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{{short description|American political analyst (born 1949)}}
{{NPOV}}
{{pp-move-indef}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2024}}
{{Infobox person
|name = Chip Berlet
|image = Chip_Berlet.png
|caption = Chip Berlet in Mexico in 2012
|birth_date = {{birth date and age|1949|11|22}}
|birth_place =
|birth_name = John Foster Berlet
|known_for = Study of right-wing movements and conspiracy theories
|occupation = Policy analyst, ], ]
}}
'''John Foster''' "'''Chip'''" '''Berlet''' ({{IPAc-en|b|ɜr|ˈ|l|eɪ}};<ref><!--at 0:03--></ref> born November 22, 1949) is an American ],<ref>{{cite journal|title=Public Intellectuals, Scholars, Journalists, & Activism: Wearing Different Hats and Juggling Different Ethical Mandates| author=Berlet, C. |journal=International and Multidisciplinary Journal of Social Sciences|volume=3|issue=1|pages=61–90|date=March 2014|doi=10.4471/rimcis.2014.29|doi-access=free}}</ref> research analyst,<ref>{{cite book |last=Chermak |first=Steven M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p1NGyz43INkC&pg=PA92 |page=92 |title=Searching for a Demon: The Media Construction of the Militia Movement |publisher=UPNE |year=2002 |isbn=9781555535414}}</ref><ref name=HateCrimesReference>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/hatecrimesrefere0002alts |url-access=registration |pages=–89 |last=Altschiller |first=Donald |title=Hate Crimes: A Reference Handbook |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2005 |isbn=9781851096244}}</ref> ], scholar, and activist specializing in the study of ].<ref name=HateCrimesReference/><ref name=GeorgeWilcox /> He also studies the spread of ].<ref name=huffpo>{{cite web|last1=Berlet|first1=Chip|title=Holocaust Museum Shooting, Antisemitic Conspiracy Theories, and the Tools of Fear|date=July 11, 2009 |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chip-berlet/holocaust-museum-shooting_b_213979.html|publisher=Huffington Post|access-date=May 14, 2015}}</ref> Since the 1995 ], Berlet has regularly appeared in the media to discuss extremist news stories.<ref name=HateCrimesReference/> He was a senior analyst at ] (PRA), a non-profit group that tracks right-wing networks.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.publiceye.org/about.html|title=About PRA |publisher=Publiceye.org}}</ref>


Berlet, a ], was a vice-president of the ]. He has served on the advisory board of the ] at ], and for over 20 years was on the board of the ]. In 1982, he was a Mencken Awards finalist in the best news story category for "War on Drugs: The Strange Story of ]", which was published in '']''. He served on the advisory board of the ].
]'']]


== Background ==
'''John Foster "Chip" Berlet''' is senior analyst at ] — a 20 year old progressive think tank with a staff of eight which specializes in researching the political right and tracking and analyzing ] movements and government intelligence abuse. He has published articles in publications ranging from '']'', ''Overthrow'', and '']'', to the ] and ]. He has appeared live on ABC’s ], NBC’s ], and <i>CBS This Morning</i>. He has been interviewed on scores of other national and local television and radio news programs and talk shows, including ] All Things Considered, Terry Gross’s Fresh Air, David Barsamian’s Alternative Radio, and Amy Goodman's Democracy Now.
Berlet attended the ] for three years, where he majored in ] with a minor in ]. A member of the 1960s ],<ref name=GeorgeWilcox>{{Citation | last1 = George | first1 = John | last2 = Wilcox | first2 = Laird M. | title = American Extremists: Militias, Supremacists, Klansmen, Communists & Others | year = 1996 | publisher = Prometheus Books | page = 295 | isbn = 978-1-57392-058-2 }}</ref> he dropped out of the university in 1971 to work as an alternative journalist without completing his degree. In the mid-1970s, he went on to co-edit a series of books on student activism for the ] and ]. He also became an active shop steward with the National Lawyers' Guild.


During the late 1970s, he became the ], bureau chief of '']'' magazine, and in 1979, he helped to organize citizens' hearings on ] surveillance practices. From then until 1982, he worked as a ] investigator at the Better Government Association in Chicago, conducting research for an ] case, involving police ] by the Chicago police (which became known as the "Chicago ]" case).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chicagohistory.org/static_media/pdf/historyfair/chicago_police_depts_red_squad.pdf|title=Bibliography: Chicago Police Department's Red Squad's Involvement In Social Protest|access-date=February 18, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929121933/http://www.chicagohistory.org/static_media/pdf/historyfair/chicago_police_depts_red_squad.pdf|archive-date=September 29, 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref> He also worked on cases filed against the FBI or police on behalf of the ] (S.A.C.C.), the ], the ], ], the ], and the ] (a ] group). He was a founder member of the ], leaving the organization when he relocated to Boston in 1987.<ref name=GeorgeWilcox />
Berlet began his activism in the civil rights movement through the ] in the mid-], and later became involved in the ]. In the ] he was an editor at College Press Service and later was a magazine editor at the ], but this was several years after it was exposed as a ] front, not before, as wrongly claimed by ] supporters. Berlet became interested in government intelligence abuse and ] action while researching ] spying and disruption of the Alternative Press for the Underground Press Syndicate where he served on the board of directors. During the late ] Berlet was the Washington, D.C. bureau chief of '']'' magazine.


Along with journalist ], Berlet has written about ]'s ], calling it anti-Jewish and neo-Nazi, and urging an investigation of alleged illegal activities.<ref name=HateCrimesReference/><ref> By Russ Bellant, Chip Berlet, & Dennis King, Political Research Associates, December 16, 1981</ref> In 1982, Berlet joined ], and in 1985 he founded the Public Eye BBS, the first computer ] aimed at challenging the spread of white-supremacist and ] material through electronic media, and the first to provide an online application kit for requesting information under the U.S. ].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.publiceye.org/aboutpra/pe_bbshist.html|last=Berlet|first=Chip|title=History of the Public Eye Electronic Forums}}</ref> He was one of the first researchers to have drawn attention to the efforts by white supremacist and antisemitic groups to recruit farmers in the ] in the 1970s and 1980s.<ref>{{cite news |author = Jason Berry |title = Bridging chasms of race and hate |work = St. Petersburg Times (Florida) |publisher = Times Publishing Company |page = 6D |date = August 22, 1993 }}</ref> Berlet was originally on the board of advisers of Public Information Research, founded by Daniel Brandt. Between 1990 and 1992, three members of Brandt's PIR advisory board, including Berlet, resigned over issues concerning another board member, ] and Prouty's book '']''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://issuu.com/bristlekrs/docs/lobster_24 | title=An Incorrect Political Memoir |first=Daniel |last=Brandt |date=December 1992 |work=] |access-date=May 1, 2018}}</ref> Berlet discussed this in a study titled "Right-Woos Left".<ref>Chip Berlet, "," Cambridge, Massachusetts: Political Research Associates, 1991.</ref>
Berlet gained a reputation during the ] and ] as a researcher into government abuses of ], and as a critic of intelligence agencies and the ]. Articles of his appeared in publications such as '']'', and he, along with Linda Lotz, issued a widely-circulated list of recommended books on government abuses. He was a founder of a national newsletter devoted to training attorneys to litigate against police misconduct and spying abuse, and he worked as a paralegal investigator on several lawsuits aginst the FBI, CIA, Military Intelligence, and local city and state "Red Squads." In the ], Berlet worked with and later edited the <i>Public Eye</i> magazine, now published by Political Research Associates.


In 1996, he acted as an adviser on the ] documentary mini-series ''With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America'', which was later published as a book by William Martin.<ref>{{IMDb title|id=0115424|title=With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| title=With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America| url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780553067453| url-access=registration| isbn= 0-553-06749-4| first=William| last= Martin| publisher=Broadway| year=1996}}</ref> Berlet criticized ] and his associates for a close working relationship with Republican textile magnate ], erstwhile major backer of the 1996 presidential campaign of ], and anti-unionization stalwart.<ref>''Right-Wing Populism in America'' by Chip Berlet, pp. 338–344</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wpunj.edu/newpol/issue29/hawkin29.htm |title=A Green Perspective on Ralph Nader And Independent Political Action (from ''New Politics'', vol. 8, no. 1 (new series), whole no. 29, Summer 2000) |first=Howie |last=Hawkins |year=2000 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060715145651/http://www.wpunj.edu/newpol/issue29/hawkin29.htm |archive-date=July 15, 2006 }}</ref> Berlet has provided research assistance to a campaign run by the mother of ], a British student died in disputed circumstances near Wiesbaden, Germany, and to reopen the investigation into his death.<ref>{{cite press release|url=http://www.publiceye.org/press/releases/2007/3/27/Berlet_LaRouche.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20070802051801/http://www.publiceye.org/press/releases/2007/3/27/Berlet_LaRouche.html |archive-date=August 2, 2007|date=March 27, 2007|author=Berlet, Chip|title=Berlet Joins Call for Probe into Death of Student who Attended LaRouche-Group Conference|publisher=Political Research Associates}}</ref>
During the ] Presidential campaign in the United States, Berlet issued a report entitled "Clouds Blur the Rainbow" about the ], which placed ] on the ballot in all 50 states as a ] Presidential candidate that year. The report noted that in ], ] (the psychotherapist who later founded the New Alliance Party) had entered into a alliance with Lyndon LaRouche, which lasted less than a year. Critics, including Berlet and previous New Alliance Party presidential candidate ], argued that the New Alliance Party was in fact a psychotherapy ] that was more a vehicle for Fred Newman's ] movement than it was a left-wing third political party, and which continued to incorporate some of LaRouche's ideas.


== Photojournalism ==
In 1995 Berlet edited a collection of articles about right-wing political and social movements, which appeared as the book ''Eyes Right! Challenging the Right Wing Backlash'', from South End Press. The book received a Gustavus Myers Center Award for outstanding scholarship on the subject of human rights and intolerance in North America. In ] Berlet and co-author Matthew N. Lyons wrote ''Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort'', published by the Guilford Press. This book was also was recognized with a Gustavus Myers award.
As a ], Berlet's photographs, particularly of ] and neo-Nazi rallies, have been carried on the ] wire, have appeared on book and magazine covers, album covers and posters, and have been published in '']'', '']'', and '']'',<ref>{{Citation
|author = Grant Kester
|title = Net profits: Chip Berlet tracks computer networks of the religious right - interview with Political Research Associates analyst - Special Issue: Fundamentalist Media - Interview
|url = https://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=MwWfMwn2d85tZv2yLGyy1mcwv1pT220SL9Rv1ctbfXb8X0M1Q2Z9!-371328629!616144792?docId=5000318108
|work = Afterimage
|publisher = Visual Studies Workshop
|date = February–March 1995
|access-date = April 11, 2007
}}</ref>


== Reception ==
Starting in the late 1990s, Berlet began writing a number of articles and book chapters on ], ], and ] social movements; focusing on what he calls the dynamics of conspiracism, demonization, and apocalypticism. He served on the advisory board of the Center for Millennial Studies at ]. Berlet continues to write about government intelligence abuse, including an article he co-wrote on domestic political repression in Amnesty Now for ]. He is on the advisory board of the National Committee Against Repressive Legislation.
Berlet's second book, co-authored with Matthew N. Lyons, is ''Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort'', was published by The Guilford Press in 2000. It is a broad historical overview of right-wing populism in the United States. The book received generally favorable reviews. '']'' said it was a "detailed historical examination" that "strikes an excellent balance between narrative and theory." '']'' described it as an excellent account describing the outermost fringes of American conservatism.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Baker |first=Russell |title=Mr. Right |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2001/may/17/mr-right/ |url-access=subscription |journal=The New York Review of Books |volume=48 |number=8 |date=May 17, 2001 |access-date=July 26, 2008}} Reprinted as Chapter 9 in {{cite book |last=Baker |first=Russell |title=Looking Back |year=2002 |publisher=New York Review Books |isbn=1-59017-008-3 |pages= |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/lookingback00bake/page/139 }}</ref> A review by Jerome Himmelstein in the journal '']'' said that "it offers more than a scholarly treatise on the activities of the ]", that it provides a background to help the reader understand ], and that it "merits close attention from scholars of the political right in America and of social movements generally."<ref>Himmelstein, Jerome L., Review of book ''Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort'', Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Jan. 2002), pp. 76–77, American Sociological Association</ref>


Robert H. Churchill of the private ] criticized Berlet and other authors writing about the right-wing as lacking breadth and depth in their analysis.<ref>Churchill, Robert H. "Beyond the Narrative of 1995 - Recent Examinations of the American Far Right." ''Terrorism and Political Violence'', Vol. 13, No. 4 (Winter 2001), pp. 125–136.</ref> In ''Who Watches the Watchmen?'', ] criticized Berlet and other writers for what Wilcox says is their use of a technique he describes as "Links and Ties," which he says is a form of ].<ref>'''' edited by Jeffrey Kaplan, Heléne Lööw</ref><ref>Wilcox, Laird, "Who Watches the Watchman?" in ''The Cultic Milieu: Oppositional Subcultures in an Age of Globalization'' edited by Jeffrey Kaplan, Heléne Lööw, Rowman Altamira, January 1, 2002, p. 332</ref> ], an associate professor in the Journalism and Media Studies Department at Rutgers University, said that Berlet uses the methods of conspiracy theorists.<ref>Bratich, Jack Z, ''Conspiracy Panics: Political Rationality and Popular Culture'', SUNY Press 2008, p. 100</ref>
==Berlet as a critic of Lyndon LaRouche==


==Publications==
While the vast majority of material written by Berlet makes no mention of ], in the ] and ], Berlet wrote reports and articles on LaRouche for several magazines and newspapers. These articles claimed LaRouche had a right-wing agenda and was an antisemite and fascist. In ], LaRouche filed an unsuccessful civil libel suit against ], the ], ], and Berlet. LaRouche lost the case and the jury awarded damages from a counter-suit to NBC News.
* ]
* '']''


==See also==
Berlet, along with ] and ], alleged that LaRouche and his associates were engaged in illegal fundraising and tax dodging activities amounting to millions of dollars per year. LaRouche and several associates were eventually convicted and jailed on similar charges, and the photo of Berlet and King on this page was taken in Alexandria, Virginia where the two authors were celebrating LaRouche being led off to jail from the courthouse. Both Berlet and King have stated they are delighted they played a role in seeing LaRouche imprisoned.
* ]


== References ==
In ], Berlet and King met with a variety of both left-wing and right-wing opponents of LaRouche. The nature of these meetings is disputed; LaRouche supporters make much of these meetings (see the link to the Quinde Affidavit below), maintaining that they were planning sessions to produce a wave of hostile press coverage, intended to make criminal prosecutions credible. Berlet has stated repeatedly the meeting that he attended was a debate where left-wing critics of LaRouche were asked by right-wing critics to present and defend their claims about LaRouche's spying and fascist tendencies, and that he and King were present to protest the fact that LaRouche agents were supplying information about their political enemies on the right and left to the Reagan administration&mdash;including the ] and ]&mdash;a relationship that some conservatives close to the Reagan administration felt was inappropriate and sought to terminate. According to Berlet and King, the LaRouche supporters try to use the meeting to distract attention from the convictions of LaRouche and his associates. Berlet offered to let LaRouchite Quinde hire a lawyer to obtain any government documents on Berlet available under the federal Freedom of Information Act, so long as all documents were made public. Quinde and the LaRouchites rebuffed the offer.
{{reflist|2}}


== External links ==
Among the other participants at these meetings were:
{{Wikiquote|Chip Berlet}}
*
* at Center for Millennial Studies.
* at ].
* at ].
* at ].
* at ].
* at ].
* at ].
* , brief description of Chip Berlet's work
* – video report by '']''


{{Authority control}}
*New York investment banker ], who hosted the meetings
*], of the ] (who paid the travel expenses of Berlet)
*], then a consultant to the ] and the ] (PFIAB)
*Mira Lansky Boland, head of fact-finding at the Washington, D.C. offices of the ]
*at least one representative of ], a private research organization headed by PFIAB Chairman ]
*], a wealthy Pittsburgh businessman notorious for contributing millions of dollars to right-causes (his foundation came under federal criminal investigation for illegally financing the arming of the ]n ], and he later became involved the ] case, and other activities intended to discredit President ])
*Journalists from media including ], '']'', '']'', '']'' and '']''

Journalist and conspiracy researcher Mark Evans wrote, "Chip Berlet and his sidekick Dennis King, author of ''Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Fascism'', have made careers out of their postgraduate preoccupation of being 'LaRouche watchers.' To them, Lyndon LaRouche, recently released from prison, is the Great Beast. Berlet and King's own political trajectory, in shades of The Big Chill, a path parallel in its revisionism and no less bizarre than that of the despised object of their fixated animosity, LaRouche himself."

Berlet and Lyons counter that: "Though often dismissed as a bizarre political cult, the LaRouche organization and its various front groups are a fascist movement whose pronouncements echo elements of Nazi ideology. Beginning in the 1970s, the LaRouchites combined populist antielitism with attacks on leftists, environmentalists, feminists, gay men and lesbians, and organized labor. They advocated a dictatorship in which a “humanist” elite would rule on behalf of industrial capitalists. They developed an idiosyncratic, coded variation on the Illuminati Freemason and Jewish banker conspiracy theories. Their views, though exotic, were internally consistent and rooted in right-wing populist traditions...." From <i>Right-Wing Populism in America</i>,

==More controversies==

A larger and more diverse group of Berlet critics object to his complaints about what he calls <i>conspiracism</i> and its role in building left/right coalitions which Berlet finds objectionable.

During the ] ] Berlet began criticizing other left-wing critics of ] as wittingly or unwittingly being channels for ] of the ]. In articles which appeared in magazines including '']'' and '']'', Berlet criticized the ], ], Victor Marchetti, L. Fletcher Prouty, ], the ] film <i>]</i>, and the ] theory. This is ironic because the reading list circulated by Berlet in the 1980s contained books by Marchetti and Prouty. PRA published a Berlet report entitled <i>Right Woos Left</i> in ] about many of the above theories and his claim that their origins were within a ] of the political right wing, and not genuinely ] or ]. His ] book <i>Right-Wing Populism in America</i> is based on these theories.

A few critics of Berlet consider his actions during that period to have been unfair and disruptive on the left, especially because of the resulting pressure on media outlets such as Pacifica Radio to drop such popular guests as ], ], and ], and to reduce coverage of conspiracy-related programs on the JFK assassination, October Surprise, and ] scandal. Yet there are many supporters of Berlet and his efforts to raise questions about the relationships among "conspiracism," apocalyptic dualism, and bigotry, including reporters and staffers on several Pacifica radio stations, authors ], ], ], ], ], and ]; as well as ], the late publisher of the <i>]</i>. In 2004, the Pacifica network featured a speech by and interview with Berlet as part of a national fundraising drive for the Pacifica archives, demonstrating that despite being controversial, Berlet's work has both supporters and detractors.

Berlet has also been critical of ], ], and ], who are willing to work with populists of the right on common issues of concern, such as ] and antiwar activism. While in 1991 he mostly limited his criticisms of left-right alliances to those willing to work with groups which could be characterized as ], ], or fascist, such as ] and the Populist Party, Berlet has also been critical of those willing to work with ] and with industrialist ], both of whom are conservative but neither of whom are anti-Semitic or fascist. Berlet says they promote "]."

Berlet's critics, such as Mark Evans, are suspicious of Berlet's role. Evans charged that Berlet's "...sudden prominence and cachet on the progressive political scene portends a dangerous tendency which might aptly be called Neo-Mugwump or left-wing McCarthyism." Another critic of Berlet is ], who specializes in researching extremist political movements and who archives a collection of extremist materials at the University of Kansas library. Wilcox notes that Berlet himself has a history of activity on the extreme left, including being a co-founder of the Chicago Friends of ]. PRA is one of four groups profiled in the report <i>The Watchdogs</i> by Laird Wilcox, who notes: "The watchdog 'second string' which includes the ] and ], are noted for their radical political agenda and extensive 'links and ties' to extremist groups of the far left. These four organizations are closely studied in this detailed investigative report, which reveals a little-known side that they would prefer kept from the public."

Another critic is Daniel Brandt, who is, like Berlet, a former activist in the New Left groups of the late 1960s, and is now best known for the NameBase software and website. Among Brandt's criticisms: "He isn't critical of conspiracy thinking on the basis of the evidence, but waits until the theorist can be shown to have incorrect political associations. Berlet doesn't fit anywhere on our spectrum; he's running his own show."

However, in Berlet's study <i>Right Woos Left</i>, Berlet offers a different perspective: "Dan Brandt, whose Namebase research database software remains a very useful research tool, originally attempted to keep my criticisms of his defense of Fletcher Prouty in perspective. He later began openly praising <i>Spotlight,</i> claiming he could find no anti-Jewish bias in its pages, and denouncing me as part of an alleged PC thought police movement on the left." The Prouty criticism by Berlet was sparked when the late Prouty had his book on intelligence policy, <i>The Secret Team,</i> republished by the ], a group primarily devoted to denying the commonly understood facts about the Nazi genocide of Jews and others.

== External links ==
*
* (from the PRA website)
* (pro-Berlet)
* (from the <i>New Internationalist</i> website)
* (from the PRA website)
* (from the PRA website)
* (from the PRA website)
*
* (LaRouche's criticism of Berlet's work)
*
* (researcher on extremist movements; critical of Berlet)
* (Daniel Brandt's research on government abuse and the right wing; critical of Berlet)
* (New Alliance Party criticism of Berlet)
* (more NAP criticism of Berlet)
* (critical of Berlet)
* (critical of Berlet)
* (critical of Berlet)


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Latest revision as of 16:27, 22 November 2024

American political analyst (born 1949)

Chip Berlet
Chip Berlet in Mexico in 2012
BornJohn Foster Berlet
(1949-11-22) November 22, 1949 (age 75)
Occupation(s)Policy analyst, investigative journalist, photojournalist
Known forStudy of right-wing movements and conspiracy theories

John Foster "Chip" Berlet (/bɜːrˈleɪ/; born November 22, 1949) is an American investigative journalist, research analyst, photojournalist, scholar, and activist specializing in the study of extreme right-wing movements in the United States. He also studies the spread of conspiracy theories. Since the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, Berlet has regularly appeared in the media to discuss extremist news stories. He was a senior analyst at Political Research Associates (PRA), a non-profit group that tracks right-wing networks.

Berlet, a paralegal, was a vice-president of the National Lawyers Guild. He has served on the advisory board of the Center for Millennial Studies at Boston University, and for over 20 years was on the board of the Defending Dissent Foundation. In 1982, he was a Mencken Awards finalist in the best news story category for "War on Drugs: The Strange Story of Lyndon LaRouche", which was published in High Times. He served on the advisory board of the Campaign to Defend the Constitution.

Background

Berlet attended the University of Denver for three years, where he majored in sociology with a minor in journalism. A member of the 1960s student left, he dropped out of the university in 1971 to work as an alternative journalist without completing his degree. In the mid-1970s, he went on to co-edit a series of books on student activism for the National Student Association and National Student Educational Fund. He also became an active shop steward with the National Lawyers' Guild.

During the late 1970s, he became the Washington, D.C., bureau chief of High Times magazine, and in 1979, he helped to organize citizens' hearings on FBI surveillance practices. From then until 1982, he worked as a paralegal investigator at the Better Government Association in Chicago, conducting research for an American Civil Liberties Union case, involving police surveillance by the Chicago police (which became known as the "Chicago Red Squad" case). He also worked on cases filed against the FBI or police on behalf of the Spanish Action Committee of Chicago (S.A.C.C.), the National Lawyers Guild, the American Indian Movement, Socialist Workers Party, the Christic Institute, and the American Friends Service Committee (a Quaker group). He was a founder member of the Chicago Area Friends of Albania, leaving the organization when he relocated to Boston in 1987.

Along with journalist Russ Bellant, Berlet has written about Lyndon LaRouche's National Caucus of Labor Committees, calling it anti-Jewish and neo-Nazi, and urging an investigation of alleged illegal activities. In 1982, Berlet joined Political Research Associates, and in 1985 he founded the Public Eye BBS, the first computer bulletin board aimed at challenging the spread of white-supremacist and neo-Nazi material through electronic media, and the first to provide an online application kit for requesting information under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act. He was one of the first researchers to have drawn attention to the efforts by white supremacist and antisemitic groups to recruit farmers in the Midwestern United States in the 1970s and 1980s. Berlet was originally on the board of advisers of Public Information Research, founded by Daniel Brandt. Between 1990 and 1992, three members of Brandt's PIR advisory board, including Berlet, resigned over issues concerning another board member, L. Fletcher Prouty and Prouty's book The Secret Team. Berlet discussed this in a study titled "Right-Woos Left".

In 1996, he acted as an adviser on the Public Broadcasting Service documentary mini-series With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America, which was later published as a book by William Martin. Berlet criticized Ralph Nader and his associates for a close working relationship with Republican textile magnate Roger Milliken, erstwhile major backer of the 1996 presidential campaign of Pat Buchanan, and anti-unionization stalwart. Berlet has provided research assistance to a campaign run by the mother of Jeremiah Duggan, a British student died in disputed circumstances near Wiesbaden, Germany, and to reopen the investigation into his death.

Photojournalism

As a photojournalist, Berlet's photographs, particularly of Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi rallies, have been carried on the Associated Press wire, have appeared on book and magazine covers, album covers and posters, and have been published in The Denver Post, The Washington Star, and The Chronicle of Higher Education,

Reception

Berlet's second book, co-authored with Matthew N. Lyons, is Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort, was published by The Guilford Press in 2000. It is a broad historical overview of right-wing populism in the United States. The book received generally favorable reviews. Library Journal said it was a "detailed historical examination" that "strikes an excellent balance between narrative and theory." The New York Review of Books described it as an excellent account describing the outermost fringes of American conservatism. A review by Jerome Himmelstein in the journal Contemporary Sociology said that "it offers more than a scholarly treatise on the activities of the Third Reich", that it provides a background to help the reader understand the Holocaust, and that it "merits close attention from scholars of the political right in America and of social movements generally."

Robert H. Churchill of the private University of Hartford criticized Berlet and other authors writing about the right-wing as lacking breadth and depth in their analysis. In Who Watches the Watchmen?, Laird Wilcox criticized Berlet and other writers for what Wilcox says is their use of a technique he describes as "Links and Ties," which he says is a form of guilt by association. Jack Z. Bratich, an associate professor in the Journalism and Media Studies Department at Rutgers University, said that Berlet uses the methods of conspiracy theorists.

Publications

See also

References

  1. "Chip Berlet, Tea Parties, White Rage & Right-Wing Populism Recorded on November 30th, 2010"
  2. Berlet, C. (March 2014). "Public Intellectuals, Scholars, Journalists, & Activism: Wearing Different Hats and Juggling Different Ethical Mandates". International and Multidisciplinary Journal of Social Sciences. 3 (1): 61–90. doi:10.4471/rimcis.2014.29.
  3. Chermak, Steven M. (2002). Searching for a Demon: The Media Construction of the Militia Movement. UPNE. p. 92. ISBN 9781555535414.
  4. ^ Altschiller, Donald (2005). Hate Crimes: A Reference Handbook. ABC-CLIO. pp. 88–89. ISBN 9781851096244.
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  14. With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America at IMDb
  15. Martin, William (1996). With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America. Broadway. ISBN 0-553-06749-4.
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  19. Grant Kester (February–March 1995), "Net profits: Chip Berlet tracks computer networks of the religious right - interview with Political Research Associates analyst - Special Issue: Fundamentalist Media - Interview", Afterimage, Visual Studies Workshop, retrieved April 11, 2007
  20. Baker, Russell (May 17, 2001). "Mr. Right". The New York Review of Books. 48 (8). Retrieved July 26, 2008. Reprinted as Chapter 9 in Baker, Russell (2002). Looking Back. New York Review Books. pp. 139–157. ISBN 1-59017-008-3.
  21. Himmelstein, Jerome L., Review of book Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort, Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Jan. 2002), pp. 76–77, American Sociological Association
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  23. The Cultic Milieu: Oppositional Subcultures in an Age of Globalization edited by Jeffrey Kaplan, Heléne Lööw
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  25. Bratich, Jack Z, Conspiracy Panics: Political Rationality and Popular Culture, SUNY Press 2008, p. 100

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