Nation: At Moon's Washington Times: racism, sexism, generational change

[DeepModem Mom]

The Nation: Posted September 20, 2006 (October 9, 2006 issue)
Hell of a Times
Max Blumenthal

These are edgy times at the Washington Times.

Still one of the most important right-wing organs in the nation, the paper has a circulation base of around 100,000. According to a source close to senior management, in the past two decades it has burned through far more than the $1.7 billion previously reported. During that time its editorial stance has consistently leaned to the hard right, as its favorite targets have ranged from liberal comsymps to President Bill Clinton to, most recently, "illegal aliens" and their allies in the "open borders lobby." Throughout, the Times has served as a major key on the conservative movement's Mighty Wurlitzer.

A nasty succession battle is now heating up at the paper, punctuated by allegations of racism, sexism and unprofessional conduct, that has implications far beyond its fractious newsroom. According to several reliable inside sources, Preston Moon, the youngest son of Korean Unification Church leader and Times financier Sun Myung Moon, has initiated a search committee to find a replacement for editor in chief Wesley Pruden--a replacement who is not Pruden's handpicked successor, managing editor Francis Coombs.

Preston Moon wants to wrest control of the paper from Pruden and Coombs, according to a Times senior staffer, in order to shift the paper away from their brand of conservatism, which is characterized by extreme racial animus and connections to nativist and neo-Confederate organizations. A Harvard MBA, Preston Moon is said to be seeking to install an editorial regime with more widely palatable politics. His search committee is reportedly headed by Times editor at large Arnaud De Borchgrave, the former editor in chief of UPI who edited the Times from 1985 to 1991. Once an ardent anticommunist who oversaw a Times fund for the Nicaraguan contras, De Borchgrave has been critical of the Bush Administration's unilateralist approach to foreign policy. According to a senior staffer and a source close to Times senior management, De Borchgrave favors UPI's editor emeritus Martin Walker as Pruden's successor. Walker is a former correspondent for the liberal British newspaper the Guardian and has been a vocal supporter of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's early New Labour politics. (De Borchgrave declined to respond to questions about his alleged role in the Times succession battle.)...

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Both Coombs and Pruden, meanwhile, are facing a litany of complaints from former and current colleagues of racism and sexual harassment. More than a dozen well-placed sources spoke to The Nation. Many wished to remain anonymous, for fear of jeopardizing their jobs. Others spoke on the record. But the sources are consistent about the atmosphere Pruden and Coombs have fostered inside the paper, which they describe as profoundly demeaning and abusive to women and minorities. Preston Moon has hired the powerhouse Washington law firm Nixon Peabody to interview Times staffers about the allegations of racism and sexism....

http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20061009&s=washington_times