Tuesday, December 8, 2009

R.I.P. The Washington Times

Eric Boehlert has the full story:
You'd think that somebody with a direct line to the Almighty, and tapped by Jesus to save mankind on Earth, would be able to come up with a better business plan for running a daily newspaper. But, alas, after nearly three decades of unrelenting financial losses, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, a federal tax cheat, accused cult leader, and founder of the Unification Church, has decided to pull out. Actually, according to news reports, it's more like Moon's U.S. college-educated sons, as part of an internal family power struggle, have decided to finally cut off the endless stream of Asian church cash that's kept The Washington Times afloat. . .With the announcement that 40 percent of the Times' staff is getting pink-slipped, and that the daily's no longer even going to bother with traditional who/what/where/when/why reporting, instead publishing an opinion-heavy publication that will be free of charge at a diminished number of local outlets, Times owners look like they're angling to be a Weekly Standard wannabe, churning out lots of predictable GOP Noise Machine opinion prattle. . .The messianic Moon, who has referred to himself as "humanity's Savior," never cared about journalism in the traditional, American, free-marketplace sense of the word. Yes, he launched a product that looked like a newspaper, but its central goal was never really to inform its readers. Its goal seemed more often to misinform and to enhance Moon's reputation outside the United States. Moon and Unification Church leaders used the newspaper as a symbol, most often in Asia, to suggest that Moon moved freely among world leaders. That the newspaper in 2009 had a modest circulation roughly matching that of the Chattanooga Times Free Press was irrelevant to the paper's publishers, although the newspaper's evaporating readership probably was not lost on the Times' shrinking band of local advertisers. . .

3 comments:

Kenneth Gordon Neufeld said...

Of all his dubious accomplishments in life, Sun Myung Moon was most proud of The Washington Times, because it made him feel like a big player and an influential person, which was always his real goal, however he pursued it. It appears that he is now too old to be capable of controlling his empire, so his sons are setting about to take it apart, beginning with the biggest white elephant of all, The Washington Times. They can't understand why their dad wanted to carry on publishing something that was losing so much money that they would rather spend on their own lifestyles. Consequently, though the elder Moon must surely hate the idea, the Times will eventually be shut down--as was done for its New York predecessor newspaper, the News World (later the New York City Tribune)--which folded in the 1980s.

Anonymous said...

Your opinion but why you peoples see only the bad things and not the opposite. This business had employed a lot of peoples, is making a great job. I think you Mr.Neufeld should try to meditate a little bit and find the question in yourself why you can't stay without talking about others life, you'd better enjoy your life and reach your success.

Anonymous said...

Wanna book bet on how soon Jeffrey Kuhner et al. will blame the 'liberal media' and Obama on the paper's demise?