| Joseph Sobran | |
|---|---|
| Born | Michael Joseph Sobran, Jr. February 23, 1946 Ypsilanti, Michigan, U.S. |
| Died | September 30, 2010 (aged 64) Fairfax, Virginia, U.S. |
| Residence | Burke, Virginia, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Eastern Michigan University |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Years active | 1972–2010 |
| Political party | Constitution Party |
Michael Joseph Sobran, Jr. (February 23, 1946 – September 30, 2010) was an American journalist and writer, formerly with National Review and a syndicated columnist, known as Joe Sobran. Pundit Pat Buchanan called Sobran "perhaps the finest columnist of our generation",[1] although Sobran was fired from National Review by his one-time mentor William F. Buckley after Buckley called Sobran's writing "contextually antisemitic."[2]
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Sobran graduated from Eastern Michigan University and received a Bachelor of Arts in English. He studied for a graduate degree in English, concentrating on Shakespearean studies, following his graduation. In the late 1960s, Sobran lectured on Shakespeare and English on a fellowship with the university.
In 1972, Sobran began working at National Review magazine. (During the 1970s, he frequently used the byline M. J. Sobran.) He stayed 21 years, 18 as senior editor, before being removed from the publication amidst controversial charges of antisemitism. Aside from his work at National Review, Sobran spent 21 years as a commentator on the CBS Radio "Spectrum" program series and was a syndicated columnist, first with the Los Angeles Times, and later with the Universal Press Syndicate. In 2007, his newsletter discontinued distribution by the U.S. mail.
Sobran wrote a column for the Catholic newsweekly The Wanderer entitled Washington Watch from 1986 to 2007. He also had a monthly column that appears in Catholic Family News. He wrote the "Bare Bodkin" column for Chronicles. Additionally, his essays have appeared in The Human Life Review, Celebrate Life!, and The Free Market. Sobran was media fellow of the Ludwig von Mises Institute.[3]
Sobran was fired from National Review in 1993 for a series of columns Buckley considered "contextually anti-Semitic";[2] 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."[4] One such comment was that the New York Times "really ought to change its name to Holocaust Update."[5] Sobran claimed that founder William F. Buckley told him to "stop antagonizing the Zionist crowd," and Buckley accused him of libel and moral incapacitation.[6] Sobran also complained of "a more or less official national obsession with a tiny, faraway socialist ethnocracy."[7]
Sobran was named the Constitution Party's vice presidential nominee in 2000, but withdrew in April 2000 citing scheduling conflicts with his journalistic commitments.[8]
In 2001 and 2003 Sobran spoke at conferences organized by Holocaust denier David Irving[9], sharing 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.[10] In his speech, which he also reprinted in his newsletter, Sobran said:
I am not, heaven forbid, a “Holocaust denier.” I lack the scholarly competence to be one. ... Why on earth is it 'anti-Jewish' to conclude from the evidence that the standard numbers of Jews murdered are inaccurate, or that the Hitler regime, bad as it was in many ways, was not, in fact, intent on racial extermination? Surely these are controversial conclusions; but if so, let the controversy rage.[11]
Referring to his appearance at IHR conferences, historian Deborah Lipstadt wrote, "Mr. Sobran may not have been an unequivocal [Holocaust] denier, but he gave support and comfort to the worst of them."[12] Writing in the 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."[13]
Through much of his career, Sobran identified as a paleoconservative and supported strict interpretation of the U.S. 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.[14] He has referred to himself as a "theo-anarchist."[15] In the 2008 presidential election, Sobran endorsed Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin.[16]
Sobran said Catholic teachings are consistent with his opposition to abortion and the Iraq War. He also argued that the 9/11 attacks were a result of the U.S. government's policies regarding the Middle East. He claimed those policies are formed by the "Jewish-Zionist powers that be in the United States."[17]
Sobran considered Communism a significantly 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.[18]
He believed about the Jewish people that "History is replete with the lesson that a country in which the Jews get the upper hand is in danger."[18]
Sobran was the author of many books, including one about William Shakespeare, Alias Shakespeare: Solving the Greatest Literary Mystery of All Time (1997), wherein he espoused 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.
At the time of his death, he was 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:
Sobran has produced a number of published articles and speeches, including:
At the 1994 Costs of Wars conference at the Mises Institute, Sobran presented a speech on "Shakespeare on War and Empire".
Sobran was twice married and divorced. He had four children, and was survived by ten grandchildren and one great-grandchild.[19]