Joseph Sobran

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M. Joseph Sobran (b. February 23, 1946, Ypsilanti, Michigan) is an American journalist and writer, formerly with National Review and currently a syndicated columnist.

Contents 1 Academic and professional career 2 National Review Controversy 3 Political philosophy 4 Books and other publications 5 See also 6 External links 6.1 Sobran's writings 6.2 Articles dealing with the anti-Semitism charge 7 References

[edit] Academic and professional career

Sobran graduated from Eastern Michigan University and received a bachelor's degree in English. He studied for a graduate degree in English, concentrating on Shakespearean studies, following his graduation. In the late 1960s, Sobran spent time lecturing on Shakespeare and English on a fellowship with the university.

In 1972, Sobran started working at William F. Buckley Jr's National Review magazine. (During the 1970s, he frequently used the byline M.J. Sobran.) He stayed twenty-one years, eighteen of them as senior editor, before being removed from the publication amidst controversial charges.

Along with his work at National Review, Sobran spent 21 years as a commentator on the CBS Radio "Spectrum" program series, and is still a syndicated columnist, first with the Los Angeles Times, and later with the Universal Press Syndicate. He is currently distributed by the Griffin Internet Syndicate.

Sobran also contributes to the Roman Catholic newsweekly The Wanderer, where he contributes a weekly column entitled Washington Watch, and writes a monthly column which appears in Catholic Family News.

Sobran was named the Constitution Party's vice presidential nominee in 2000, but withdrew from the race.

[edit] National Review Controversy

Further information: Neoconservative - Paleoconservative Conflict

Sobran was fired from National Review in 1993 and was accused of being an anti-Semite (most notably by neoconservative writer Norman Podhoretz). Podhoretz wrote that "Joe Sobran's columns ... [are] anti-Semitic in themselves, and not merely 'contextually.'" Buckley disagreed with Podhoretz's accusation, noting that he "deemed Joe Sobran's six columns 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."^[1]

One such comment was that the New York Times "really ought to change its name to Holocaust Update."^[2] Sobran claimed that founder William F. Buckley told him to "stop antagonizing the Zionist crowd", and Buckley accused him of libel and moral incapacitation. ^[3] Sobran also complained of "a more or less official national obsession with a tiny, faraway socialist ethnocracy."^[4]

Years later, Sobran spoke at a 2001 conference hosted by the Institute for Historical Review, which promotes Holocaust denial. David Irving appeared at the same event.^[5]

[edit] Political philosophy

Through much of his career, Sobran identified as a paleoconservative and supported strict interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. In 2002, Joseph Sobran announced his philosophical and political shift to anarchism (paleolibertarian anarcho-capitalism) citing inspiration by theorists Murray Rothbard and Hans-Hermann Hoppe^[6]. He has referred to himself as a "theo-anarchist."^[7]

Sobran says Roman Catholic teachings are consistent with his opposition to abortion and the Iraq War. He also argues that the 9/11 attacks were a result of the U.S. Government's policies regarding the Middle East. He claims those policies are formed by the "Jewish-Zionist powers that be in the United States" ^[8]

[edit] Books and other publications

Sobran is the author of many books, including one about William Shakespeare, Alias Shakespeare: Solving the Greatest Literary Mystery of All Time (1997), where he endorses the Oxfordian theory that Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, was the true author of the plays usually attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford-on-Avon.

He is currently working on two books: one concerning Abraham Lincoln's presidency and the United States Constitution, and another about de Vere's poetry.

He is also the author of:

• Single Issues: Essays on the Crucial Social Questions - Human Life Press - 1983
• The Conservative Manifesto - Empire Books - 1984
• Alias Shakespeare: Solving the Greatest Literary Mystery of All Time - Free Press 1997
• Hustler: The Clinton Legacy - Griffin Communications - 2000

Sobran has produced a number of published articles and speeches, including:

• Anything Called a Program is Unconstitutional - Griffin Communications - 2001
• 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

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Sobran's writings

• Sobran's: The Real News of the Month — Official site.
• Archive of Joseph Sobran's articles
• Archive of Joseph Sobran's newsletter
• The Writings of Joseph Sobran hosted on David Irving's Focal Point Publications website.

[edit] Articles dealing with the anti-Semitism charge

• Joe Sobran: Anti-Jewish? by Charles A. Morse
• How I Was Fired By Bill Buckley by Joseph Sobran.
• Joseph Sobran and Historical Revisionism by Mark Weber published in the Journal of Historical Review of the Institute for Historical Review, Fall 1987.
• For Fear of The Jews presentation at the 14th conference of the Institute for Historical Review 2002
• In search of anti-semitism, National Review, 12/30/91, William F. Buckley, Jr.
• Joseph Sobran. Jewish Power, The Journal of Historical Review, Vol. 18 #1 (January/February, 1999), p. 28.

[edit] References

1. ^ Buckley, William F., Jr., "In search of anti-Semitism: what Christians provoke what Jews? Why? By doing what? - And vice versa." National Review. 30 December 1991. [1]
2. ^ Naureckas, Jim. "The Philadelphia Inquirer's New Spectrum: From Centrism to Anti-Semitism." FAIR. November/December 1995. [2]
3. ^ War of words raging at National Review, by Ralph Z. Hallow, Washington Times, October 7, 1993.
4. ^ "In Pursuit of Anti-Semitism", National Review, March 16, 1992
5. ^ "Country Report: USA." Stephen Roth Institute. 2001. [3]
6. ^ Sobran, Joseph. "The Reluctant Anarchist", Sobran's. December 2002. [4]
7. ^ Scott Horton interview with Sobran [5]
8. ^ Sobran, Joseph. "West Meets East, Again" Sobran's. April 2002. [6]