By Bill Berkowitz

A little more than eight years ago, Rev. Pat Robertson was closing in on acquiring what would have been the jewel in his media empire. Unfortunately for him, at just about the last minute a bankruptcy judge rejected the bid by the fabulously wealthy religious broadcaster and Christian Coalition founder, and instead ruled that United Press International (UPI), one of the preeminent news wire services, would be sold to a group of Middle Eastern investors.

Fast forward to 2000: the venerable and troubled UPI has been sold yet again. News World Communications, the new owner, is the thriving media arm of another right-wing charismatic figure, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon and his Unification Church. Although News World Communications has said that it intends to maintain UPI as an independent news organization, it all hinges on who's interpreting what "independent news organization" means. Media watchers of all political stripes are wondering what to expect from this new Moon circling the globe.

UPI, a 93-year-old agency, has been a financially troubled operation for the better part of the past three decades, with multiple ownership changes during the past 18 years. The serial owners have included Mexican publisher Mario Vazquez Rana and a U.S. partner, Texan Joe Russo, and Infotechnology Inc., which is owned by Earl W. Brian, a California venture capitalist. Most recently a group of Saudi Arabian industrialists presided over the company. When the sale to Moon was announced, veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas, UPI's most revered and honored employee, handed in her resignation rather than pick up her paycheck from Moon.

The Unification Church, founded and built by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, enjoys 501(c)(3) nonprofit tax status despite the fact that it has been a major, if not always apparent, player in U.S. politics for many years. Organizations participating in overt political activities are prohibited from receiving the 501(c)(3) classification.

According to the 2000 edition of The Right Guide, published by Michigan-based Economics America Inc., the Unification Church is "adamantly anticommunist, and has worked with conservative organizations to oppose the spread of communism as well as on issues of traditional values and morality." The Church runs several spin-off organizations, usually with sympathetic-sounding names like the Professors World Peace Academy and the Women's Federation for Peace, the latter of which not too long ago gave $3.5 million to religious right leader Jerry Falwell's Liberty University.

In addition to its massive media holdings, the Church owns the University of Bridgeport, in Connecticut, a private academy. One of Moon's many moneymaking ventures, reported the Washington Post, is Kahr Arms, a manufacturer of "small but potent pistols"; in its marketing efforts Kahr highlights the gun's "concealability."

The Church also enjoys a significant presence in Latin America. In February, Reuters reported that Moon had already "spent $30 million over the last five years to buy 138,000 acres" of Brazilian swampland to build New Hope, a community for his followers. Other investments in South America include a bank, a hotel and a newspaper network in Uruguay. (For an extensive list of hundreds of Unification front groups, including religious, political, media and business operations, see this list from FreedomOfMind.com.)

In 1982 Moon established the Washington Times newspaper as his flagship publication in the United States, and as the major conservative alternative to the Washington Post in the nation's capital. From the outset, the well-established and highly acclaimed Post dismissed the Times as nothing more than a daily nuisance. However, with Moon's practically unlimited financial resources the Times survived, reaching its apex in terms of visibility when then President Ronald Reagan acknowledged that it was the one newspaper he read thoroughly. Stridently conservative in its editorials and op-ed pages, the Times has been a consistent money-losing proposition for almost two decades.

Over the years Reverend Moon has been an on-again, off-again media personality. The Right Guide notes that when he was a Sunday-school teacher in Korea he claimed that Jesus asked him "to complete the task of establishing God's kingdom on earth and bringing His peace to humankind." This kind of hubris could be said to express itself when he shows up at one of his mass wedding ceremonies to do the honors for several thousand brides and grooms, most of whom have never met each other. In addition, the reverend's family has been the focus of ribald revelations, including allegations of drug use and infidelity, over the past few years. But in general, Reverend Moon prefers to stay out of the glare of the media's spotlight.

Daniel Junas, in the March-April 1995 issue of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting's Extra!, pointed out that "while Moon himself has faded from the consciousness of the American public, the Washington Times has left its own mark on the political consciousness of the nation's capital and, indirectly, the entire nation." In fact, one could make a compelling argument that the Times and its sister publication, the national weekly Insight magazine, were the most prominent publishers of Clinton-bashing stories, passing judgment at a breakneck clip during the past seven-plus years.

What's in it for Moon? Judging from the record of his other media ventures, including the Times, Insight and The World & I, a super-thick general-interest monthly, money is not the issue. His business empire takes care of that end of things. Several press accounts have provided a sneak preview into what Moon may be up to. According to the May 21 Deutsche Presse-Agentur, UPI, which is now only an Internet provider, can "provide Moon's media firms with access to the electronic market."

Editor & Publisher Online reported that Arnaud De Borchgrave, who served as editor in chief at the Washington Times from 1985 to 1991 and is now UPI's chief executive officer, said that while the new owners assured him of editorial independence, he hoped that "the sale would let him pursue ambitious plans to recast UPI as a Web-based distributor of stories tracking high-technology industries that may transform society." It remains to be seen whether United Press International will now become another conservative mouthpiece for the politics of Reverend Moon and his Unification Church. Judging from the past record, calling it Unification Press International may not be far off the mark.

AS THE MEDIA WATCH THE WORLD, WE WATCH THE MEDIA.

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