Michael L. Goldfarb (born June 6, 1980) is an American conservative political writer. He was contributing editor for ''
The Weekly Standard
''The Weekly Standard'' was an American neoconservative political magazine of news, analysis and commentary, published 48 times per year. Originally edited by founders Bill Kristol and Fred Barnes, the ''Standard'' had been described as a "re ...
'' and was a research associate at the
Project for the New American Century
The Project for the New American Century (PNAC) was a neoconservative"About PNAC" Retrieved 2011-11-06 During the 2008 presidential race he served as John McCain's deputy communications director.Weekly Standard 2 June 2008: ''(Bumped) Kristol: So long (for a while) to Michael Goldfarb'' Retrieved 2011-11-06 He is a founder of the online conservative magazine ''
The Washington Free Beacon
''The Washington Free Beacon'' is an American conservative political journalism website launched in 2012.
The website is financially backed by Paul Singer, an American billionaire hedge fund manager and conservative activist.
History
The ...
''. Goldfarb attracted some online attention for two posts ridiculing liberal bloggers as basement-dwelling
Dungeons and Dragons
''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TS ...
players.
Goldfarb graduated with an A.B. in history from
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
in 2002 after completing a 98-page-long senior thesis, titled "The Search for Stability in
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
: The Lessons of State Building in Afghan History," under the supervision of
Stephen Kotkin
Stephen Mark Kotkin (born February 17, 1959) is an American historian, academic, and author. He is currently the John P. Birkelund '52 Professor in History and International Affairs at Princeton University, where he is also co-director of the pro ...
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' called Goldfarb "an all-around anti-liberal provocateur" and said he "has blazed a trail in the new era of campaign finance, in which loosened restrictions have flooded the political world with cash for a whole new array of organizations that operate outside the traditional bounds of the parties."
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
, "The point is that Barack Obama has a long track record of being around anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, and anti-American rhetoric."
Asked to be specific, Goldfarb named
Rashid Khalidi
Rashid Ismail Khalidi (; born 1948) is an American historian of the Middle East and the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University. He served as editor of the '' Journal of Palestine Studies'' from 2002 until 2020, whe ...
, a
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
professor who once held a fundraiser for Obama, but then refused to cite anyone else. Blogger Andrew Sullivan wrote on The Daily Dish, "Asked to name one other anti-Semite other than his allegation about Rashid Khalidi, he can't. He won't. But he leaves it hanging, refusing to disown or retract the charge. This is pure McCarthyism. And it is the rotten core of McCain." Goldfarb later explained that the McCain campaign had decided not to make mention of Obama’s relationship with
Jeremiah Wright
Jeremiah Alvesta Wright Jr. (born September 22, 1941) is a pastor emeritus of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, a congregation he led for 36 years, during which its membership grew to over 8,000 parishioners. Following retirement, his be ...
, who has a long history of such rhetoric.
Beauchamp affair
While at ''The Weekly Standard'', Goldfarb was the first to raise doubts about the veracity of Scott Beauchamp's then-anonymous Iraq reporting for ''
The New Republic
''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...
Keep America Safe
Elizabeth Lynne Cheney (; born July 28, 1966) is an American attorney and politician who has been the U.S. representative for since 2017, with her term expiring in January 2023. She chaired the House Republican Conference, the third-highest ...
Bloggingheads.tv
Bloggingheads.tv (sometimes abbreviated "bhtv") is a political, world events, philosophy, and science video blog discussion site in which the participants take part in an active back and forth conversation via webcam which is then broadcast on ...