Warning: Moon in orbit to buy back Washington Times

“Rev. Sun Myung Moon said to be considering buying back Washington Times

By Ian Shapira

Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Just four years after giving the Washington Times to his eldest son, the Unification Church's leader, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, is considering paying millions of dollars to buy back the conservative newspaper he founded in 1982, according to former Times staffers with knowledge of the negotiations.

Moon wants to buy the Times back from his son Preston Moon, who has threatened to shut down the foundering broadsheet altogether, said Charles Sutherland, the Times's former director of development and promotions, who was laid off in May.

Times sources said Moon, who is 90, has tapped Dong Moon Joo, the former Times chairman who was ousted last year by Preston Moon, to purchase and run the paper. Messages left at Joo's home and with his attorney were not returned Tuesday.

"The idea is that Moon wants the paper back and wants Mr. Joo to run it," Sutherland said. "That's what the whole game is about. The old man trusts Joo."

The uncertainty about the Times's future follows a tumultuous year of layoffs, plummeting circulation, mounting debt, the purging of top executives, the resignation of executive editor John Solomon, and even the discovery of a snake found slithering in a meeting room. The paper has dropped its metro and sports sections and cut its newsroom staff by more than half.

An unsourced story on the media news and gossip Web site DCRTV.com Monday said that the site "hears that the Washington Times is close to closing," but Unification Church and Times sources said the paper's future is far from clear.

In addition to facing the declining economic fortunes that have hit vitually all newspapers, the Times is caught in the middle of a battle for control of Moon's vast business empire, as the church founder's grown children have been dueling over who will run Moon's real estate and fishing concerns. The father gave the Times to Preston, his oldest son, in 2006, according to former Times officials.”

“The Unification Church is a new religious movement founded by Korean religious leader Sun Myung Moon. In 1954, the Unification Church was formally and legally established in Seoul, South Korea as The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (HSA-UWC). In 1994, Moon changed the official name of the church to the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.[1]

Members are found throughout the world, with the largest number living in South Korea or Japan.[2][3] Church membership is estimated to be several hundred thousand to a few million.[4][5] The church and its members own, operate, and subsidize organizations and projects involved in political, cultural, commercial, media, educational, and other activities. The church, its members and supporters as well as other related organizations are sometimes referred to as the "Unification Movement". In the English speaking world church members are sometimes referred to as "Moonies"[6][7] (which is sometimes considered offensive);[8][9] church members prefer to be called "Unificationists".[10]

Unification Church beliefs are summarized in the textbook Divine Principle and include belief in a universal God; in striving toward the creation of a literal Kingdom of God on earth; in the universal salvation of all people, good and evil, living and dead; and that a man born in Korea in the early 20th century received from Jesus the mission to be realized as the second coming of Christ.[11] Members of the Unification Church believe this Messiah is Sun Myung Moon.[12]”