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Insight (formerly Insight on the News) is an American conservative Internet magazine now edited by Jeffrey T. Kuhner and owned by News World Communications, identified by Columbia Journalism Review as "the media arm of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church", which also owns United Press International and The Washington Times.

Background

Insight was founded in the 1980s as a print weekly called Insight on the News, and was known for its frequently discredited reports about alleged scandals in the administration of U.S. President Bill Clinton. Originally, the magazine circulated midway in frequency between sister publications The Washington Times (a daily newspaper) and the monthly World&I magazine. Investigative journalist Robert Parry wrote about the rise of these publications:

"By the 1980s, the likes of South Korean theocrat Rev. Sun Myung Moon and Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch were pouring billions of dollars into a rapidly expanding right-wing media. From these investments came a plethora of well-financed think tanks, year-round attack groups, and a vertically integrated conservative news media – from books, magazines and newspapers to radio, TV and eventually the Internet. Right-wing activists flocked to Washington and New York for good-paying jobs as journalists and pundits."

In 2004, News World Communications discontinued publication of the print magazine and hired Jeffrey T. Kuhner to run Insight as a stand-alone website. Under Kuhner, Insight eschews bylines, in what Kuhner describes as an effort to "encourage contributions from reporters who do not want to reveal their names". About Insight's policy, Kuhner has said:

“Reporters in Washington know a whole lot of what is going on and feel themselves shackled and prevented from reporting what they know is going on. Insight is almost like an outlet, an escape valve where they can come out with this information.”

Notable events

David Brock

David Brock worked as a reporter for the print version of Insight during the late 1980s. After leaving Insight, Brock wrote "Blinded by the Right: Conscience of an Ex-Conservative", and now runs Media Matters for America, an organization that describes itself as "a web-based, not-for-profit, progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media."

Arlington National Cemetery

In 1997 Insight reported that the administration of President Bill Clinton gave political donors rights to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery. This charge was widely repeated on talk radio and other conservative outlets; but was later denied by the United States Army, which has charge over Arlington Cemetery.

Spurred on by the report, a subsequent flurry of media investigations turned up the burial of Larry Lawrence, a former United States Ambassador to Switzerland at Arlington, which in turn sparked a congressional investigation. Republican Party members of congress searched military records and found no evidence that Lawrence was ever in the Merchant Marine. As a result Lawrence's body was disinterred in 1997 at taxpayer expense and brought to California. Richard Holbrooke, an assistant secretary of state, had helped attain the rights to bury Lawrence at Arlington, and had written a letter to the White House praising Lawrence and saying that he deserved burial at the National Cemetery.

Paula Jones

In 1998 CNN reported that Insight "created a stir" when Paula Jones, who had filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against President Clinton, was the magazine's guest at the annual White House Correspondents Association dinner where Clinton spoke.

CIA leak scandal

On Febuary 5, 2004, Insight teamed up with News World's sister company United Press International to publish the first anonymously sourced reports from "Federal Law Enforcement officials" of "hard evidence" against Vice President Dick Cheney's staffers John Hannah and Lewis "Scooter" Libby as the guilty parties in "Plamegate". Hannah subsequently testified, and Libby was convicted. Questions about who the "Federal Law Enforcement officials" were, and what "hard evidence" might have existed at the time of the scoop have fueled wide speculation that Libby was chosen as a "fall guy" to take the rap for higher-ups in the Bush Administration, with speculation focused primarily on Cheney. Some journalists and bloggers commented that if a media outlet were needed to set up Libby for the fall, Insight would have been a logical first choice.

Anonymous 'smear' controversy in 2008 Presidential Campaign

• See also: Barack Obama presidential campaign, 2008 § Fabrications concerning Obama's religious background

In January 2007, Insight published anonymously sourced allegations that presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign team planned to use the results of an investigation into Senator Barack Obama's past to attack the rival Democrat. The unnamed sources are described as "close to the background check, which has not yet been released... conducted by researchers connected to Senator Clinton."

Contrary to Obama's published account of his youthful education in a mixed-religion school in Indonesia, Insight's sources said that the alleged investigation revealed the Illinois senator attended "a so-called Madrassa, or Muslim seminary", and that the Clinton campaign concluded he had attempted to conceal this from voters. Insight quoted its sources as saying "The idea is to show Obama as deceptive."

Despite the unproven status of the story's assertions, according to The New York Times "Hosts of morning television programs and an evening commentator on the Fox News Network nevertheless devoted extensive discussion to the Clinton-Obama article, as did Rush Limbaugh and other conservative talk radio hosts". This led to criticism of their journalistic practices. Fox later admitted to error in reporting "information from a publication whose accuracy we didn’t know."

CNN report and media criticism of the article

Soon after the initial coverage, CNN reporter John Vause visited the school that Obama had attended, State Elementary School Menteng 01, and found that in its current state, each child received two hours of religious instruction per week in his or her own faith, and was told, "This is a public school. We don't focus on religion." The CNN story also quoted a spokesperson for Clinton, who dismissed the allegation as "an obvious right-wing hit job on both candidates".

A critical January 29 story in The New York Times said of Insight editor Jeffrey T. Kuhner that "he still considered the article, which he said was meant to focus on the thinking of the Clinton campaign, to be 'solid as solid can be.'" Kuhner, however, declined to say whether he himself knew the identity of his unnamed reporter’s sources. The Times commented "perhaps only that reporter knows the origin of the article’s anonymous quotes and assertions. Its assertions about Mr. Obama resemble rumors passed on without evidence in e-mail messages..."

Colombia Journalism Review used the Insight example as "A lesson in how easy it is — even for publications with no history of credibility — to start a scandal." After quoting The New York Times recounting three other major Insight stories that have been discredited, the question was posed "after all this, why should we take seriously anything that this online rag has to say? Every news organization gets things wrong, but Insight seems to have developed a business model out of concocting fables."

SANE Project

In June of 2007, Insight reported on an undercover investigation of the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center, located in Falls Church, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C., by the group Society of Americans for National Existence (SANE). David Gaubatz, a spokesperson for the group, said:

“The ultimate goal for those at Dar Al-Hijrah is to instill Sharia law in the U.S. and have America adhere to the Islamic faith. They want America to be an Islamic state.”

Insight's story was denounced by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

In February 2007 SANE had released a policy paper stating that the objective of SANE is to banish Islam from the US by making "adherence to Islam" ("defined as any act, including any written or oral declaration, in support of Shari’a or in furtherance of the imposition of Shari’a within any territory of the United States of America.") punishable by 20 years in prison.

References

1. ^ McLeary, Paul (2007-01-29). "CJR "Insightmag, A Must-Read - A lesson in how easy it is — even for publications with no history of credibility — to start a scandal."". Colombia Journalism Review. Retrieved 2008-02-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
2. Were the Republicans the "party of ideas"?
3. Kirkpatrick, David D. (January 29, 2007). "Feeding Frenzy For a Big Story, Even if It's False". NY Times. Retrieved 2007-11-25.
4. Kuhner, Jeffrey T. (January 31, 2007). "Distortions and lies at The New York Times". Insight. Retrieved 2007-11-25. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
5. "About Media Matters".
6. "Google Scholar publications relating to "Blinded by the Right"".
7. AllPolitics - Arlington Claims 'Just Not True' - Nov. 21, 1997
8. CNN, Arlington Controversy Stirs Again, Dec. 4, 1997
9. CNN, Arlington Controversy Continues, Dec. 11, 1997
10. Widow Asks that Lawrence's body be removed from Arlington Cemetery (AP) Dec. 8, 1997
11. Paula Jones Rubs Shoulders With Washington Elite At Dinner CNN April 25, 1998
12. Google News Search - Libby "Fall Guy"
13. Sale, Richard (2004-02-05). "Cheney's Staff Focus of Probe". Insight Magazine and United Press International (in Straussian). News World Communications. Retrieved 2008-02-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
14. Google News Search - Libby Hannah Plame Leak
15. "Hillary's team has questions about Obama's Muslim background". Insight. 2007-01-17. Retrieved 2008-02-07.
16. "Obamas real school". 'during the five years that we would live with my stepfather in Indonesia, I was sent first to a neighborhood Catholic school and then to a predominately Muslim school.' That's from his book, 'The Audacity of Hope.'
17. "Last word: What Insight reported and what it did not (subscription required)". Insight. February 1, 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-25.
18. Kirkpatrick, David D (January 29 2007). "Feeding Frenzy for a Big Story, Even If It's False". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-09-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
19. "www.cjr.org".
20. "Obama's Grudge Factor". Washington Post. January 31, 2007. Retrieved 2007-01-31.
21. "www.chicagotribune.com".
22. "CNN debunks false report about Obama". CNN. January 22, 2007. Retrieved 2007-01-26.
23. "Feeding Frenzy for a Big Story, Even if It's False". New York Times. 29 January 2007. Retrieved 2007-01-29.
24. "Insight Magazine Mapping Sharia Project Uncovers Jihadists near DC".
25. "Washington Times Promotes Hate Group That Would Outlaw Islam".
26. CAIR Attacks SANE and the Washington Times for Mapping Sharia Article

External links

• Official website

See also

• Echo Chamber

• American magazines
• Conservatism in the United States
• News magazines