Regnery Publishing's War on American Democracy

Regnery Publishing just released The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media's Favorite Candidate by David Freddoso. I have not read the book so I can’t comment on the specifics of the book. However, I can cite some reports about that raise serious questions: 1) There has been some pre-release information about the book that show that there are some serious problems with the truthfulness of the book. The media watchdog Media Matters for America uncovered some falsehoods in the introduction and the first few pages which were released by Regnery prior to publication. Media Matters has been doing an excellent job of documenting misinformation in the anti-Obama book by Jerome Corsi (who co-authored the wildly inaccurate Regnery 2004 hit book on John Kerry, Unfit for Command).

However, what is particularly revealing is that the publisher of the book, Regnery Publishing has a pattern of publishing books that denigrate true American heroes, such as John Kerry, as well as books that elevate sociopaths--namely the Reverend Sun Myung Moon.

Regnery's History of Elevating Sun Myung Moon and Unification Thought

Regnery has been the publisher of five books that have served the purposes of Sun Myung Moon, who is 1) a sexual predator who committed immigration fraud in order to bring an underage girl to the United States to be the illegal bride for his violent and drug-addicted son; 2) a thief who has stolen hundreds of millions, possibly billions, from vulnerable Japanese widows in what is known as the spiritual sales scam; 3) A megalomaniac who believes that he is the Messiah and the world’s savior; 4) A would-be tyrant who believes that American democracy—-which he views as “Satan’s harvest”—-should be overthrown and replaced with a theocratic rule. In a word, the guy is a nutjob (my YouTube video "The World's Most Powerful Cult" gives a succinct overview of Moon and a more comprehensive look at Moon can be found in John Gorenfeld's recent book Bad Moon Rising as well as my blog devoted to Moon).

Regnery has published not one but five books promoting Moon’s pathological philosophy. Two of those books specifically defend Moon’s criminality and anti-democratic worldview and attribute criticism of Moon’s predation to racism and bigotry. I will discuss each of these Regnery books, starting with the two books that specifically defend Moon's indefensible behavior and outlook.

1) To Bigotry, No Sanction: Reverend Sun Myung Moon and the Unification Church by Mose Durst. Then-president of the Unification Church Mose Durst wrote this apologia of Moon and the Unification movement and blamed Moon's unpopularity with Americans to racism and bigotry. These charges of racism and xenophobia are not only an example of blaming America first but they are particularly ironic since Moon's Washington Times has been a repository for white supremist and neo-Confederate thought.

Quick aside: It's revealing that Regnery's anti-Obama author David Freddroso is a contributor to William F. Buckley's National Review. The back of the dust jacket of Durst's book has an endorsement by William Rusher, then-publisher of National Review (as I noted, the popular narrative about Buckley and NR marginalizing crackpots and extremists from the American conservative movement is a crock).

2) Inquisition: The Persecution and Prosecution of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon by Carlton Sherwood. When Moon was sent to prison for tax fraud and conspiracy, Sherwood served as Moon's primary literary apologist. The main premise of Sherwood's book was that Moon was railroaded because of racial and religious bigotry. Sherwood claimed that he wrote the book independent of Moon or the Unification Church but a PBS Frontline documentary found that unification Church officials reviewed and edited Sherwood's manuscript (Quick note: I confronted Fox News Democrat Tammy Bruce about Sherwood's dishonesty on her radio show--friends have told me that the transcript is priceless).

It should be no surprise that during the 2004 election, Sherwood produced the anti-Kerry film Stolen Honor--a film that contained many misrepresentations and libels.

3) At Any Cost: How Al Gore Tried to Steal the Election by Bill Sammon.
Sammon, an operative for Moon's Washington Times, wrote this apologia for the Bush campaign. This is hardly surprising since the Bush and Moon families are very close and there has been a history of Moon's Times doing dirty work for the Bush family. Bob Somerby of the Daily Howler uncovered blatant examples of journalistic misconduct by Sammon (I addressed this in an article for American Politics Journal).

4) Icons of Evolution and 5) The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design both by Jonathan Wells.
Wells, a well-known proponent of the form of creationism known as intelligent design, is one of Moon's most fanatical member of Moon's shock troops. Wells' motivation for his embrace of creationist pseudo-science is his devotion to his "father," the Reverend Moon (note the warlike language):

Father’s words, my studies, and my prayers convinced me that I should devote my life to destroying Darwinism, just as many of my fellow Unificationists had already devoted their lives to destroying Marxism. When Father chose me (along with about a dozen other seminary graduates) to enter a Ph.D. program in 1978, I welcomed the opportunity to prepare myself for battle.

Regnery Publishing's Bizarro World
In Regnery Publishing's bizarro world, true patriots like Kerry and Obama are deserving of denigration while a deranged megalomaniac like Moon is praised. This should be a news story but isn't