Indicted Congressman Trafficant gets his picture in The Spotlight
all the time. Michael Pugliese
>From: Rich Cowan <rich at organizenow.net>
>To: rwwatch at topica.com
>Date: 7/12/01 9:30:22 AM
>
>RWWATCH -- July 12, 2001 (please forward)
>
>[Spotlight was a far-right publication, outside the mainstream
> of the conservative movement. As a "populist" publication
it
> also tried to gain suporters on the left who are who are
> connected to the left-wing anti-globalization movement. Chip
> Berlet of Political Research Associates has written about
these
> linkages; see the discussion on the Left Business Observer
email
> list at http://nuance.dhs.org/lbo-talk/0001/0059.html; and
also
> see http://nuance.dhs.org/lbo-talk/0001/0035.html.
>
> As you can see from the article, the people behind Spotlight
> are likely to revive it under another name. -rich cowan
]
>
>
>
>http://washingtontimes.com/national/20010710-931279.htm
>July 10, 2001
>Liberty Lobby goes under, ends Spotlight publication
>By Andrea Billups
>THE WASHINGTON TIMES
>
>Liberty Lobby has closed its doors and its weekly newspaper,
the
>Spotlight, has published its last edition after a federal bankruptcy
judge
>last week dismissed the group's latest claim for Chapter 11
protection.
>
>The most recent ruling by U.S. bankruptcy Judge S. Martin Teel
Jr. puts an
>end to a complicated eight-year battle between Liberty Lobby
founder Willis
>A. Carto and his former associates at the California-based Institute
for
>Historical Review (IHR).
>
>IHR sued and won a multimillion-dollar judgment on claims that
Mr.
>Carto illegally diverted funds from the institute's Texas parent
company,
>the Legion for the Survival of Freedom.
>
>Mr. Carto, a resident of Escondido, Calif., founded the
>Washington-based Liberty Lobby in 1955. The nonprofit outfit
and its
>publication, the Spotlight, funded by outside donations and
subscriptions,
>claimed to be America's key defender of patriotism and a hub
for grass-roots
>conservative activism. But they also have been criticized as
a fertile
>breeding ground for the views of anti-government extremists,
conspiracists
>and racists.
>
>Yesterday, as about 25 employees gathered personal belongings
and
>wrapped up last-minute business at the Liberty Lobby offices,
located at 300
>Independence Ave., a spokesman defended Mr. Carto and vowed
to fight on.
>
>"Nobody is really that sad, but everybody is mad," said spokesman
>William Francis. "While Liberty Lobby may be dissolved, nobody
has given up
>here. We know that we did nothing wrong as an institution. Everybody
has
>complete faith in Mr. Carto and how he administered the funds."
>
>While offering few specifics, Mr. Francis hinted that a new
incarnation
>of the Spotlight was already in the works.
>
>"They may come in and shut us down, but the staff are fully
committed
>to make new efforts to get something going. Over the last several
days,
>we've had hundreds of phone calls to the office, pledges of
hundreds of
>thousands of dollars to set up a new newspaper," he said. "We
have a
>citizens army behind us."
>
>Mark Weber, director of IHR, said the ruling may signal the
end of
>Liberty Lobby, but he predicts Mr. Carto will endure with some
other
>venture.
>
>"This is a welcome culmination of an exhausting, costly, bitter
legal
>and public relations dispute," said Mr. Weber, who has been
assailed in the
>pages of the Spotlight as a "rat," "weasel," "toilet bowl,"
"cockroach" and
>"devil."
>
>Mr. Francis yesterday reiterated his claims that IHR plans to
sell one
>of the Liberty Lobby's final assets, its subscriber mailing
list, to such
>watchdog organizations as the Southern Poverty Law Center and
the
>Anti-Defamation League, which have been critical of both feuding
groups.
>
>"It's a lie," Mr. Weber said of those claims.
>
>Liberty Lobby once sued the Wall Street Journal for having called
the
>organization "anti-Semitic." But Judge Robert Bork dismissed
the suit in
>1984, declaring, "If anti-Semitism has a core, factual meaning,
it was
>demonstrated here."
>
>Mr. Carto, a 74-year-old native of Fort Wayne, Ind., has been
called
>"the most influential anti-Semite in the United States." About
90,000 people
>are paid subscribers to the Spotlight, which in 1981 had an
estimated
>readership of more than 300,000.
>
>The weekly's "favorite political targets included the Rockefellers,
the
>Rothschilds, Henry Kissinger, the Council on Foreign Relations
and the
>'Zionist entity' in Palestine," according to author Dennis King.
>
>Mr. Carto played a key role in co-founding IHR in 1978. The
>Anti-Defamation League has called IHR "the world's single most
important
>outlet for Holocaust-denial propaganda"
>
>Mr. Carto was ousted by IHR's board of directors in September
1993
>after the staff complained, among other things, of Mr. Carto's
interference
>in editorial decisions for the Journal of Historical Review,
an IHR
>publication.
>
>
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