Joseph Rider Farrington got his start in journalism at the age of 12, writing a column called "Poultry Pickings" for The Evening Bulletin, a newspaper that later merged with the Hawaiian Star and would later be run by Farrington as its president and publisher.

Farrington became a school correspondent as a student at Punahou School. His father, Wallace Rider Farrington, would later become Hawai'i's sixth governor and president and general manager of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

Joseph Farrington went on to become a reporter in Washington and returned to Honolulu in 1924 to serve as managing editor of the Star-Bulletin. When Wallace Rider died in 1933, Joseph took over as president and general manager of the Star-Bulletin and also became president of the Honolulu Lithograph Company and the Hilo (Hawai'i) Tribune-Herald and was vice president of the Hawaiian Broadcasting System.

In 1934, Farrington was elected to the first of two terms as a Republican senator in the Territorial Legislature. He was then elected Delegate to Congress in 1942 and won re-election as a Republican in 1944, 1946, 1948, 1950 and 1952.

Farrington had suffered a previous heart attack and had told supporters that he would not seek re-election to Washington.

In 1954, while working in his Capitol Hill office, Farrington suffered a fatal heart attack. A memorial service in Washington drew 60 members of Congress.

The urn containing his ashes sat in the throne room of 'Iolani Palace, the seat of Hawaiian monarchs, as thousands of mourners passed through the red-carpeted, flower-filled room.

His urn was inscribed with the lines of one of Farrington's favorite poems, William Ernest Henley's "Invictus":

"I am the master of my fate,

I am the captain of my soul."