Newsmax.com Covers Washington Times Anniversary; Misrepresents Facts About Moonie Control of Paper Cliff Kincaid sent the following memo to Newsmax.com editors regarding the puff pieces they ran on behalf of the Washington Times. The memo is followed by the Newsmax.com articles). A Newsmax article declared: "The paper's ownership by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon provided a convenient straw man for the nation's liberal media to attack this new independent voice that eschewed ideological bias in favor of good, hard-nosed reporting. The Times simply ignored the attacks, making clear that even though the Rev. Moon might own the paper, he allowed the staff complete independence." The facts are that James R. Whelan, the first editor in chief, publisher and CEO, resigned when promises of complete independence from the Moon organization were violated. He was offered $1 million to stay on as a figurehead. William P. Cheshire, editorial of the editorial page, departed amid allegations that Anaud de Borchgrave, the editor in chief, allowed the Moon organization to change an editorial to support the president of South Korea. Newsmax said: "We've never been told to put anything in the paper; more important,perhaps, we've never been asked to leave anything out," explained Pruden. "All that was ever asked was that we put out the newspaper born of the vision, faithful to the task of reporting the news without fear or favor, to get it first and get it right." On December 30, 2001, the Times printed a 24 page Advertising Supplement which quoted Jesus Christ as saying that Moon was the true Christ. Titled, "God is the Parent of Humankind: Reflections of 120 Christians who illuminated History Conveyed from a Seminar in the Spirit World," it claimed that 120 dead religious leaders were channeling their views through a Moon organization and proclaiming their support for Sun Myung Moon. Jesus Christ is even quoted as saying that Moon is His Messiah: "Now I will follow the true teacher who had revealed new truth. This is none other than the Messiah at the Second Coming, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon." Moon's propaganda appears regularly in the paper. The latest example was the April 28 story in the Washington Times covering a mass wedding ceremony performed by Moon. The writer of the story is a member of Moon's church. A photo with the story showed Moon sprinkling 'holy water' over the participants." Another example was a January 24 Washington Times article about a pro-United Nations symposium sponsored by various Moon front groups. The story by a Unification Church member did not disclose Moon's covert backing for the event. Washington Times Reporter Bill Gertz, a reported member of the Unification Church, is notorious for reporting classified information from U.S. intelligence agencies. He threatens the betrayal of the sources and methods used to protect the American people. Some of Gertz's reports may be costing U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars to repair the damage that he has done. It is believed that some of Gertz's sources are other Unification Church members who have been covertly placed in the federal bureaucracy. Although he appears to be exposing threats posed by China and other countries, he refuses to expose Moon's dealings with communist countries, such as his car plant in North Korea and reported payments to communist leaders. Once known as an anti-communist and opponent of the Soviet empire, Moon met with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and provided financial resources to his wife. After the fall of Soviet-style communism, he established financial relationships with China, North Korea and Vietnam. He is now playing a big role in the United Nations and the non-governmental organization (NGO) community. He works with the Nation of Islam and Louis Farrakhan and promotes an alliance with Islam through the U.N. Moon became a household name when he started using mind control techniques to lure young people into his cult. Thousands of families were torn apart as children cut ties with their families and declared Moon and his wife their "True Parents". He performs impersonal mass weddings. Moon has reportedly been married 4 times, his son committed suicide, and his former daughter-in-law wrote a book, In the Shadow of the Moons, on how another Moon son, a drug addict and alcohol abuser, physically abused her. Not surprisingly, the Washington Times ignored the book. While conservatives are criticizing Jimmy Carter for being soft on Castro, the Washington Times newspaper gave a major honor to one of Castro's biggest boosters. Cesar Gaviria, a notorious crony of Fidel Castro, received the "International Courage in Leadership Award" at the Washington Times 20th anniversary event on May 21. But the paper lied about his service on behalf of the Communist dictator. A January 6, 1997, Miami Herald story noted, "Of all Latin American politicos who have rubbed elbows with Fidel Castro of late, perhaps none has spent as much time with him as Cesar Gaviria, secretary general of the Organization of American States. 'Yes, I'm a friend of Fidel Castro,''' Gaviria told CBS-Telenoticias talk show host Jaime Bayly last month." The story quoted Gaviria as saying Castro "has done a supremely important job on social issues" and that "I admire the way in which he fought to topple the dictatorship of [Fulgencio] Batista, and the effort he has made to keep the revolution alive.'' The Latin American News Syndicate reported that Gaviria assumed the presidency of Colombia in 1990 and renewed relations with the Castro dictatorship in 1993. Relations had been broken on March 23, 1981, after Colombia had proven that Castro's regime had been training and furnishing arms to the Colombian terrorists. Bogotá's La Prensa headlined its description of this with "Boca a Boca con Fidel" [Mouth to Mouth With Fidel] while El Nuevo Siglo described Gaviria as "trying to save the Castro dictatorship." A September 26, 1996 Miami Herald story noted that House lawmakers had "clashed fiercely over Cuba" with Gaviria and "accused him of weak leadership in promoting democracy…" Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said Gaviria's request for help from Cuban President Fidel Castro to win the release of his brother, who had been kidnapped by pro-Castro Colombian terrorists, "had undermined his credibility" as OAS leader. By contrast, the Washington Times story about the anniversary event described Gaviria as "a conflict mediator, democracy advocate, staunch supporter of regional integration and defender of human rights." James Morrison, author of the "Embassy Row" column in the paper, quoted Douglas D.M. Joo, president of The Washington Times Corp., as saying to Gaviria, "you have truly exhibited courage in leadership over your distinguished career in public service." Morrison said Gaviria "has negotiated with guerrillas, tracked down drug lords and promoted democracy throughout Latin America." The award to Gaviria comes at a time when Times founder Sun Myung Moon is expanding his business activities in Latin America. However, Moon's Brazil operations are currently under investigation for alleged money laundering, immigration violations, and tax evasion. Isn't this newsworthy? Newsmax.com articles: NewsMax.com Sunday, May 19, 2002 Happy Birthday, Washington Times! It was as badly needed in Washington as a cure for cancer is needed in the world, but its arrival on the scene was, as its editor Wes Pruden wrote, scarcely "celebrated by a press establishment grown smug and complacent." That's no longer true thanks to Pruden's Washington Times, which is celebrating its 20th birthday as a newspaper in the nation's capital. As the Times proudly notes, it has earned an international reputation for hard-hitting news reporting and robust opinion pages that even its most loyal readers would not have dared predict when the newspaper was born in the late spring of 1982. Since the 1981 death of the Washington Star, the Washington Post, known by many unaffectionately as the "12th Street Pravda," was Washington's only major daily, providing the news with a decided left-wing slant that went largely uncontradicted. That all changed with the arrival of the Washington Times. The Post's one-sided coverage of the news was to be challenged from day one. No longer could the Post color the news and go uncontradicted or ignore the news that didn't fit its political bias and get away with it. "We've shown the Post and other news organizations in town that there is more than one side to a story," says Times managing editor Francis B. Coombs Jr. "We've forced them to be more competitive than they like. We've reminded the Post, the New York Times and Associated Press, primarily, that getting it first is not just fun, but a duty in this split-second age. "Although we are outnumbered in personnel and funding compared with the Post and 'the other Times,' the vast majority of our foreign and national reporters are as good as or better than anyone who works for our rivals. Our metropolitan and business reporters are young but hungry. They whale the tar out of the Post day in and day out. Not to slight those who came here before, but we're at a whole different level now." Wrote Pruden, "The birth of the Washington Times was not celebrated by a press establishment grown smug and complacent. The Times was to be a different kind of newspaper, one that would go for inspiration 'back to the future,' to a time of national consensus on issues of ethics and morality, with an emphasis on the message and not the messenger. We would not only cover the news without slant or bias, but give voice to those who had been shut out of the national debate. "Though the founding vision was that of a religious figure, a man of another country and another culture, the Times was to be wholly secular, to hold to no sectarian cause, to champion no denomination above any other, but never to mock faith and belief, to proselytize only for the principles that liberate men from the tyranny of closed minds." The paper's ownership by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon provided a convenient straw man for the nation's liberal media to attack this new independent voice that eschewed ideological bias in favor of good, hard-nosed reporting. The Times simply ignored the attacks, making clear that even though the Rev. Moon might own the paper, he allowed the staff complete independence. "We've never been told to put anything in the paper; more important, perhaps, we've never been asked to leave anything out," explained Pruden. "All that was ever asked was that we put out the newspaper born of the vision, faithful to the task of reporting the news without fear or favor, to get it first and get it right." Pruden noted that, after all: "Nothing could have come of the founding vision without unqualified independence for the men and women who produce the newspaper. A decade of dedication, followed by a second decade of distinction in the task, made believers of hundreds of thousands of readers in every state of the union and throughout the world, loyal to a newspaper that seeks to be faithful to what is good and important. "Tradition, custom, belief and practice are held important at the Times in an age when much of what our forefathers brought forth on this providential continent is unappreciated; when even the struggles of our grandfathers are unknown or unappreciated, or both; when Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton, Marshall and Madison are often as unfamiliar as Solon, Leonidas and Pericles." The nation owes a debt of gratitude to the Times; its unvarnished coverage of the news has provided a needed antidote to the liberal bias exhibited by the Washington press corps. If the Washington Times hasn't been able to keep the leftist local media entirely honest, it has at least prevented them from being the only editorial voice heard in the nation's capital and across America. Happy Birthday, Washington Times! NewsMax.com May 23, 2002 Wednesday, May 22, 2002 12:01 p.m. EDT Dr. Laura Takes On Media Establishment "We write for each other." That candid comment to Dr. Laura Schessinger from a mainstream journalist says all you need to know about the herd mentality of the establishment media. The popular radio talk show host was the main speaker at the celebration Tuesday night of the 20th anniversary of the Washington Times. Dr. Schlessinger - "Dr. Laura" to her millions of listeners - said the herd mentality is "not true for the Washington Times any more than it is true for me. "We answer to a higher authority, the authority of a conscience and character," she continued. "And we have both been successful despite our unwillingness to go along to get along." Despite the belittling attacks on the Times, inside and outside the Beltway, "America's newspaper" has persevered for 20 years "and now enjoys the respect and good will of even many of its former critics," said the woman whose on-air advice uses morality and common sense as guidelines to solve dilemmas for the few people who manage to reach her out of the estimated 20,000 callers each day. President Bush sent a congratulatory message, read to the gathering by White House aide Tim Goeglein. The president praised the Times for its "dedication to excellence." In a videotape from former President Ronald Reagans remarks at the paper's 10th anniversary celebration in 1992, the 20th century icon recalled that both he and the Times had 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." Also paying tribute to the Washington Times, followed daily by Washington-area residents looking for an alternative to the liberal establishment Washington Post, "the other paper" to this crowd, were Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., and Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill. Also honored were other Times properties such as the weekly edition (nationally circulated) Insight magazine and The World and I. The celebration, whose "host committee" included about a third of the House and a third of the Senate, was held in the huge facilities of the Washington Hilton hotel. Among the many guests seen at the gathering were Reed Irvine of Accuracy in Media; Public Advocate Eugene Delgaudio; Elaine Donnelly of the Committee for Military Readiness; Dr. Constantine C. Menges, Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute; the Rev. Lou Sheldon and Andrea Sheldon Lafferty of Traditional Values Coalition; and William C. Triplett II, co-author of "The Year of The Rat." Former senators Richard Schweiker, R-Pa., and Harry Byrd Jr., D/Independent-Va., returned from retirement to honor the paper. NewsMax.com was represented by CEO/Editor Christopher Ruddy and Washington correspondent Wes Vernon.              Printer-friendly version Click here to be added to our mailing list.