Toward a 'Faith-Based' Fourth Estate

On the lookout for a new "news paradigm?" Look no more! The World Media Association is on the case, as evidenced by a WMA-sponsored forum in our nation's capital this week.

Pre-event publicity for the RSVP Forum, entitled "Needed: A New Paradigm for News," certainly asks the right question: "Are media giving people the kind of news they need?"

Perhaps not, but any journalistic gathering that also questions the continued relevance of "the media's traditional role of reporting 'facts' (sic)" sounds more than a little dodgy -- even in our current celebrity-fixated, spin-obsessed, single-sourced, 24/7 news environment. After all, while it's a truism that everyone is entitled to his own opinion, have we finally reached the point where facts are no longer "relevant?" Is it really time, as the WMA asks, "for media to become 'guide dogs' instead of 'watchdogs?'"

Jan Schaffer, Executive Director of the Pew Center for Civic Journalism, along with Dr. Jannette L. Dates, Dean of the Howard University School of Communications, and United Press International Editor-in-Chief Michael Marshall, will explore those questions in a discussion moderated by WMA Executive Director Larry Moffitt.

But when I tried to question Schaffer before the event, she seemed oddly reticent. In fact, she turned downright surly when asked just one question: "Do you know what the World Media Association is?"

"It makes absolutely no difference to me!' Schaffer shouted. "I was asked to speak on the future of news and I will. Clearly you have a point of view!"

Taken aback, I told Schaffer I was just reporting a story, and then reiterated my question.

"We can't engage in this conversation," she sputtered. "I gotta go right now--bye!" Then she hung up.

What made Schaffer become so unhinged? One can only surmise, since she never returned subsequent phone calls. But here's a few clues: the forum will take place in the auditorium of the Washington Times, the money-hemorrhaging conservative daily controlled by the self-styled Messiah, Reverend Sun Myung Moon; the event is sponsored by a Moon front group and moderated by longtime acolyte Larry Moffitt; and Schaffer's fellow "Featured Panelist" Marshall, editor of the Moon-controlled UPI, is a devotee who once promised to "follow forever" Moon's teachings.

Reverend Moon's followers claim the Washington Times, UPI and other messianic media holdings are independent. The official public relations line -- presented as fact as far back as in a June 15, 1987 Time magazine profile -- maintains that the ownership of the newspaper resides with "a group of Korean investors affiliated with the Unification Church." But it has always been obvious that 'investment' in the Times really meant a subsidy. News World Communications, the privately held parent company of the Washington Times and other Moon media outlets, was never obligated under the law nor willing to disclose its financial secrets. But it is not secret that Moon's top Church officials were also executives of the Times and top officials of the Korean CIA.

According to a report by Fairness and Accuracy in Media (FAIR) "the Moon organization functions as a highly integrated unit; each component may maintain the appearance of independence as a means toward larger ends. And former top Church official Steve Hassan told FAIR he believes that the "Times" is a "Trojan horse" within the conservative movement, and that "Conservative politics is glad to have a voice through the 'Times,' but ultimately it has nothing to do with conservatism. It has to do with fascism."

The FAIR study concluded, "The 'Washington Times' is a creature unique in American history -- a newspaper of national influence owned and operated by foreign nationals of demonstrated malevolent intent to American political institutions. But the paper and its backers have not yet received the scrutiny they deserve."