The Washington Times

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
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. The Times is known for its conservative stance on political and social issues. The Times has never been a financial success and has about one-seventh of the circulation of its major competitor in Washington, the Washington Post.

Contents

[edit] Founding

The Washington Times was founded by the direction of Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon in 1982. Bo Hi Pak, called Moon's "right-hand man", was the founding president and the founding chairman of the board.[2] 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."[3]

At the time of the Times' 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."[4] However, Moon granted the Times editorial independence.[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 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]

[edit] 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. 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 do the same. 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. This design and its editorial content attracted "real influence" in Washington.[5]

In 2002, Post veteran Ben Bradlee said, "I see them get some local stories that I think the Post doesn’t have and should have had."[10] 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.” [8]

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.[11] This was denied by the NEA and by other commentators. [12][13]

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".[14]

[edit] Circulation

As of March 31, 2007, the Washington Times had an average daily circulation of 102,351,[15] about one-seventh that of its chief competitor in Washington, The Washington Post. In 1992 the New York Times reported that two-thirds of the Washington Times' subscribers also subscribed to the Post.[16]

[edit] Political leanings

Times dispenser

Both liberals and conservatives often refer to the Times as politically conservative.[17][18] Critics have cited it along with, among others, the Wall Street Journal, the Fox News Channel and talk radio, as epitomizing conservative media bias.[8][19][20][21] Salon.com[22][23] and the The Daily Howler[24][25][26][27] 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 on the News, 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."[28]

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."[29]

In 1998 the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram criticized the Times, saying that its editorial policy was "rabidly anti-Arab, anti-Muslim and pro-Israel." [30]

In his book, Lies (And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them): A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, comedian-turned politician Al Franken devotes a chapter to criticizing the Times after executive editor Wesley Pruden re-wrote a reporter's story—without the reporter's knowledge—about Franken's performance at a White House party. According to Franken, the rewrite was made to appear as if Franken had received a negative reception, which he says was not the case.[31]

In a 2008 essay published in Harper's Magazine, historian Thomas Frank linked the Times to the modern American conservative movement, saying:

There is even a daily newspaper—the Washington Times—published strictly for the movement’s benefit, 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.[32]

In 2007, Mother Jones said that the Times had become "essential reading for political news junkies" soon after its founding and quoted James Gavin, special assistant to Bo Hi Pak:

We're trying to combat communism and we're trying to uphold traditional Judeo-Christian values. The Washington Times is standing up for those values and fighting anything that would tear them down. Causa is doing the same thing, by explaining what the enemy is trying to do.[33]

Conservative commentator Paul Weyrich has called the 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.[34]

The Times was President Ronald Reagan's preferred newspaper.[35] In 1997 he said:

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.[36]

[edit] 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.[37][38] 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.[39]

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 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.[40] Prospect magazine attributed the Times' apparent move to the center to differences of opinion over the United Nations and North Korea and said: "The Republican right may be losing its most devoted media ally."[41]

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."[42] At the same time the Times laid off about 30 employees [43] and also stopped printing a Saturday edition as cost saving measures; it still produces an electronic version of the Saturday paper.[44] 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.[45] In March 2009, the Times announced that it would soon launch a syndicated radio talk show.[46][47]

[edit] Christmas Tradition

Christmas issue

For several years, every December 25, above the masthead, the paper runs an inverse color (white on green) headline, which reads "'For unto you is born... a Saviour' - Luke 2:11".

[edit] Notable current and former writers

News

Opinion

Sports

Computers

Metro

Former

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

[edit] Editors-in-chief

[edit] Managing editors

[edit] Others

[edit] See also

[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. 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. ^ "Moon Propaganda Machine". http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A60061-2002May22. Retrieved on 2007-12-18. 
  4. ^ exerpt The Unification Church Studies in Contemporary Religion, Massimo Introvigne, 2000, Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, ISBN 1-56085-145-7 p25
  5. ^ a b Frum, David (2000). How We Got Here: The '70s. New York, New York: Basic Books. p. 146. ISBN 0465041957. 
  6. ^ Moon Speech Raises Old Ghosts as the Times Turns 20 (washingtonpost.com)
  7. ^ Rev. Sun Myung Moon - Our Mission During The Time Of World Transition
  8. ^ a b c Washington 2002: The Other Paper
  9. ^ How the Liberal Media Stonewalled the Edwards Chicago Daily Observer August 18, 2008
  10. ^ Washington 2002: Donald Graham's Washington Post
  11. ^ 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. http://www.spinsanity.org/columns/20020905.html. Retrieved on 2008-04-17. 
  12. ^ Young, Cathy (2002-09-02). "An unfair attack on teachers union". 'The Boston Globe'. http://cathyyoung.net/bgcolumns/2002/unfair.html. Retrieved on 2008-04-17. 
  13. ^ National Education Association (2002-08-20). Letter to the Washington Times from NEA President. Press release. http://www.nea.org/nr/nr020820b.html. Retrieved on 2008-04-17. 
  14. ^ Bardach, Ann Louise; David Wallis (2004). Moonstruck: The Rev. and His Newspaper. Nation Books. pp. 137–139, 150. ISBN 1560255811. http://books.google.com/books?id=HH9XFP2VAhAC&printsec=frontcover. 
  15. ^ http://www.accessabc.com/products/top200.htm
  16. ^ Washington Times Moves to Reinvent Itself, Alex S. Jones, New York Times, January 27, 1992.
  17. ^ New business models for news are not that new,Nikki Usher, Knight Digital Media Center, 2008-12-17, "One form of news that was increasingly popular was a turn toward news financed by religious organizations. Lee dismisses most of these for being too narrowly focused on spreading religion to attract a broad audience, with one exception – the Christian Science Monitor, which kept its religious news to the back and even then was noted for its international outlook. Other religious newspapers are still running strong: The Desert News, affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, acts as a competitor to the Salt Lake Tribune. And the Washington Times' conservative stance pursues its agenda from the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church."
  18. ^ The Moonies in Moscow: a second coming?, Green Left Weekly, May 28, 1977.
  19. ^ In the Northwest: Conservative media are setting political agenda
  20. ^ Al Gore threw in Fox News, the Washington Times and others
  21. ^ Consortiumnews.com
  22. ^ The big NEA-Sept. 11 lie - Salon.com,
  23. ^ Salon.com Politics | The big NEA-Sept. 11 lie, cont'd
  24. ^ Have we ever used the words "liar" before? Today we do, of the Washington Times
  25. ^ Writing about those new Gore e-mails, the Washington Times showed its character problems
  26. ^ The Times concocted an ugly hoax. On CNN, pundits read from the script
  27. ^ Just how dumb is the Washington Times? Check today's front page on Kerry
  28. ^ http://www.thinkingpeace.com/Lib/lib099.html
  29. ^ CJR - Washington's Other Paper
  30. ^ The same old game, Al-Ahram, November 12-18, 1998, "The Washington Times is a mouthpiece for the ultra conservative Republican right, unquestioning supporters of Israel's Likud government. The newspaper is owned by Sun Myung Moon, originally a native of North Korea and head of the Unification Church, whose ultra-right leanings make him a ready ally for Netanyahu. Whether or not Netanyahu is personally acquainted with Moon is unclear, though there is no doubt that he has established close friendships with several staff members on The Washington Times, whose editorial policy is rabidly anti-Arab, anti-Muslim and pro-Israel."
  31. ^ Lies (And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them): A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. Dutton, August 29, 2003
  32. ^ The wrecking crew - How a gang of right-wing con men destroyed Washington and made a killing. Frank, Thomas. Harper's Magazine, August 2008
  33. ^ Bush Sr. To Celebrate Rev. Sun Myung Moon—Again Mother Jones April 29, 2007
  34. ^ MediaChannel.org - Frontline: Reverend Moon
  35. ^ Behind the Times Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting August/September 1987
  36. ^ Dear Leader's Paper Moon The American Prospect 2005-09-19
  37. ^ State Native to lead DC newspaper Connecticut Post January 26, 2008
  38. ^ Ex-Washington Post Reporter to Lead a Rival New York Times February 11, 2008
  39. ^ Erik Wemple, "Playing Center: John Solomon is pushing evenhandedness at the Washington Times, Washington City Paper, February 29, 2008.
  40. ^ Washington Times updates style guide, conservatives up in arms
  41. ^ News and Curiosities, Prospect, September 2006
  42. ^ Announcement Washington Times, 2008-05-31
  43. ^ The New Face of the Times Washington Post. June 2, 2008.
  44. ^ 'Wash Times' Ends Saturday Edition Editor and Publisher, May 31, 2008.
  45. ^ Washington Times outsourcing printing to Baltimore
  46. ^ Times to launch syndicated radio show], Washington Times, March 23, 2009
  47. ^ Wasington Times to Launch Radio Show, Mediaweek, March 23, 2009

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Times"
Personal tools