Moonie Times editor's suit threatens to unravel myth of paper's editorial independence

From Washington Post's Howard Kurtz, so take it with a grain of salt. ;-):


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/17/AR2009111703325_pf.html


Washington Times editor files EEOC complaint
Disclosing his dismissal, Miniter says paper forced him to attend religious event

By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 18, 2009

The former editorial page editor of the Washington Times has filed a discrimination complaint against the paper, saying he was "coerced" into attending a Unification Church religious ceremony that culminated in a mass wedding conducted by the church's leader, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

Richard Miniter, who was also vice president of opinion, made the claim in a filing Tuesday with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that also disclosed he was fired last month. He said in an interview that he "was made to feel there was no choice" but to attend the ceremony if he wanted to keep his job, and that executives "gave me examples of people whose careers at the Times had grown after they converted" to the Unification Church. A Times spokesman said the paper would not comment.

Miniter, an Episcopalian who tried to avoid attending by saying he had to worship at his own church, said he found the religious weekend in New York last December to be "creepy" and that the Times had invited him to other such events. He said that Moon spoke for about an hour, that ceremonies were conducted in which water was poured from small urns into larger ones, and that Moon married 20 to 30 couples.

The Times paid for his travel, Miniter said, and he and other company executives, including church member Thomas P. McDevitt, then the Times' president and publisher, stayed at the church-owned New Yorker Hotel.

The Times, owned by Unification Church officials, has said since its 1982 founding that it is editorially independent of the church; numerous editors and reporters have said over the years that they encountered no interference from the ownership. Still, Miniter's complaint raises a sensitive issue for the newspaper.

...

The next month, Miniter alleges, the Times conducted a second investigation after he joked to his deputy about Moon's long, flowing garb in a church brochure. That probe was never concluded, Miniter said, and in July the company asked him to work from home. He said he was never given a reason for his termination.

Notice how he leads it - as if the story is all about the wedding and service.

It's about the EEOC filing, Mr Kurtz. What a consistent jerk of a 'jounalist'.

wes prueden jr of the moonie times has written his racist op on President Obama.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7032619