insight

Insight
Type	biweekly online magazine
Format	magazine
Owner	News World Communications
Editor	Jeffrey T. Kuhner
Founded	1980s
Political allegiance	conservative
Headquarters	3600 New York Avenue NE Washington DC 20002
Website: insightmag.com

The American Internet magazine Insight (formerly Insight on the News) was founded as a sister publication to The Washington Times newspaper. For a time, Insight was a newsmagazine included with The Washington Times, but its print operations ended in 2004. Now an Internet news magazine only, Insight is edited by Jeffrey T. Kuhner and owned by News World Communications, a media corporation owned by the Unification Church.

Controversy

Arlington 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 ^[1]. Follow up to the above Nov. 21, 1997 CNN page are:

• CNN, Arlington Controversy Stirs Again, Dec. 4, 1997
• CNN, Arlington Controversy Continues, Dec. 11, 1997

Larry Lawrence was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Bill Clinton presided over Lawrence's burial at Arlington and delivered the eulogy. In 1997 his body was disinterred and brought to California after congressional investigators searched military records and found no evidence that Lawrence was ever in the Merchant Marine.^[2] Richard Holbrooke, an assistant secretary of state, wrote a letter to the White House praising Lawrence and saying that he deserved burial at Arlington National Cemetery.

Paula Jones

In 1998 Insight invited Paula Jones, who had filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against President Clinton to attend the annual White House Correspondents Association dinner, where Clinton spoke ^[3].

Barack Obama

In January of 2007, Insight published an unsourced article reporting a rumor that "researchers connected to Senator [Hillary] Clinton" had discovered that rival candidate Barack Obama was educated in a radical Islamic Madrassa school during his youth in Indonesia.^[4].

To investigate this statement, which were quickly propagated in the United States mass media, including on Fox News, CNN reporter John Vause visited the school and found its staff in Western attire, its student body apparently consisting of Muslims, "Christians, Buddhists, also Confucian(s)".^[5] The CNN story also quoted a spokesperson for Clinton, who dismissed the allegation as "an obvious right-wing hit job" on both candidates. Insight responded that CNN's investigation did "not satisfy our standards for aggressive investigative reporting", and said that they provided "political intelligence" on "a limited budget".^[6].

A January 29 New York Times story commented on the Insight story. The article notes:

Insight editor Jeffrey T. Kuhner "whose Web site published the first anonymous smear of the 2008 presidential race, is hardly the only editor who will not reveal his reporters’ sources. What sets him apart is that he will not even disclose the names of his reporters."

In the article, Kuhner says that the article is "solid as solid can be" ^[7]. The Fox News Channel has since acknowledged that the story violates their basic rule of knowing "what you are talking about." John Moody, vice president for news at Fox, also included this in his daily editorial note on January 23: "For the record: seeing an item on a website does not mean it is right. Nor does it mean it is ready for air on FNC. The urgent queue is our way of communicating information that is air-worthy. Please adhere to this."^[8].

After receiving so much media scrutiny, Insight defended itself as an online weekly "political intelligence report", and not part of the "mainstream print and broadcast news organizations," and therefore not required "to ferret out (more) facts and make judgment calls on relevance"^[9].

Obama, who is Christian, not Muslim, wrote about his early school years in his 1995 book Dreams from My Father (p.142):

"In Indonesia, I’d spent 2 years at a Muslim school, 2 years at a Catholic school. In the Muslim school, the teacher wrote to tell mother I made faces during Koranic studies. In the Catholic school, when it came time to pray, I’d pretend to close my eyes, then peek around the room. Nothing happened. No angels descended."^[10]

The debunked allegations were repeated six months later by conservative commentator Michael Savage, who said on his nationally-syndicated radio show that Sen. Obama (D-IL) was "indoctrinated" by a "Muslim madrassa in Indonesia."^[11]

In July 2007 Insight again defended its story, saying:

"As Insight has reported, Hillary established a team of investigators whose goal was to attempt to discredit Obama by investigating his Muslim background. In the backlash that resulted from our expose, she has learned to be more circumspect in the use of nasty little tricks. But, if we know Hillary – and we do – she will descend into the gutter once again."^[12]

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:^[13]

“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).^[14]

SANE was founded by David Yerushalmi. SANE released a policy paper in February 2007 stating that the objective of SANE is to banish Islam from the US by making "adherence to Islam" punishable by 20 years in prison.^[15]

References

External links

• Official website

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