Washington Times to Make Major Changes

Growing up in the DC suburbs, I'm well aware of the fact that more conservative families in Northern Virginia often times subscribe to the Washington Times because they view the Post as being "too liberal" (which is rather entertaining since many progressives argue that the Post is too conservative, especially in regards to business related issues). Nonetheless, it appears as though the right wing owners of the Washington Times are running into some difficulties as there are going to be some major cuts in staff and reporting at the paper.

With the announcement that 40 percent of the Times' staff is getting pink-slipped, and that the daily's no longer even going to bother with traditional who/what/where/when/why reporting, instead publishing an opinion-heavy publication that will be free of charge at a diminished number of local outlets, Times owners look like they're angling to be a Weekly Standard wannabe, churning out lots of predictable GOP Noise Machine opinion prattle. (Paging Andrew Breitbart!) What is clear is that the daily's days as a functioning newspaper are now over.

The economic times might have played a role in the diminished capacity of the owner's to actually keep the paper's inability to maintain a staff, but that wouldn't be the whole story. You see, the Washington Times was owned by Rev. Sun Myung Moon who claims that he was visited by Jesus when he was 16 and was told that he had to create an "automatic theocracy to rule the world." The Washington Times was a way to spread his right wing agenda and try to enhance his own power. As the dwindling readership numbers and almost half of the staff being laid off shows, however, he hasn't been too successful in that mission.

If there's any lesson in today's news, it's that starting a paper that tries to brainwash people into helping to create an "automatic theocracy to rule the world" probably won't lead to the most productive business platform.