Stop dissing the Washington Times! It's not just 'that Moonie paper' anymore - Sun Myung Moon's newspaper is not influenced by the Universal Church very much today - Cover Story

Washington Monthly, May, 1997 by Nurith C. Aizenman

Like an earnest concierge, the Times is also chockfull of practical data. The "Washington Daybook" page lists not just the daily activities of Congress and government agencies, but the time and place of practically every briefing, lecture or conference in the area. An extensive list of the expected guests on all the major talk shows is also provided. For those who wonder what the other guys are up to, the Times even provides a side-by-side comparison of its own headlines with those of the Post and The New York Times.

The paper's news-you-can-use attitude also informs its metro coverage: Is D.C. Mayor Marion Barry really fulfilling his promise to fill every pothole within 72 hours of its being reported? Brian Blomquist is on the case. Was the Metro crash last spring an unavoidable accident? The Times reveals that the train operator's repeated requests for per, mission to switch from computerized to manual controls were rebuffed by his bullying boss. When former U.S. Attorney Eric Holder finally managed to get a witness intimidator sentenced to life in prison the Times broadcast the story on the front page. Because of the paper's victims' rights orientation it had immediately appreciated the importance of the story. The Post buried it on page B5, where, as this magazine's Charles Peters observed at the time, "there was little danger it would be noticed by the criminals to whom Holder was trying to send a message,"

The Times's scrappy attitude towards D.C. affairs may be one reason for its surprising popularity among the city's African American residents. About 22 percent of Times readers are black--roughly equal to their proportion in the areas population.

Another reason for the Times's success with minority groups may be its self-conscious effort to focus on stories that will resonate with the average Joe. This, almost populist, sensibility often leads the Times to highlight stories which fly under the radar of more highbrow publications. Back in September, Times editors noticed a short wire story about Johnathan Prevette, the six-year-old boy who had kissed a classmate in school and gotten suspended for "sexual harassment." "We said...people are gonna care about this. People are gonna talk about this," recalls Josette Shiner. The Times put the story on page one. Talk radio and TV news programs also picked it up, and the airwaves soon buzzed with debate over whether sexual discrimination laws had gone too far. Finally, several days later, the Post was forced to report on what had by then become the week's biggest story. This progression of events was no accident, argues Editor-in-Chief Wesley Pruden: "We want to be a mirror to reflect mainstream American views back to Washington."

A Good Old Fashioned Value

Admittedly, the Times's concept of mainstream American values is well to the right of what many of us believe them to be. Its voluminous commentary and editorial sections are filled with the rantings of nutty right-wingers who claim to represent the silent majority. This section of the paper is hardly essential reading--if you're looking for a good articulation of the conservative view you can just as easily turn to Robert Novak, Charles Krautthammer, James Glassman and George Will in the Post. Nevertheless the Times's conservative perspective is one of its most valuable features. Who but the Times would run excerpts from a different local sermon every Monday? Where else could you get the anti-feminist take on the Beijing Women's Conference? What other paper would devote its entire second page to the cultural wars over sex, religion, and government--every day? Regardless of where you come down on these issues, the fact remains that they are of vital interest to many Americans. Yet the major papers routinely ignore them. Culture page editor Julia Duin was amazed when a crucial fact in a new abortion study that she had reported on was overlooked by the Post. According to the study, black women were three times more likely than whites to have abortions. "Whether or not you agree with abortion...that is a story," says Duin.