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 Chip Berlet in Mexico in 2012 | |
| Born | John Foster Berlet (1949-11-22) November 22, 1949 (age 75) |
| Occupation(s) | Policy analyst, investigative journalist, photojournalist |
| Known for | Study of right-wing movements and conspiracy theories |
John Foster "Chip" Berlet (born November 22, 1949) is an American investigative research analyst, scholar, investigative journalist, photojournalist, writer and activist specializing in the study of extreme right-wing movements in the United States, particularly the religious right, white supremacists, homophobic groups, antisemitism, paramilitary organizations, and the various groups led by Lyndon LaRouche. He also studies the spread of conspiracy theories. Since the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, Berlet has often 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 currently sits on the advisory 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 journalism minor. 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.
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.
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.
Photojournalism
Berlet is also a photojournalist. His 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, reprinted at publiceye.org
Books and other writings
The most recent of Berlet's three books, co-authored with Matthew N. Lyons, is Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort, published in 2000 by The Guilford Press. 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 University of Hartford criticized Berlet and other authors writing about the right wing as lacking breadth and depth in their analysis.
Berlet has provided "research assistance" to a campaign run by the mother of Jeremiah Duggan to reopen the investigation into his death. The British student died in disputed circumstances near Wiesbaden, Germany. Berlet's statement suggests that the LaRouche movement bears responsibility.
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.
Reception
Laird Wilcox in "Who Watches the Watchmen?" has criticized Berlet and other anti-extremist writers for using a technique described as "Links and Ties," a form of guilt by association. Wilcox writes, "One cannot but reflect on the many articles by Chip Berlet 'linking and tying' individuals to various right-wing causes based on 'someone being quoted alleging a connection.'" In a critique of the LaRouche network, John George and Laird Wilcox identify Berlet as an example many of LaRouche's "harshest detractors come from extremist ranks themselves" citing his activity in the National Lawyers Guild. Berlet believes that Wilcox is attempting to discredit his competition.
See also
Notes
- Chermak, Steven M. (2002). Searching for a Demon: The Media Construction of the Militia Movement. UPNE. p. 92. ISBN 9781555535414.
- ^ Altschiller, Donald (2005). Hate Crimes: A Reference Handbook. ABC-CLIO. pp. 88–89. ISBN 9781851096244.
- http://www.hipatiapress.com/hpjournals/index.php/rimcis/article/view/954/886
- ^ George, John; Wilcox, Laird M. (1996), American Extremists: Militias, Supremacists, Klansmen, Communists & Others, Prometheus Books, p. 295, ISBN 978-1-57392-058-2
- "About PRA". Publiceye.org.
- "Bibliography: Chicago Police Department's Red Squad's Involvement In Social Protest" (PDF).
- Berlet, Chip. "History of the Public Eye Electronic Forums".
- Jason Berry (1993-08-22). "Bridging chasms of race and hate". St. Petersburg Times (Florida). Times Publishing Company. p. 6D.
{{cite news}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - Brandt, Daniel (December 1992). "An Incorrect Political Memoir". NameBase. Archived from the original on 2012-01-16. Retrieved 2012-01-20.
- Chip Berlet, "Right Woos Left: Populist Party, LaRouchite, and Other Neo-fascist Overtures To Progressives, And Why They Must Be Rejected," Cambridge, MA: Political Research Associates, 1991.
- With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America at IMDb
- Martin, William (1996). With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America. Broadway. ISBN 0-553-06749-4.
- Grant Kester (Feb–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 2007-04-11
{{citation}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - "The Website of Political Research Associates". Publiceye.org. Retrieved 2014-04-13.
- "The Website of Political Research Associates". Publiceye.org. 2000-06-14. Retrieved 2014-04-13.
- Baker, Russell (May 17, 2001). "Mr. Right". The New York Review of Books. 48 (8). Retrieved 2008-07-26. Reprinted as Chapter 9 in Baker, Russell (2002). Looking Back. New York Review Books. pp. 139–157. ISBN 1-59017-008-3.
- 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
- 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.
- http://www.publiceye.org/press/releases/2007/3/27/Berlet_LaRouche.html
- "Statement Presented to British Coroner's Inquiry". =Publiceye.org. Retrieved 2008-07-26.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) - Right-Wing Populism in America by Chip Berlet, pp. 338–344
- Hawkins, Howie (2000). "A Green Perspective on Ralph Nader And Independent Political Action (from New Politics, vol. 8, no. 1 (new series), whole no. 29, Summer 2000)".
- The Cultic Milieu: Oppositional Subcultures in an Age of Globalization edited by Jeffrey Kaplan, Heléne Lööw
- 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, Jan 1, 2002, p. 332
- McCain, Robert Stacy. "Researcher Says 'Watchdogs' Exaggerate Hate Group Threat", The Washington Times, May 9, 2000.
External links
- Biography of Berlet, Political Research Associates
- Biography of Berlet, Center for Millennial Studies
- Chip Berlet at IMDb
- "Race, Class and Gender: Justice in the Intersections", brief description of Chip Berlet's work
- Chip Berlet on "The Becking of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords" – video report by Democracy Now!