As the saying goes, freedom of the press goes to those who own the press. Reverend Sun Myung Moon, the very rich messiah-at-large, owns a pretty good bit of press. He owns the wire service UPI and the Washington Times. Here's a little bit from Toward a 'Faith-Based' Fourth Estate by Rory O'Connor.

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."”

And how independent is the once-proud UPI? As Moon noted on Nov. 30, 2000, shortly after buying the news service, "“The best way to become famous will be to write articles about Rev. Moon. The media organization that employs the reporters who write such articles and publishes them will be respected around the world. UPI was purchased just as it was about to collapse, and it is being supported now. UPI can write such articles."” Or as the Rev put it on another occasion, to establish "“the journalism of the Kingdom of Heaven"” one first needs "“the wire service of the Kingdom of Heaven..."”

Owners of big media are often an eccentric lot, to put it mildly. But Rev. Moon, now he's in a different league of strangeness. Self-described messiah and savior of humanity, he's got every other media owner beat hands down. I took a little stroll over to the Unification Church's homepage, randomly picked a year (1983) from the 1956-2004 archives of Rev. Moon's speeches/sermons and selected what I considered a modest topic: "About Myself." This was only the first part of two parts and, oddly, he spent most of it talking about God. I sort of picked up the impression that God=Rev. Moon. Here's a little sample:

It was at that time that the Unification Church emerged. If Christianity, America and the rest of the free world had listened to Reverend Moon when he emerged, many problems would have been solved once and for all. However, Reverend Moon was opposed by them and, at the same time, God was opposed by them. Thus communists today are openly striking out against God and all the free world.

Now God must work to restore the mistakes of America and the free world through the Unification Church. That is why we oppose communism. Because both the people of the free world and the communists are opposing Reverend Moon at this time, they are working together in a way. What is the position of the United Nations? Where is the godly side within the United Nations? One thing is certain-a United Nations must be born on God's side. This Godly United Nations must win over the satanic United Nations through superior theory and practice and form a unified realm on God's side.

Communism is the principal occupant of the earth. There is only a small segment of the earth which is occupied by the Unification Church, but Reverend Moon has come out and proclaimed our advance against the power of Moscow and our determination to expand God's territory on this earth. This is the war we are engaged in at this time. This is the reason why we must fight against communism.

He seems able to go on like this for hours. Although 1983 might explain his strong anti-communist stance, his views apparently have not changed much since the fall of the Soviet Union. Note his reference to himself in the third person, sometimes considered a sign of serious mental illness. But I guess messiahs are different than "normal" people. And this is a guy who owns a major paper in our nation's capital. I can't really recommend reading his speeches but even a casual purusal of these sermons reveals some extremely batshit crazy beliefs. Did you know Korea is the most spiritually advanced country on earth? Or that Korean is the most perfect language because Moon and his wife speak it? I take back not recommending these speeches; I actually encourage you to go read them. You can't get a good glimpse into his, um, perspective from quotes; you should get the full context. It is truly eyeopening. But don't put salt in your eye while it's open; that hurts.

This is PBU22, a post in association/solidarity with the fabulous tea party known as the Progressive Blogger Union.