Mooning the Washington Times

by K. Annan
The Washington Post is the most authorative and respected Washington-
based newspaper, whereas the current Washington Times is a recent
creation that has little or no repectability or credibilty among the
mainstream media in the United States.

Lately the Washington Times has been publishing articles and
editorials that have been critical of the LTTE and the Tamil
independence movement. The articles have been widely quoted in the
ethnic and mainstream Sinhala media. Many readers who are not familiar
with the American media landscape often tend to confuse the phony
credentials of the Washington Times with a previously existing paper
of the same name.

The original Washington Times that was establisheded in 1893 later
became the Washington Times-Herald. In 1954, the Washington Times-
Herald was purchased by the Washington Post, bringing the publishing
era of a media icon to an end. The Washington Post, incidentally, is
the most authorative and respected Washington-based newspaper, whereas
the current Washington Times is a recent creation that has little or
no repectability or credibilty among the mainstream media in the
United States.

The current paper named The Washington Times has a short history with
no links to its historic namesake that is now defunct. The current
Washington Times was founded in 1982 by Sun Myung Moon, the leader of
the Unification Church. For those who are not familiar with the
Church, there is ample information on the Internet, often more
negative than positive in their coverage of the Unification Church.
The followers of Reverend Moon, incidentally, are referred to in
general conversation as the 'Moonies.'

Some view The Washington Times as promoting the interest of the Church
and the political ambitions of Reverend Moon. Overall, it is a money-
losing media operation with the Unification Church said to have spent
nearly $1.7 billion dollars of its own money up until 2002 to keep the
paper afloat.

The Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) watchdog group in the US
has stated that the Church exerts significant influence on the paper.
The newspaper has been featured in numerous reports for its alleged
bias and politically-motivated news doctoring. Several analyses of the
news stories reported in the Washington Times can be found in
Salon.com and The Daily Howler, where a series of factual errors and
examples of bias in the paper's news coverage are documented.

A prominent author, David Brock, who worked for the Washington Times'
sister publication, Insight, has some harsh words for the Washington
Times. In his book entitled Right-Wing Media and How It Corrupts
Democracy, he has stated that the Washington Times was governed by a
calculatedly unfair political bias and that its journalistic ethics
were close to nil.

The Washington Times' controversies do not stop with the paper. It
extends to implicate its founder, the Reverend Moon. Moon, who visited
Sri Lanka for the first time in November 24, 2005, is embroiled in a
web of misdoings. As the Internet is filled with reports of Moon's
questionable activities, only those that are relevant to the Tamil
freedom fight are quoted here.

Perhaps the most damaging of all of Moon's misdoings is the
involvement of one of Reverend's businesses in the manufacturing of
arms. According to a U.S. Congressional Report on the Unification
Church, one of Moon's business organizations is said to be "an
important defense contractor in Korea. It is involved in the
production of M-16 rifles, antiaircraft guns, and other weapons." The
report further said that "[o]f particular concern is the Moon
Organization's involvement in the production and sale of M-16 rifles
and other weapons provided to Korea under U.S. aid programs and
subject to the Arms Export Control Act. In late 1977, Moon
Organization representatives tried to renegotiate a coproduction
agreement between Colt Industries and the ROK (Republic of Korea)
Government. The circumstances suggested they were secret envoys of the
Korean Government which, under the coproduction agreement, has
exclusive control over M-16 production. Although the ROK Government
said it wanted to produce 300,000 extra M-16's because of the need to
equip its own forces, Moon Organization tried to get Colt's agreement
to export guns to third countries."

In another report, Congressional investigator Robert Boettcher wrote
in his book, Gifts of Deceit: Sun Myung Moon, Tongsun Park, and the
Korean Scandal, that congressional investigators uncovered
breathtaking financial misdoings, including a scheme to raise money
for a church public-relations fund that disguised itself as a
fundraiser for sick children.

Arguably the most damaging of all of Moon's misdeeds is the conviction
of Reverend Moon in 1982 by the US government for willfully filing
false federal income tax returns. He was convicted and sentenced to
spend 13 months in prison at the Federal Correctional Institution in
Danbury, CT.

The Sinhala nation has now found yet another ally in Reverend Moon's
Washington Times for news peddling and for prosecuting its immoral war
against the Tamils. It is yet another addition to its arsenal of media
holdings complementing its centerpiece, namely the family-owned and
operated media outlet The Hindu.

Separation for the Tamils now is no more a question of racial
persecution. It is now a moral issue. Armed with the knowledge and the
vast human resources spread around the world, the Tamils can
effectively counter the propaganda machinery of the failed Sinhala
state. In this context, making an effort to freely distribute,
disseminate and discuss the information presented here and elsewhere
at every opportunity and at every social and official gathering by the
Tamil Diaspora would be an effective countermeasure to the failed
state's propaganda machinery.

Note: This analysis was based largely on the following two reports
published in Wikipedia.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Post

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Myung_Moon

Note: Some parts of this article have been reproduced verbatim from
these reports. The credit for the information presented in this
article is due to Wikipedia. The news service UPI is now also owned by
Moon's group that runs the Washington Times. Neither one is quoted by
the mainstream media in the US and both routinely publish biased news
about the LTTE.