The Redhunter

As I suppose everyone knows, the Times was founded by and is owned by Rev Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church. Never financially profitable, the Times has been subsidized by church ever since it's founding in 1982. On Nov 30 the New York Times reported that because of some internal dispute the church had made a decision to cease funding the Washington Times, which is what forced its current restructuring.

I've lived in the Washington DC area my entire adult life, and after graduating from college in 1983 I did what seemed natural and subscribed to the Post. It quickly irritated me, but it took a few years for me to discover the Times, which was recommended to me by my brother. I can't remember exactly when I started subscribing to it, but it must have been just before the Gulf War because I remember being a subscriber when that war broke out.

Every since then the Times has been a faithful companion as I looked at the daily news and commentary. The paper underwent several changes of editors, and the look and feel of the paper changed a few times as well. Initially a Monday through Friday paper, the Times expanded to weekend coverage, adding a Saturday edition and eventually a Sunday one as well.

Throughout its existence the Times never got close to the Post in circulation numbers. The highest figure for the Times I ever heard was just over 100,000 paid, and articles today suggest it is at about 83,000. The Post is at 673,000 paid daily subscribers.

The left has always hated the Times almost as much as they hate Fox News. It is derided as a "Moonie" paper, not legitimate, all the usual.

Well, I've read just about every edition for over 20 years, and there is no "Moonie" influence, whatever that is supposed to mean. The church is rarely even mentioned in the paper, and religion in general isn't mentioned any more than anywhere else.

Besides, I think it's generally silly to obsess over who owns what media outlet or who funds what organization. In the end it's the stories that tell the tale. in the words of Washington Post writer Howard Kurtz, the Times "the Times punched above its weight class,building a nationally known brand." Indeed it was often that the Times scooped the Post.

The Times certainly attracted some top talent. Who will forget editors like Arnaud de Borchgrave, Wesley Pruden, Tony Blankley, or Tony Snow, or writers like Bill Gertz, Don Lambro, Jennifer Harper, John McCaslin, Jerry Seper or Bill Sammon? I'm not much of a sports fan anymore, but I always did read it during football season and grew somewhat addicted to some of the post-game features each Monday.

Sure, the Times leans right, as does Fox News and the Wall Street Journal. And the Post, New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, Time and Newsweek lean to the left. There is no completely objective news outlet. Such a thing, I think, is impossible. The best way to approach a media outlet is to recognize it's bias and view it's stories or articles accordingly. There are few media outlets that I completely exclude from my readership. Use the search feature on this blog and you'll find that I quote liberal news outlets quite often, for they often do good journalism.

Newspapers in general are in decline, and I know I'm not the only one who's lost their local paper. It's unfortunate, but the world moves on. The Times isn't completely going away, but it'll never quite be the same.