "Philips Pulls Presidential Debate Sponsorship", Politico, September 30, 2012
  23. Flock, Elizabeth, "Two Sponsors Pull Out from Debates Over Exclusion of Gary Johnson", U.S. News & World Report, October 1, 2012
  24. Farah, George and Clayton Sinyai, "A Moral and Economic Case for a 'Living Wage' Law", The Washington Post, May 4, 2006
  25. Farah, George and Jesse Ventura "The Debate Debacle," The Boston Globe, September 18, 2004
  26. Farah, George, "Get Debates Out Of Parties' Grasp" The Philadelphia Inquirer, November 14, 2003
  27. Farah, George 'The Debates Could Be A Whole Lot Better" The Denver Post, October 13, 2008
  28. Farah, George, "Save 'Genuine' Presidential Debates," The Christian Science Monitor, August 10, 2004
  29. Farah, George and Justin Elga, "What’s Not Talked About on Sunday Morning?" Extra! Magazine, September 1, 2001
  30. Farah, George, "Commission Prevents Debates from Informing," Las Vegas Review-Journal, September 9, 2012
  31. "Politics Unusual" Archived 2015-07-01 at the Wayback Machine Nightline, ABC, September 29, 2004
  32. "George Farah on Presidential Debates" Now with Bill Moyers, PBS, September 24, 2004
  33. "Countdown with Keith Olbermann", MSNBC, Video, October 2004
  34. "Guests and Topics for Oct. 14", Fox News, October 14, 2004
  35. Roberts, Joel, "Washington Wrap", CBS News, May 25, 2004
  36. "American Morning", CNN, Transcript, October 1, 2004
  37. "Battle for the White House", MSNBC, Video, October 3, 2004
  38. "US Voters: Not Spoilt for a Choice", Al Jazeera, "Inside Story," October 20, 2012
  39. "George Farah" C-Span, accessed May 14, 2015
  40. "The NPR Third-Party Candidate Debate" All Things Considered, NPR, October 6, 2012
  41. "Debate and Switch", The Brian Lehrer Show, WNYC, June 3, 2004
  42. "Secret Debate Contract Reveals Obama and Romney Campaigns Exclude Third Parties, Control Questions", Democracy Now!, October 16, 2012
  43. "George Farah on Open Debates, Muhammid Sahimi on IAEA Iran Report", CounterSpin, September 7, 2012
  44. "How the $1.8 Billion Real-Estate Commissions Lawsuit Came to Be", Wall Street Journal, November 26, 2023
  45. "U.S. Chicken Industry Accused of Conspiring to Keep Immigrant Wages Down", Los Angeles Times, September 3, 2019
  46. "Tyson, Other Poultry Processors Pay $180 Million to Settle Workers' Wage Claims", Reuters, December 24, 2024
  47. "NY District Judge Tosses Emoluments Suit against Trump for Lack of Standing", New York Law Journal, December 12, 2021
  48. "DairyAmerica Agrees to $40 Million Milk Pricing Class Action Settlement", Top Class Actions, August 15, 2018
  49. "Police Officers May No Longer Hold People to Check for Warrants", New York Times, December 16, 2022
  50. "How America Treats Its Black Farmers", The Guardian, October 30, 2018
  51. Turque, Bill, "Many Hurdles Remain for 'Living Wage'", The Washington Post, February 4, 2007
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