The Washington Times Cleans House
The hard-right Washington Times a new executive editor, Washington Post reporter John Solomon (right), marking a major change in direction for the perennially money-losing paper that is owned by Rev. Sun Myung Moon. Solomon, who is taking over a paper with a , replaces Wesley Pruden, who was editor in chief for 16 years.
Solomon鈥檚 appointment marks the end of a tumultuous period for the Times, which included a spate of extremely bad press, including an by Max Blumenthal. That seemed to take its toll on the newspaper鈥檚 professional employees. Several prominent staffers, including Washington insider Tony Blankley, the newspaper鈥檚 editorial page editor and former press secretary for then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), and FOX News contributor Bill Sammon, in the past year.
The appointment of Solomon means Pruden鈥檚 vision for the Times鈥� future will not come to pass. Pruden C-SPAN in 2005 that his managing editor, Francis Booth Coombs, who on his personal web site to have been 鈥渋n many ways the chief architect of Washington Times news coverage,鈥� should replace him. Coombs, whose white supremacist thinking has been reported on in the Southern Poverty Law Center鈥檚 Intelligence Report several times ( and ) and who has been by former Times employees, his retirement yesterday.
Coombs鈥� connections to extremists are extensive. Coombs鈥� wife, Marian, has direct ties to white supremacists and Coombs has published several stories by Marian in the Times, many of which relied on racist sources (as in 2005 by the Intelligence Report). One of Coombs鈥� favored editors, Robert Stacy McCain, is an ardent and a former of the white supremacist League of the South. Coombs鈥� personal website was created and by George McDaniel, who has worked for, and been published by, the academic racist outfit, American Renaissance. Possiby even more damaging to the Coombses were the March 2007 reports of their with neo-Nazi leader Bill White, whose website is filled with virulent attacks on Jews and blacks.
During Pruden and Coombs鈥� tenure, the Times had on its staff other extremists besides McCain. , who would serve as editor in the late 1990s and early 2000s for the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens, was the Times鈥� deputy editorial page editor from 1987 to 1991, and was a columnist until 1995. He was fired in 1995 after conservative commentator Dinesh D鈥橲ouza wrote about Francis made at the 1994 American Renaissance conference.
When Francis died in 2005, the Times wrote a glowing obituary. The failed to mention Francis鈥� 1995 firing from the Times or his prolific writings for white supremacist publications, describing him instead as 鈥渁 leading voice of traditional conservatism.鈥�
