The Washington Times

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For the newspaper founded in 1893 by William Randolph Hearst, see Washington Times-Herald.
The Washington Times
Type Daily newspaper
Format Broadsheet
Owner Unification Church via News World Communications
Editor John F. Solomon
Founded 1982
Headquarters Washington, D.C.
Circulation 102,258[1]
Website: www.washingtontimes.com

The Washington Times is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. It was founded in 1982 by Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon, Bo Hi Pak, one of his main assistants, and other church members.[2] As of March 31, 2007, the Times had an average daily circulation of 102,351,[3] about one-seventh that of its chief competitor, The Washington Post.

Contents

[edit] Founding

The Times is a publication of News World Communications, Inc., described by the Columbia Journalism Review as "the media arm of Reverend Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church".[4] News World was founded by Moon and Bo Hi Pak, and its board of directors are members of the Unification Church.

At the time Washington had only one major newspaper, the Washington Post. The Post was then considered politically liberal by most commentators and had been one of the leading critics of Moon's anti-communist political activism. Massimo Introvigne, in his book on the Unification Church, said that the Post was "the most anti-Unificationist paper in the United States." [5]

Investigative journalist Robert Parry, who also called the Times a "$3 Billion Propaganda Organ" for the Republican Party, wrote about the founding of the Times:

By the 1980s, the likes of South Korean theocrat Rev. Sun Myung Moon and Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch were pouring billions of dollars into a rapidly expanding right-wing media. From these investments came a plethora of well-financed think tanks, year-round attack groups, and a vertically integrated conservative news media – from books, magazines and newspapers to radio, TV and eventually the Internet. Right-wing activists flocked to Washington and New York for good-paying jobs as journalists and pundits.[6][7]

In December of 2000, Moon said:

"We even have to utilize the media for the sake of church development. The church is the mind and the media is the body, to reach the external world. We should begin that movement and activity in the United States, because the Washington Times and UPI are headquartered there. Once we establish our organization in the United States, it can be expanded to the world without much alteration."[8][9]

By 2002, the Unification Church had spent about $1.7 billion in subsidies for the Times. The paper has lost money every year that it has been in business.[10] In 2003, The New Yorker reported that a billion dollars had been spent since the paper's inception, as Rev. Moon himself had noted in a 1991 speech, "Literally nine hundred million to one billion dollars has been spent to activate and run the Washington Times"[11]. In 2002, Columbia Journalism Review suggested Moon had spent nearly $2 billion on the Times[12] and in 2006 Consortium News said that the figure was more than $3 billion.[13].

[edit] Early history

The Times was founded the year after the Washington Star, the previous "second paper" of D.C., went out of business, after operating for over 100 years. A large percentage of the staff came from the recently defunct Washington Star. Some see the Times' coverage of local politics in particular as stronger than the Post's; Post veteran Ben Bradlee has said "I see them get some local stories that I think the Post doesn’t have and should have had."[14] When the Times began, it was unusual among American broadsheets in publishing a full color front page, along with full color front pages in all its sections and color elements throughout. Although USA Today used color in the same way, it took several years for the Washington Post, New York Times and others to follow suit. The Times originally published its editorials and opinion columns in a physically separate "Commentary" section, rather than at the end of its front news section as is common practice in U.S. newspapers. It ran television commercials highlighting this fact. Later, this practice was abandoned (except on Sundays, when many other newspapers, including the Post, also do it). The Washington Times also used ink that it advertised as being less likely to come off on the reader's hands than the Post's.

Dante Chinni wrote in the Columbia Journalism Review:

In addition to giving voice to stories that, as Pruden says, “others miss,” the Times plays an important role in Washington’s journalistic farm system. The paper has been a springboard for young reporters to jobs at The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, even the Post. Lorraine Woellert, who worked at the Times from 1992 to 1998, says her experience there allowed her to jump directly to her current job at Business Week. “I got a lot of opportunities very quickly. They appreciated and rewarded talent and, frankly, there was a lot of turnover.”[12]

During the 1988 United States presidential election, the Times printed a false rumor about candidate Michael Dukakis's mental health. [15]

[edit] Political leanings

The Times is politically conservative. It was President Ronald Reagan's preferred newspaper. Some have cited it along with the Fox News Channel and talk radio as epitomizing the conservative media.[12][16][17][18] It also prints op-ed and opinion articles that include liberal and Democratic party voices; liberal columnist Clarence Page is a regular contributor.[19] Also featured are libertarian opinion pieces, almost always from scholars at the DC-located Cato Institute.[20][21]

Conservative commentator Paul Weyrich has called the Washington Times an antidote to its liberal competitor:

The Washington Post became very arrogant and they just decided that they would determine what was news and what wasn't news and they wouldn't cover a lot of things that went on. And the Washington Times has forced the Post to cover a lot of things that they wouldn't cover if the Times wasn't in existence.[22]

In 1997 Ronald Reagan said about the Times:

The American people know the truth. You, my friends at The Washington Times, have told it to them. It wasn't always the popular thing to do. But you were a loud and powerful voice. Like me, you arrived in Washington at the beginning of the most momentous decade of the century. Together, we rolled up our sleeves and got to work. And -- oh, yes -- we won the Cold War.[23]

According to the Columbia Journalism Review, "Because of its history of a seemingly ideological approach to the news, the paper has always faced questions about its credibility."[24] Salon.com[25][26] and The Daily Howler[27][28][29][30] have published analyses of what they believe are serious factual errors and examples of bias in the paper's news coverage. Conservative-turned-liberal writer David Brock, who worked for the Times' sister publication Insight, said in his book Blinded by the Right that the news writers at the Times were encouraged and rewarded for giving news stories a conservative slant. In Right-Wing Media and How It Corrupts Democracy Brock wrote "the Washington Times was governed by a calculatedly unfair political bias and that its journalistic ethics were close to nil."[31]

[edit] Racism scandals

Former Times editor Robert Stacy McCain was accused of racism in a 2002 New York Press column by Michelangelo Signorile that reported on McCain's criticism of Abraham Lincoln, pro-slavery sympathies toward the Confederacy in the Civil War and McCain's membership in the neo-Confederate organization League of the South, which the Southern Poverty Law Center called "rife with white supremacists and racist ideology."

Columnist Samuel Francis, after speaking at a conference hosted by American Renaissance, a self-described "pro-white" group, was subsequently fired by editor-in-chief Wesley Pruden.

Former Editor in Chief Pruden has been described by former Times writer George Archibald as an "an unreconstructed Confederate" who "still believes the South and slavery were right". Archibald also confirmed and corrobrated a report by The Nation that described former Managing Editor Fran Coombs as a "raging racist who despises blacks, Jews, and Hispanic immigrants, and looks down on women...".[32] Coombs's wife Marion subsequently confirmed charges of racism about her and her husband during an interview by The Nation's Max Blumenthal[33]

[edit] Recent changes

In 2006 Blumenthal reported in The Nation that Sun Myung Moon's son Hyun Jin Moon (sometimes called Preston Moon) and editor at large Arnaud de Borchgrave wanted to remove control of the Times from Pruden and Coombs, to "shift the paper away from their brand of conservatism, which is characterized by extreme racial animus and connections to nativist and neo-Confederate organizations".[34] In February 2007, former Times reporter George Archibald wrote that long time Unification Church leader Tom McDevitt would soon be taking office as president of the Washington Times Corporation and expressed hope that he would bring about needed changes in the Times organization.[35] In March 2007 McDevitt became the corporation's president.[36] In November 2007, the Washington Post reported that Pruden planned to step down soon and that the Times was looking for a new editor in chief.[37]

On January 14, 2008, it was announced that Executive Editor Wes Pruden would retire, effective January 24. In a surprise move, Times Managing Editor Fran Coombs, who had long been presumed to be Mr. Pruden's heir as top editor at the Times, resigned the same day Pruden's retirement was announced.

On January 28, 2008, John F. Solomon began work as executive editor of the Times. He is known for his work as an investigative journalist for the Associated Press and the Washington Post, and was most recently head of investigative reporting and mixed media development at the Post.[38][39] Solomon is quoted as saying:

The only point I have made with the reporters and editors who write for the news pages is there must be a bright line between opinion and editorializing that rightfully belongs on the op-ed and commentary pages and the fair, balanced, accurate, and precise reporting that must appear in the news sections of the paper.[40]

Within a month the Times changed some of its style guide to conform more to mainstream media usage. The Times announced that it would no longer use words like "illegal aliens" and "homosexual," and in most cases opt for "more neutral terminology" like "illegal immigrants" and "gay," respectively. The paper also decided to stop using "Hillary" when referring to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and the word "marriage" in the expression "gay marriage" will no longer appear in quotes in the newspaper. These changes in policy drew criticism from some conservatives.[41]

As of 2007, home delivery of the paper in its local area is made in bright orange plastic bags, with the words, "Brighter. Bolder. The Washington Times" and a slogan that changes. Two of the slogans are "The voice and choice of discerning readers" and "You're not getting it all without us". The latter of which may be a response to the current slogan of "If you don't get it, you don't get it" used by its much larger competitor, The Washington Post. Starting in 2008, the paper has apparently discontinued the "all without us" slogan and has focused on the "voice and choice" logo for its bags.


On May 31, 2008, the Times announced that its Civil War section would be expanded to include coverage of all America's wars and would be renamed "America at War."[42] At the same time the Times laid off about 30 employees [43] and also stopped printing a Saturday edition as cost saving measures.[44]

[edit] Criticism and controversies

[edit] Editorial independence from Unification Church

In 1984, two years after founding the Times, Moon said:

"The means of doing battle around the world have changed markedly. Instead of the conventional warfare of military forces, we have three major types of warfare today. First of all is ideological warfare; secondly is the warfare between intelligence forces; and thirdly, the warfare of propaganda."..."In today's warfare of ideology, intelligence and propaganda, nobody can compete with Reverend Moon."[3]

Commenting in 1996 about Unification Church ownership of the Times and other news outlets, Moon said:

"That is why Father has been combining and organizing scholars from all over the world, and also newspaper organizations, in order to make propaganda."[4][5][6][45]

In 2002, during the 20th anniversary party for the Times, Moon declared, "The Washington Times will become the instrument in spreading the truth about God to the world."[46]

Some commentators have said that the Church has significant influence on the Times editorial content and story selection,[47] [48] In 1982 editor-in-chief James Whelan said, "The one constant would be our editorial independence. We would never be told to put anything in the paper; more important, perhaps, we would never be asked to leave anything out." Two years later Whelan told those attending the Heritage Foundation's 'Second Annual Distinguished Journalist Lecture' that he resigned from the Times rather than accepting what he saw as church interference with his operation of the paper, saying "I have blood on my hands."[49]

The Times has also been criticized for taking a too-soft position on human rights abuses in North Korea and China due to Unification Church business projects in those countries. [50]

[edit] NEA "blame America" controversy

On September 5, 2002, Salon.com writer Brendan Nyhan published "The big NEA-Sept. 11 lie; How the Washington Times helped create a myth about the teachers' union and Sept. 11".[51] The controversy was created shortly before the first anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks by Ellen Sorokin in a front page article of the Washington Times. Journalist Nyhan says that Sorokin falsely attributed statements and "lesson plans" to the National Education Association (NEA), and was "intentionally deceptive" in her use of out-of-context quotes selectively "farmed" from an essay written by Brian Lippincott of the Graduate School of Professional Psychology at the John F. Kennedy University in California.[52]

Nyhan described Sorokin's reporting of Lippincott's statements as "intentionally deceptive", and Janet Bass of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) claimed that Sorokin had distorted her statements for the article, charging that the Times left out a sentence making it clear that Bass was referring solely to Lippincott's lesson plan; a wire story published two days before the Times article quoted Bass as saying that the AFT had no problem with any of the other links or materials on the NEA's site.[53] Nyhan documents how the "media echo chamber" picked up the story, and provides several instances of the Times echoing its own discredited story, as the Times added further distortions in the following days. Nyhan said the Times had "lied" as it "refined the myth even further" on August 20, by "framing direct quotes from Lippincott as NEA creations with false phrases like 'the NEA disgustingly lectures' and 'the NEA urges teachers...' Nyhan says that the Times repeated the process again on Aug. 22, and that the Times was "feeding off its own spin."

The Boston Globe criticized both the Times' distorted portrayal of the Lippincott essay, and its attributions of that portrayal to the NEA. About the essay, saying "even Lippincott does not suggest that we brought the attacks on ourselves - or that we don't know who the perpetrators are. In context, any group clearly does not mean Al Qaeda or the Taliban, but all Arab-Americans". The Globe pointed out that the NEA's site "offers links to provide an overview on Afghanistan, Osama bin Ladin, the terrorists who killed innocent Americans on Sept. 11, and the Qaeda network," and that the NEA also featured links to "the CIA and the Department of Defense, a speech by President Bush, and materials on the Constitution of the United States," and said, "the charges of anti-Americanism flung at the NEA are wildly exaggerated and sometimes disturbingly akin to a smear."[53] On August 20, 2002, NEA President Bob Chase refuted the story, saying that the Sorokin article had been written before the NEA's "Remember 9/11" website went live.[54]

[edit] Notable current and former writers

News

  • Stephen Dinan (Immigration and political reporter)
  • Bill Gertz (Defense and foreign policy reporter)
  • Ralph Z. Hallow
  • Donald Lambro
  • John McCaslin
  • Jerry Seper (Investigative reporter)

Opinion

Sports

Computers

  • Mark Kellner

Metro

  • Adrienne T. Washington (columnist)
  • Tom Knott (columnist)
  • Fred Reed (police beat, later took on a broader purview)

Former

[edit] Executives, editors and managers, present and past

[edit] Editors-in-chief

[edit] Managing editors

  • Josette Sheeran Shiner (1992-1997)
  • William Giles (1997-2002)
  • Fran Coombs (2002-2008)
  • David W. Jones (2008-present)

[edit] Others

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ http://www.burrellesluce.com/top100/2007_Top_100List.pdf
  2. ^ Pak was founding president of the Washington Times Corporation (1982-1992), and founding chairman of the board (1982-1997). Bo Hi Pak, Appendix B: Brief Chronology of the Life of Dr. Bo Hi Pak, in Messiah: My Testimony to Rev. Sun Myung Moon, Vol I by Bo Hi Pak (2000), Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
  3. ^ http://www.accessabc.com/products/top200.htm
  4. ^ CJR : Resources : Who Owns What
  5. ^ exerpt The Unification Church Studies in Contemporary Religion, Massimo Introvigne, 2000, Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, ISBN 1-56085-145-7 p25
  6. ^ Were the Republicans the "party of ideas"?
  7. ^ Consortiumnews.com
  8. ^ Sun Myung, Moon; Rev. Peter Kim and Dr. Chang Shik Yang (2000-12-06). Rev. Sun Myung Moon; Talks Given on His South American Tour, November 29-December 6, 2000. Unification Multimedia Ministries. Unification Church. Retrieved on 2008-03-07.
  9. ^ Johnson, Bridget (2008-02-03). "New Washington Times Editor Alters Loaded Style". About.com. Ed. Michael Daecher. New York, New York: About, Inc.,; The New York Times Company. Retrieved on 2008-03-07. “"We even have to utilize the media for the sake of church development. The church is the mind and the media is the body, to reach the external world. We should begin that movement and activity in the United States, because the Washington Times and UPI are headquartered there. Once we establish our organization in the United States, it can be expanded to the world without much alteration."” 
  10. ^ Moon Speech Raises Old Ghosts as the Times Turns 20 (washingtonpost.com)
  11. ^ Rev. Sun Myung Moon - Our Mission During The Time Of World Transition
  12. ^ a b c Washington 2002: The Other Paper
  13. ^ Consortiumnews.com
  14. ^ Washington 2002: Donald Graham's Washington Post
  15. ^ Obama, Clinton, & the GOP Attack Machine Robert Parry 02-02-2008
  16. ^ In the Northwest: Conservative media are setting political agenda
  17. ^ Al Gore threw in Fox News, the Washington Times and others
  18. ^ Consortiumnews.com
  19. ^ http://washtimes.com/commentary/
  20. ^ The Washington Times, America's Newspaper
  21. ^ The Washington Times, America's Newspaper
  22. ^ MediaChannel.org - Frontline: Reverend Moon
  23. ^ Dear Leader's Paper Moon The American Prospect 2005-09-19
  24. ^ CJR - Washington's Other Paper
  25. ^ The big NEA-Sept. 11 lie - Salon.com
  26. ^ http://www.salon.com/politics/col/spinsanity/2002/09/18/nea/print.html
  27. ^ Have we ever used the words "liar" before? Today we do, of the Washington Times
  28. ^ Writing about those new Gore e-mails, the Washington Times showed its character problems
  29. ^ The Times concocted an ugly hoax. On CNN, pundits read from the script
  30. ^ Just how dumb is the Washington Times? Check today's front page on Kerry
  31. ^ http://www.thinkingpeace.com/Lib/lib099.html
  32. ^ George Archibald: Can The Washington Times Survive?
  33. ^ George Archibald: Top Washington Times Editor's Wife Confirms Racism Allegations - Media on The Huffington Post
  34. ^ Hell of a 'Times'
  35. ^ George Archibald: Unhinged
  36. ^ Points Of Light Executives to Lead Washington Times, Child Advocacy Group
  37. ^ The Washington Times, Hunting For a Bionic Editor in Chief
  38. ^ State Native to lead DC newspaper Connecticut Post January 26, 2008
  39. ^ Ex-Washington Post Reporter to Lead a Rival New York Times February 11, 2008
  40. ^ Erik Wemple, "Playing Center: John Solomon is pushing evenhandedness at the Washington Times, Washington City Paper, February 29, 2008.
  41. ^ Washington Times updates style guide, conservatives up in arms
  42. ^ Announcement Washington Times, 2008-05-31
  43. ^ [1]
  44. ^ [2]
  45. ^ Sun Myung, Moon; Translator Peter Kim. "Rev. Sun Myung Moon Speaks at Leader's Conference", Unification Church website, Unification Church, 1996-01-02. Retrieved on 2008-02-24. 
  46. ^ "Moon Propaganda Machine". Retrieved on 2007-12-18. 
  47. ^ Washington 2002: The Other Paper
  48. ^ Washington Times: FAIR Resources
  49. ^ Wallis, David (2004). Killed: Great Journalism Too Hot to Print. Nation Books, 146. ISBN 1560255811. 
  50. ^ Dear Leader's Paper Moon The American Prospect 2005-09-19
  51. ^ Nyhan, Brendan. "The big NEA-Sept. 11 lie; How the Washington Times helped create a myth about the teachers' union and Sept. 11", Salon.com, 2002-09-05. Retrieved on 2008-04-17. 
  52. ^ Lippincott, Brian (March 2002). Promoting Tolerance and Peace in Children. National Association of School Psychologists. Retrieved on 2008-04-17.
  53. ^ a b Young, Cathy. "An unfair attack on teachers union", The Boston Globe, 2002-09-02. Retrieved on 2008-04-17. 
  54. ^ National Education Association (2002-8-20). "Letter to the Washington Times from NEA President". Press release. Retrieved on 2008-04-17.

[edit] External links