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.
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. Farah is also the founder and executive director of the non-profit organization Open Debates, which advocates 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, argues 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 which has sponsored every general election presidential debate since 1988. Farah 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 the debate contracts negotiated by the major party campaigns.
To reform the presidential debates, Farah advocates 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. In 2004, Farah persuaded multiple newspapers and more than 60 civic organizations to endorse the Citizens' Debate Commission. In 2012, Farah 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, 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, consumer, and civil rights cases on behalf of plaintiffs. He has brought antitrust class actions on behalf of workers and farmers that were underpaid due to nationwide wage-fixing conspiracies; represented unions and consumers in class actions against pharmaceutical companies that monopolized drug markets and thwarted generic competition; represented African-Americans in lawsuits against banks that engaged in discriminatory lending practices; and represented victims of global human rights abuses, including political asylum applicants.