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=== Columnist === === Columnist ===
In 1972, while still at Eastern Michigan, Sobrans published rebuttals of criticisms from other professors of an upcoming campus visit by ] publisher of the ''National Review'' and a prominent conservative. After reading Sobran's comments, Buckley hired him as a columnist at the ''National Review''. After three years, Buckley promoted Sobrans to senior editor.<ref name="Grimes" /> In 1972, while still at Eastern Michigan, Sobran published rebuttals of criticisms from other professors of an upcoming campus visit by ] publisher of the ''National Review'' and a prominent conservative. After reading Sobran's comments, Buckley hired him as a columnist at the ''National Review''. After three years, Buckley promoted Sobran to senior editor.<ref name="Grimes" />


Aside from his work at ''National Review,'' Sobran spent 21 years as a commentator on the CBS Radio '']'' program series. He was a syndicated columnist, first with the '']'' and later with the ]. From 1988 to 2007, Sobran wrote the column "Washington Watch" for the Catholic weekly '']''. He also wrote a monthly column for the '']'', and the "Bare Bodkin" column for '']'' magazine. Sobran was a media fellow of the ].<ref>{{cite web |title=The Free Market &#124; Mises Institute |url=https://mises.org/freemarket_detail.aspx?control=639 |access-date=2016-07-25 |website=Mises.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=2010-09-30 |title=Joseph Sobran, 1946-2010 |url=http://blog.mises.org/14087/joseph-sobran-1946-2010 |access-date=2016-07-25 |website=Blog.mises.org}}</ref> Aside from his work at ''National Review,'' Sobran spent 21 years as a commentator on the CBS Radio '']'' program series. He was a syndicated columnist, first with the '']'' and later with the ]. From 1988 to 2007, Sobran wrote the column "Washington Watch" for the Catholic weekly '']''. He also wrote a monthly column for the '']'', and the "Bare Bodkin" column for '']'' magazine. Sobran was a media fellow of the ].<ref>{{cite web |title=The Free Market &#124; Mises Institute |url=https://mises.org/freemarket_detail.aspx?control=639 |access-date=2016-07-25 |website=Mises.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=2010-09-30 |title=Joseph Sobran, 1946-2010 |url=http://blog.mises.org/14087/joseph-sobran-1946-2010 |access-date=2016-07-25 |website=Blog.mises.org}}</ref>
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Referring to Sobran's appearance at the Institute for Historical Review conferences, historian ] wrote: "Mr. Sobran may not have been an unequivocal denier, but he gave support and comfort to the worst of them".<ref>Deborah Lipstadt , '']'', October 5, 2010.</ref> Writing in ''National Review'', ] said: "His appearance before that sorry outfit a few years ago remains impossible to explain, at least if you're trying to absolve him".<ref>Matthew Scully, "", ''National Review Online'', October 16, 2010.</ref> Referring to Sobran's appearance at the Institute for Historical Review conferences, historian ] wrote: "Mr. Sobran may not have been an unequivocal denier, but he gave support and comfort to the worst of them".<ref>Deborah Lipstadt , '']'', October 5, 2010.</ref> Writing in ''National Review'', ] said: "His appearance before that sorry outfit a few years ago remains impossible to explain, at least if you're trying to absolve him".<ref>Matthew Scully, "", ''National Review Online'', October 16, 2010.</ref>


In the ], Sobran endorsed Constitution Party candidate ].<ref>{{cite web |title=Archived copy |url=http://www.amconmag.com/article/2008/nov/03/00036 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081030021427/http://www.amconmag.com/article/2008/nov/03/00036 |archive-date=2008-10-30 |access-date=2008-11-04}}</ref>Sobran was twice married and divorced. He had four children In the ], Sobran endorsed Constitution Party candidate ].<ref>{{cite web |title=Archived copy |url=http://www.amconmag.com/article/2008/nov/03/00036 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081030021427/http://www.amconmag.com/article/2008/nov/03/00036 |archive-date=2008-10-30 |access-date=2008-11-04}}</ref>Sobran was twice married and divorced. He had four children.


=== Death and legacy === === Death and legacy ===
Michael Sobran died in a nursing home in ], on September 30, 2010, as the result of ] spurred by ].<ref name="tstanley" /><ref name="Grimes" /> ] called Sobran "perhaps the finest columnist of our generation".<ref>{{cite web |author=W. James Antle, III |date=October 4, 2010 |title=Remembering Joe Sobran |url=http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/1010/1010sobran.htm |access-date=2011-06-06 |publisher=Enter Stage Right}}</ref> Michael Sobran died in a nursing home in ], on September 30, 2010 of ] due to ].<ref name="tstanley" /><ref name="Grimes" /> ] called Sobran "perhaps the finest columnist of our generation".<ref>{{cite web |author=W. James Antle, III |date=October 4, 2010 |title=Remembering Joe Sobran |url=http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/1010/1010sobran.htm |access-date=2011-06-06 |publisher=Enter Stage Right}}</ref>


== Viewpoints == == Viewpoints ==
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=== Jews and Israel === === Jews and Israel ===
Sobran frequently used his columns to criticism ] and ]. In one column, Sobran wrote that '']'' "really ought to change its name to ''Holocaust Update''".<ref>Jim Naureckas, , FAIR, November/December 1995.</ref> In a 1992 column, he complained of "a more or less official national obsession with a tiny, faraway socialist ]", meaning ]. Sobran argued that the ] were a result of the United States government's policies in the ] He claimed those policies are formed by the "Jewish lobby".<ref name="Grimes">{{cite news|last=Grimes|first=William|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/books/02sobran.html|title=Joseph Sobran, Writer Whom Buckley Mentored, Dies at 64|date=October 1, 2010|website=The New York Times|access-date=February 7, 2019}}</ref> Sobran frequently used his columns to criticism ], the Holocaust and ]. In one column, Sobran wrote that '']'' "really ought to change its name to ''Holocaust Update''".<ref>Jim Naureckas, , FAIR, November/December 1995.</ref> In a 1992 column, he complained of "a more or less official national obsession with a tiny, faraway socialist ]", meaning ]. Sobran argued that the ] were a result of the United States government's policies in the ] He claimed those policies are formed by the "Jewish lobby".<ref name="Grimes">{{cite news|last=Grimes|first=William|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/books/02sobran.html|title=Joseph Sobran, Writer Whom Buckley Mentored, Dies at 64|date=October 1, 2010|website=The New York Times|access-date=February 7, 2019}}</ref>


In 2002, Sobran published this statement:<blockquote>My chief offense, it appears, has been to insist that the state of Israel has been a costly and treacherous ‘ally’ to the United States. As of last Sept. 11, I should think that is undeniable. But I have yet to receive a single apology for having been correct.”<ref name="Grimes" /></blockquote>In 2002, Sobran said that he had the "scholarly competence" to be a ]. He also claimed that the official number of Holocaust victims was inaccurate and that the ] was not intent on racial extermination.<ref>{{cite web |title=For Fear of the Jews |url=http://www.sobran.com/fearofjews.shtml |access-date=2016-07-25 |website=Sobran's: The Real News of the Month}}</ref>In 1993, Sobran defended ] against charges of antisemitism, concluding that the comparison of ] to antisemitism was a ].{{citation needed|date=June 2018}}Sobran considered ] to be at least in part a Jewish phenomenon, writing: <blockquote>"Christians knew that Communism – often called ']' – would bring awful persecution with the ultimate goal of the annihilation of Christianity. While the atheistic Soviet regime ], murdering tens of thousands of Orthodox priests, it also showed its true colors by making anti-Semitism a capital crime. Countless Jews around the world remained pro-Communist even after Stalin had purged most Jews from positions of power in the Soviet Union."<ref name="jews">{{cite web|url=http://sobran.com/jewid.shtml|title=The Church and Jewish Ideology |website=Sobran.com|access-date=2016-07-25}}</ref>{{Third-party inline|date=April 2022}}</blockquote> In 2002, Sobran published this statement:<blockquote>My chief offense, it appears, has been to insist that the state of Israel has been a costly and treacherous ‘ally’ to the United States. As of last Sept. 11, I should think that is undeniable. But I have yet to receive a single apology for having been correct.”<ref name="Grimes" /></blockquote>In 2002, Sobran said that he had the "scholarly competence" to be a ]. He also claimed that the official number of Holocaust victims was inaccurate and that the ] was not intent on racial extermination.<ref>{{cite web |title=For Fear of the Jews |url=http://www.sobran.com/fearofjews.shtml |access-date=2016-07-25 |website=Sobran's: The Real News of the Month}}</ref>In 1993, Sobran defended ] against charges of antisemitism, concluding that the comparison of ] to antisemitism was a ].{{citation needed|date=June 2018}}Sobran considered ] to be at least in part a Jewish phenomenon, writing: <blockquote>"Christians knew that Communism – often called ']' – would bring awful persecution with the ultimate goal of the annihilation of Christianity. While the atheistic Soviet regime ], murdering tens of thousands of Orthodox priests, it also showed its true colors by making anti-Semitism a capital crime. Countless Jews around the world remained pro-Communist even after Stalin had purged most Jews from positions of power in the Soviet Union."<ref name="jews">{{cite web|url=http://sobran.com/jewid.shtml|title=The Church and Jewish Ideology |website=Sobran.com|access-date=2016-07-25}}</ref>{{Third-party inline|date=April 2022}}</blockquote>

Revision as of 21:21, 10 July 2022

American journalist (1946–2010)
Joseph Sobran
BornMichael Joseph Sobran Jr.
(1946-02-23)February 23, 1946
Ypsilanti, Michigan, United States
DiedSeptember 30, 2010(2010-09-30) (aged 64)
Fairfax, Virginia, United States
Alma materEastern Michigan University
Political partyConstitution Party

Michael Joseph Sobran Jr. (/ˈsoʊbræn/; February 23, 1946 – September 30, 2010) was an American journalist. He wrote for the National Review magazine and was a syndicated columnist. During the 1970s, he frequently used the byline M. J. Sobran.

Sobran was a frequent critic of US foreign policy towards Israel, US involvement in foreign wars, and the international influences of Jews.

Biography

Early life

Sobran was born in Ypsilanti, Michigan, into a devoutly Roman Catholic family. He graduated in 1969 from Eastern Michigan University in his native Ypsilanti with a Bachelor of Arts in English. He studied for a graduate degree in English with a concentration on Shakespearean studies following his graduation. In the late 1960s, Sobran lectured on Shakespeare and English on a fellowship with the university.

Columnist

In 1972, while still at Eastern Michigan, Sobran published rebuttals of criticisms from other professors of an upcoming campus visit by William F. Buckley Jr., publisher of the National Review and a prominent conservative. After reading Sobran's comments, Buckley hired him as a columnist at the National Review. After three years, Buckley promoted Sobran to senior editor.

Aside from his work at National Review, Sobran spent 21 years as a commentator on the CBS Radio Spectrum program series. He was a syndicated columnist, first with the Los Angeles Times and later with the Universal Press Syndicate. From 1988 to 2007, Sobran wrote the column "Washington Watch" for the Catholic weekly The Wanderer. He also wrote a monthly column for the Catholic Family News, and the "Bare Bodkin" column for Chronicles magazine. Sobran was a media fellow of the Mises Institute.

Firing from National Review

In 1993, in a column in The Wanderer, Sobran attacked Buckley for his support of the 1991 Gulf War. Already unhappy with Sobran's columns on Israel and anti-semiticsm, Buckley was reportedly angered that Sobran had used information from their private conversations and decided to fire him as senior editor. Buckley said he considered some of Sobran's columns to be

"...contextually anti-Semitic. By this I mean that if he had been talking, let us say, about the lobbying interests of the Arabs or of the Chinese, he would not have raised eyebrows as an anti-Arab or an anti-Chinese".

In response to his firing, Sobran claimed that Buckley told him to "stop antagonizing the Zionist crowd" and accused him of libel and moral incapacitation. In his own assessment, Columnist Norman Podhoretz wrote that "Joe Sobran's columns anti-Semitic in themselves, and not merely 'contextually'",

In 1994. he founded "Sobran’s: The Real News of the Month", a newsletter that published until 2007. Sobran was named the Constitution Party's vice presidential nominee in 2000, but withdrew later that year due to scheduling conflicts.

Institute for Historical Research

In 2001, Pat Buchanan offered Sobran a column in Buchanan's new magazine The American Conservative. However, Editor Scott McConnell withdrew the offer when Sobran refused to cancel his appearance before the Institute for Historical Review, a leading Holocaust-denying group.In 2001 and 2003, Sobran spoke at conferences organized by David Irving and shared the podium with Paul Fromm, Charles D. Provan, and Mark Weber, director of the Institute for Historical Review,. In 2002, he spoke at the Institute for Historical Review's annual conference.

Referring to Sobran's appearance at the Institute for Historical Review conferences, historian Deborah Lipstadt wrote: "Mr. Sobran may not have been an unequivocal denier, but he gave support and comfort to the worst of them". Writing in National Review, Matthew Scully said: "His appearance before that sorry outfit a few years ago remains impossible to explain, at least if you're trying to absolve him".

In the 2008 presidential election, Sobran endorsed Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin.Sobran was twice married and divorced. He had four children.

Death and legacy

Michael Sobran died in a nursing home in Fairfax, Virginia, on September 30, 2010 of kidney failure due to diabetes. Pat Buchanan called Sobran "perhaps the finest columnist of our generation".

Viewpoints

Philosophy

Throughout much of his career, Sobran identified as a paleoconservative like his colleagues Samuel T. Francis, Pat Buchanan, and Peter Gemma. He claimed to support strict interpretation of the United States Constitution. In 2002, Sobran announced his philosophical and political shift to libertarianism (paleolibertarian anarcho-capitalism), citing inspiration by theorists Murray Rothbard and Hans-Hermann Hoppe. He referred to himself as a "theo-anarchist".

Catholic teachings

Sobran said Catholic teachings were consistent with his opposition to abortion and the Iraq War.

Jews and Israel

Sobran frequently used his columns to criticism Israel, the Holocaust and Zionism. In one column, Sobran wrote that The New York Times "really ought to change its name to Holocaust Update". In a 1992 column, he complained of "a more or less official national obsession with a tiny, faraway socialist ethnocracy", meaning Israel. Sobran argued that the 9/11 attacks were a result of the United States government's policies in the Middle East. He claimed those policies are formed by the "Jewish lobby".

In 2002, Sobran published this statement:

My chief offense, it appears, has been to insist that the state of Israel has been a costly and treacherous ‘ally’ to the United States. As of last Sept. 11, I should think that is undeniable. But I have yet to receive a single apology for having been correct.”

In 2002, Sobran said that he had the "scholarly competence" to be a Holocaust denier. He also claimed that the official number of Holocaust victims was inaccurate and that the Third Reich was not intent on racial extermination.In 1993, Sobran defended Pat Buchanan against charges of antisemitism, concluding that the comparison of anti-Zionism to antisemitism was a non sequitur.Sobran considered communism to be at least in part a Jewish phenomenon, writing:

"Christians knew that Communism – often called 'Jewish Bolshevism' – would bring awful persecution with the ultimate goal of the annihilation of Christianity. While the atheistic Soviet regime made war on Christians, murdering tens of thousands of Orthodox priests, it also showed its true colors by making anti-Semitism a capital crime. Countless Jews around the world remained pro-Communist even after Stalin had purged most Jews from positions of power in the Soviet Union."

Published works

Books

  • Single Issues: Essays on the Crucial Social Questions – Human Life Press – 1983
  • Alias Shakespeare: Solving the Greatest Literary Mystery of All Time – Free Press 1997. Sobran espoused the Oxfordian theory that Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, wrote the plays attributed William Shakespeare .
  • Hustler: The Clinton Legacy – Griffin Communications 2000

At the time of his death, Sobran was working on two books, one concerning Abraham Lincoln's presidency and the United States Constitution and another about de Vere's poetry.

Articles and speeches

His essays appeared in The Human Life Review, Celebrate Life! and The Free Market.

  • The Church Today: Less Catholic Than the Pope? – National Committee of Catholic Laymen – 1979
  • How Tyranny Came to America, Sobran's, n.d.
  • Pensees: Notes for the reactionary of tomorrow, National Review, December 31, 1985. (extended essay)
  • Power and Betrayal – Griffin Communications – 1998
  • Anything Called a Program is Unconstitutional – Griffin Communications – 2001

References

  1. ^ Grimes, William (October 1, 2010). "Joseph Sobran, Writer Whom Buckley Mentored, Dies at 64". The New York Times. Retrieved February 7, 2019.
  2. "The Free Market | Mises Institute". Mises.org. Retrieved 2016-07-25.
  3. "Joseph Sobran, 1946-2010". Blog.mises.org. 2010-09-30. Retrieved 2016-07-25.
  4. McDonald, Michael (June 2011). "Wills Watching". The New Criterion. Retrieved 2011-06-06.
  5. "In Pursuit of Anti-Semitism," National Review, 16 March 1992.
  6. Ralph Z. Hallow, "War of words raging at National Review," The Washington Times, October 7, 1993.
  7. William F. Buckley Jr."In search of anti-Semitism: what Christians provoke what Jews? Why? By doing what? – And vice versa Archived 2006-02-23 at the Wayback Machine", National Review, December 30, 1991.
  8. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2008-05-10. Retrieved 2008-05-08.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. ^ Timothy Stanley, The Crusader: The Life and Tumultuous Times of Pat Buchanan (New York City: St. Martin's Press, 2012), p. 359; ISBN 978-0-312-58174-9
  10. "For Fear of the Jews". ihr.org. 2002-06-22. Retrieved 2016-07-25.
  11. Deborah Lipstadt "'Skeptical' on the Holocaust?", The New York Times, October 5, 2010.
  12. Matthew Scully, "Bard of the Right", National Review Online, October 16, 2010.
  13. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2008-10-30. Retrieved 2008-11-04.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  14. W. James Antle, III (October 4, 2010). "Remembering Joe Sobran". Enter Stage Right. Retrieved 2011-06-06.
  15. "Sobran's - The Reluctant Anarchist". Sobran.com. Retrieved 2016-07-25.
  16. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2006-11-13. Retrieved 2007-01-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  17. Jim Naureckas, "The Philadelphia Inquirer's New Spectrum: From Centrism to Anti-Semitism", FAIR, November/December 1995.
  18. "For Fear of the Jews". Sobran's: The Real News of the Month. Retrieved 2016-07-25.
  19. "The Church and Jewish Ideology". Sobran.com. Retrieved 2016-07-25.

External links

Party political offices
Preceded byHerb Titus Constitution nominee for Vice President of the United States
Withdrew
2000 		Succeeded byCurtis Frazier
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