The Spotlight
Template:Short description Template:Italic title Template:About The Spotlight was a weekly newspaper in the United States, published in Washington, D.C. from September 1975 to July 2001 by the now-defunct antisemitic Liberty Lobby.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Spotlight ran articles and editorials professing a "populist and nationalist" political orientation. Some observers have described the publication as promoting a right-wing, or conservative, politics.<ref name="ADF: Carto"/>
DescriptionEdit
The Spotlight has been described in media reports as promoting an America First position and giving positive coverage to the political campaigns of Pat Buchanan and David Duke.<ref>Campbell, Linda. "Liberty Lobby in the Spotlight with Duke, Buchanan In Race", Chicago Tribune, January 12, 1992</ref> The Spotlight gave frequent coverage to complementary and alternative medicine, including advertisements for the purported anti-cancer supplement Laetrile.<ref>Anderson, Jack and Whitten, Les. "Liberty Lobby Bootlegs Laetrile". Sarasota Herald-Tribune, August 16, 1977</ref> Kevin J. Flynn's book The Silent Brotherhood described The Spotlight as regularly featuring "articles on such topics as Bible analysis, taxes and fighting the IRS, bankers and how they bleed the middle class, and how the nation is manipulated by the dreaded Trilateral Commission and Council on Foreign Relations", adding "the paper attracted a huge diversity of readers".<ref>Flynn, Kevin J. and Gary Gerhardt, The Silent Brotherhood, Free Press, 1989, Template:ISBN p. 85</ref> NameBase described the newspaper as "anti-elitist, opposed the Gulf War, wanted the JFK assassination reinvestigated, and felt that corruption and conspiracies can be found in high places".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref>
CirculationEdit
Circulation of The Spotlight peaked in 1981 at 315,000 but fell to about 90,000 by 1992.<ref>George, John and Wilcox, Laird. Nazis, Communists, Klansmen, and Others on the Fringe, Prometheus Books, p. 260</ref>
Critical reactionEdit
The Spotlight was called "the most widely read publication on the fringe right" by the Anti-Defamation League, who also stated the newspaper "reflected Carto's conspiracy theory of history" and called the paper anti-Semitic.<ref name="ADF: Carto">Willis Carto Template:Webarchive, Anti-Defamation League website, accessed 4 May 2010</ref>
Howard J. Ruff in his 1979 book How to Prosper During the Coming Bad Years praised The Spotlight for its investigative reporting, while criticizing it for a "blatantly biased" right-wing point of view and concluded "there are many things I detest about it, but I wouldn't be without it."<ref>Ruff, Howard J. How to Prosper During the Coming Bad Years, New York: Time Books, 1979</ref>
U.S. Congressman and John Birch Society leader Larry McDonald criticized The Spotlight in the Congressional Record in 1981 for purported use of the Lyndon LaRouche movement as a source of news items.<ref>McDonald, Larry. "Why Does Spotlight Attack the Real Anti-Communists?". Congressional Record, Vol. 127, No. 123, September 9, 1981. Posted online at http://www.knology.net/~bilrum/cr127p1.htm</ref>
ControversiesEdit
Lawsuit by E. Howard HuntEdit
On August 14, 1978, The Spotlight published an article by Victor Marchetti linking former CIA agent and Watergate figure E. Howard Hunt to the assassination of John F. Kennedy.<ref name="New York Times; December 18, 2014">Template:Cite news</ref> Headlined "CIA to Nail Hunt for Kennedy Killing", the article said: "In the public hearings [of a pending Congressional hearing], the CIA will 'admit' that Hunt was involved in the conspiracy to kill Kennedy."<ref name="New York Times; December 18, 2014"/> It also claimed that the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations had received an internal CIA memo from 1966 that stated the agency "will have to explain Hunt's presence in Dallas on November 22, 1963".<ref name="Ocala Star-Banner; December 17, 1981">Template:Cite news</ref>
Stating that he was libeled by the accusations, Hunt sued the Liberty Lobby for $3.5 million in damages in a federal court in Miami in 1981; Marchetti was not named as a defendant.<ref name="New York Times; December 18, 2014"/><ref name="Ocala Star-Banner; December 17, 1981"/> Hunt, represented by attorney Ellis Rubin, said that he suffered a $27,000 drop in income after the article was published.<ref name="New York Times; December 18, 2014"/><ref name="Ocala Star-Banner; December 17, 1981"/> He also said that he was in Washington, D.C., on the day that Kennedy was killed.<ref name="Ocala Star-Banner; December 17, 1981"/> Miles McGrane, the attorney for Liberty Lobby stated that Liberty Lobby did not believe that Hunt was involved in the assassination, but that he was going to be made a scapegoat by the CIA.<ref name="New York Times; December 18, 2014"/> On December 17, 1981, the jury found in Hunt's favor and awarded him $650,000 in damages.<ref name="New York Times; December 18, 2014"/> The decision was later overturned due to an error in jury instructions.<ref name="Payne">Template:Cite news</ref>
In the second trial, Hunt was represented by Baltimore attorney William Snyder.<ref name="Payne"/> Hunt testified that he was in Washington, D.C., with his wife and son when he first heard of the assassination.<ref name="Payne"/> Snyder told the jury that Hunt had already been cleared in the assassination by various commissions and inquiries.<ref name="Payne"/> Attorney Mark Lane, author of Rush to Judgment and a leading proponent of the theory that the CIA was responsible for the assassination of Kennedy, represented Liberty Lobby.<ref name="Payne"/> Lane successfully defended Liberty Lobby against the defamation charges,<ref>824 F2d 916 Hunt v. Marchetti, United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.</ref> which became the basis for Lane's book Plausible Denial.
Lawsuit by the National ReviewEdit
In 1985, the National Review and its editor, William F. Buckley Jr., were represented by attorney J. Daniel Mahoney during their $16 million libel suit against The Spotlight.<ref name="The Washington Times; October 25, 1985">Template:Cite news</ref>
Timothy McVeighEdit
After the Oklahoma City bombing it was reported that Timothy McVeigh had taken out a classified advertisement in The Spotlight in August 1993 under the name "T. Tuttle"<ref>"Newspaper Focuses on Conspiracy Theories", Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 11, 1995.</ref> and had used a telephone card purchased from the newspaper.<ref>"Spotlight on The Spotlight", Newsweek, May 15, 1995</ref>
End of publicationEdit
The Spotlight ceased publication in 2001 after Liberty Lobby was forced into bankruptcy as a result of a lawsuit brought by former associates in the Institute for Historical Review.<ref>"Liberty Lobby Goes Under, Ends Spotlight Publication". Washington Times, July 10, 2001</ref> Willis Carto and other people involved in The Spotlight then started a new newspaper, the American Free Press, which is very similar in overall tone.Template:Citation needed An August 2, 2002 court order in the Superior Court of California transferred the assets of Liberty Lobby, including The Spotlight, to the judgment creditor, the Legion for the Survival of Freedom, Inc.<ref>Superior Court of California, County of San Diego, North County Division. Assignment Order: Legion for the Survival of Freedom, Inc. v. Willis Carto et al., Posted online at http://www.libertylobby.org/legal_notice.html Template:Webarchive</ref> who maintains an online archive of Spotlight articles from 1997 to 2001.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Other activitiesEdit
From 1988 to 2001, the paper sponsored the Radio Free America talk show which was heard on WWCR shortwave and on AM talk radio outlets.Template:Citation needed
See alsoEdit
- Alternative media (U.S. political right)
- Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc.
- The Barnes Review
- Ron Paul newsletters