Moon Waning in Washington

[Ian David]

Moon Waning in Washington
Reverend Moon and the Bush Family

by Bill Berkowitz

Global Research, April 15, 2007
mediatransparency.org

Despite an upcoming appearance by George H.W. Bush at the newspaper's 25th anniversary celebration, a 20+-year former Washington Times reporter says that the newspaper's survival is threatened

On May 17, former president George H. W. Bush will deliver the keynote address at the 25th anniversary celebration of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon-owned Washington Times newspaper at the National Building Museum. According to Fishbowl DC, a letter from the newspaper's President Thomas McDevitt pointed out that ''The evening includes a special reception; the inaugural Founding Spirit Awards; dinner; and a Founder's Address from ... , whose commitment to the need for diverse viewpoints in the nation's capital during the Cold War era led to the launch of the Washington Times on May 17, 1982."

"You would think Bush would be given pause by a long record of behavior such as: Moon's claim to be Jesus Christ's replacement; his reputation among the Southern Baptists as a 'wolf in sheep's clothing,'" John Gorenfeld, an investigative reporter and a longtime chronicler of Moon's activities, recently reported in a post at the blog Talk To Action. "But it turns out, their decades-long association has withstood many such bumps in the road."

A history of mutual support

Over the years, Bush 41 -- and family -- have benefited from both the Rev. Moon's political and financial support:

* In 1996, Bush 41 was the featured speaker at a Moon-sponsored Buenos Aires banquet, for which he may have received as much as $100,000 according to the Washington Post, to launch Moon's Latin American publication "Tiempos del Mundo" (Times of the World). "A lot of my friends in South America don't know about the Washington Times but it is an independent voice," the former president said. "The editors of the Washington Times tell me that never once has the man with the vision interfered with the running of the paper, a paper that in my view brings sanity to Washington DC."

More:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=BER20070415&articleId=5389

[rasputin1952]

1. Moon is a dipwad and the WaT is crap...

Little RW rag that is a waste of time and energy.

[Warpy]

2. I've been convinced for quite a few years that

Stupid's "god" and "higher father" is Sun Myung Moon. A lot of the code language fits along with a lot of the fascism. In any case, the whole family's been tucked up with Moon for three decades, at least.

Moon is a typical charismatic conman who starts a religious scam. I think it will probably die with him as his followers discover he was only a man, after all.

[LiberalFighter]

3. Dire analysis from former WT insider

In an Internet essay titled "Can the Washington Times Survive?" (December 21, 2006), George Archibald, who says in his biography that he was an investigative reporter at the Washington Times for more than two decades, points out that "a festering internal civil war within the company, featuring ideological and abusive micro-management by senior TWT editors, backed by the founder's top corporate manager at the Washington Times Corp., that has driven out the newspaper's best people over the past five years, and continues to drive people out," casts doubt on the newspaper's survivability.

Beyond the declining credibility and morale questions, Archibald points out that the newspaper's current management is the "main cause of the dramatic decline of the influence and respect." The newspaper's top management: Washington Times Corp. CEO Dong Moon Joo (who anglicized his first name to Douglas) and the paper's two top editors -- Wesley Pruden, scheduled to retire in five months, and Fran Coombs managing editor.

"Pruden," writes Archibald "is an unreconstructed Confederate from Little Rock, Arkansas, who still believes the South and slavery were right and President Abraham Lincoln was wrong in going against the Confederate rebellion to emancipate the slaves and save the union." Archibald also confirms that charges in the October 9, 2006, story in The Nation that "Coombs is a raging racist who despises blacks, Jews, and Hispanic immigrants, and looks down on women (unless they are white and have nice tits and well-shaped body)," was "reported factually."

Archibald notes that "There is a corporate struggle under way between Washington Times Corp. CEO Joo ... and the reverend's youngest son, Preston Moon, an MBA graduate of Harvard, who has been anointed by his father as corporate successor." According to Archibald "Preston Moon wants to move The Times into profitability as quickly as possible, after decades of red ink, and boost the paper's sagging advertising, circulation, and editorial staff in order to move the paper back into possible profitability, prestige, and a pace-setting position again.

The sooner it tanks the better!!

[Reterr]

4. K&R-Moon's ties to the Rethuglicans are fascinating.nt