The Washington Times

The Washington Times was founded by the direction of Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon in 1982. In 2002, during the 20th anniversary party for the Times, Moon said, "The Washington Times will become the instrument in spreading the truth about God to the world."^[4] At the time of its founding Washington had only one major newspaper, the Washington Post. The Post 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]

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.^[6] 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"^[7]. In 2002, Columbia Journalism Review suggested Moon had spent nearly $2 billion on the Times^[8] In 2008, Thomas F. Roeser of the Chicago Daily Observer mentioned competition from the Times as a factor moving the Washington Post to the right, and said that Moon had "announced he will spend as many future billions as is needed to keep the paper competitive."^[9]

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."^[10] 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.

Political leanings

Both liberals and conservatives often refer to the Times as politically conservative. Some have cited it along with, most notably, the Fox News Channel and talk radio, as epitomizing conservative media bias.^[8]^[11]^[12]^[13] The Times prints op-ed and opinion articles that include liberal and Democratic party voices; liberal columnist Clarence Page is a regular contributor.^[14] Also featured are libertarian opinion pieces, almost always from scholars at the DC-located Cato Institute.^[15]^[16]

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."^[17] Salon.com^[18]^[19] and The Daily Howler^[20]^[21]^[22]^[23] 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."^[24] In a 2008 essay for Harper's Magazine, historian Thomas Frank called the Times a "propaganda sheet whose distortions are so obvious and so alien that it puts one in mind of those official party organs one encounters when traveling in authoritarian countries."^[25]

In 2002, the Times published a story accusing the National Educational Association (NEA), the largest teachers' union in the United States, of promoting teaching students that the policies of the United States government were partly to blame for the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.^[26] This was denied by the NEA and by other commentators. ^[27]^[28]

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

Recent changes

In January 2008, editor-in-chief Wesley Pruden resigned and John F. Solomon began work as executive editor of the Times. Solomon 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.^[31]^[32] Solomon is quoted as saying:

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.^[34]

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".

On May 31, 2008, the Times announced that its Civil War section, which some commentators had said was too sympathetic to the South, would be expanded to include coverage of all America's wars and would be renamed "America at War."^[35] At the same time the Times laid off about 30 employees ^[36] and also stopped printing a Saturday edition as cost saving measures.^[37] In August 2008, the Times announced it would outsource its printing operations to the publisher of The Baltimore Sun in order to avoid the expense of overhauling existing presses.^[38]

Notable current and former writers

Executives, editors and managers, present and past

Editors-in-chief

Managing editors

Others

Notes and references

^ http://www.burrellesluce.com/top100/2007_Top_100List.pdf
^ 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.
^ http://www.accessabc.com/products/top200.htm
^ "Moon Propaganda Machine". Retrieved on 2007-12-18.
^ exerpt The Unification Church Studies in Contemporary Religion, Massimo Introvigne, 2000, Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, ISBN 1-56085-145-7 p25
^ Moon Speech Raises Old Ghosts as the Times Turns 20 (washingtonpost.com)
^ Rev. Sun Myung Moon - Our Mission During The Time Of World Transition
^ ^a ^b ^c Washington 2002: The Other Paper
^ How the Liberal Media Stonewalled the Edwards Chicago Daily Observer August 18, 2008
^ Washington 2002: Donald Graham's Washington Post
^ In the Northwest: Conservative media are setting political agenda
^ Al Gore threw in Fox News, the Washington Times and others
^ Consortiumnews.com
^ http://washtimes.com/commentary/
^ The Washington Times, America's Newspaper
^ The Washington Times, America's Newspaper
^ CJR - Washington's Other Paper
^ The big NEA-Sept. 11 lie - Salon.com
^ Salon.com Politics | The big NEA-Sept. 11 lie, cont'd
^ Have we ever used the words "liar" before? Today we do, of the Washington Times
^ Writing about those new Gore e-mails, the Washington Times showed its character problems
^ The Times concocted an ugly hoax. On CNN, pundits read from the script
^ Just how dumb is the Washington Times? Check today's front page on Kerry
^ http://www.thinkingpeace.com/Lib/lib099.html
^ Frank, Thomas, "The Wrecking Crew", Harper's Magazine, August 2008
^ Nyhan, Brendan (2002-09-05). "The big NEA-Sept. 11 lie; How the Washington Times helped create a myth about the teachers' union and Sept. 11", Salon.com. Retrieved on 2008-04-17.
^ Young, Cathy (2002-09-02). "An unfair attack on teachers union", The Boston Globe. Retrieved on 2008-04-17.
^ National Education Association (2002-08-20). "Letter to the Washington Times from NEA President". Press release. Retrieved on 2008-04-17.
^ MediaChannel.org - Frontline: Reverend Moon
^ Dear Leader's Paper Moon The American Prospect 2005-09-19
^ State Native to lead DC newspaper Connecticut Post January 26, 2008
^ Ex-Washington Post Reporter to Lead a Rival New York Times February 11, 2008
^ Erik Wemple, "Playing Center: John Solomon is pushing evenhandedness at the Washington Times, Washington City Paper, February 29, 2008.
^ Washington Times updates style guide, conservatives up in arms
^ Announcement Washington Times, 2008-05-31
^ The New Face of the Times Washington Post. June 2, 2008.
^ 'Wash Times' Ends Saturday Edition Editor and Publisher, May 31, 2008.
^ Washington Times outsourcing printing to Baltimore

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