World Media Association

The World Media Association (WMA) calls itself "an international forum for media professionals and opinion leaders to explore the media’s responsibility in today’s rapidly changing world". The WMA was established in 1978 by Rev. Sun Myung Moon, together with his wife, Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon. Others involved include: Cynthia Grenier, editor of the UPI Religion & Spirituality Forum (she accuses Che Guevara of being a racist); Larry Moffitt, vice president of United Press International (UPI); William Reed President, Educational Foundation of the Americas and Ambassador Phillip Sanchez.

According to a page on Moon's website headed, "The media: promoting truth and values in 'society's conscience'", Moon sees the media as the "conscience of society". He says:

"The media must be free and must be self-governing. And self-governing media must also be a moral media. A moral media use their freedom to project, preserve and promote God-given human rights and dignity.... A moral media must lead the fight against drug abuse, pornography, and the many other destructive vices of society. Thus, the media must become the conscience of society.”

There is a taster of the "truth" and "values" promoted by WMA on its website, where Phillip Sanchez explains the Moon philosophy:

"We resolve and proclaim that Reverend Sun Myung Moon is the Savior, Messiah, Second Coming, and True Parent of all humanity. We resolve and proclaim that the Unification Principle is a message of peace for the salvation of humanity and the gospel for the Completed Testament Age.

The claims on the website about Moon's status get more bizarre. Martin Luther, John Wesley, John Harvard (founder of Harvard University), Confucius, Buddha, Karl Marx and a few others all offer testimony to Moon's role as God's messenger and man's saviour. Marx is claimed to have said:

"I, Marx, have met God. I have found that he is the Parent of humankind. I have felt the greatness of God’s love. I clearly convey to you who God is. He is the Parent of humankind. Reverend Sun Myung Moon, who is on the earth, brought this fact to light. The Divine Principle and Unification Thought express the original standards that open the way to salvation, so you must read them. I ask this of you seriously.”

Sanchez also has financial ties to the Moon empire. He is the former publisher of the New York City Tribune (an English-language daily newspaper founded by Moon) and Tiempos del Mundo (a Spanish-language weekly printed in many countries, also founded by Moon). He served as vice president of the Washington Times, founded by Moon in 1982 "to confront America’s two great challenges: first, Soviet-style communism, which amassed great power and was at the peak of its influence in the early 1980s, and second, a battle of values between a secular media-driven culture and the rising opposition of people of faith joining forces under the tenets of morality and religious faith."

Arnaud de Borchgrave is the former editor-in-chief of the Washington Times, and spoke with John O'Sullivan at the WMA event in Seoul 2002. O'Sullivan has written articles for the Moon-owned Insight magazine, where, along with other Hudson Institute members, he sits on the Editorial Advisory Board.

At the WMA event, John O'Sullivan, in his capacity as executive editor of the Moon-owned United Press International (UPI), took the opportunity to warn listeners of the "Chomsky effect," which he describes as "knowing everything about a topic except the essential facts":

"But I have to say that the Chomsky effect is not unknown in the Western media, especially in outlets like the Nation, in small academic magazines, and in the paranoid extremes of political journalism, where people do not so much believe what they read as read what they already believe. This, of course, protects them from discovering unwelcome truths."

Among the publications tainted by what O'Sullivan calls "the Chomsky effect" is presumably the work of Chomsky's long-time collaborator Edward S. Herman, whose book, The Terrorism Industry (co-authored with Gerry O’Sullivan), notes on page 187 that "there are significant connections between the mainstream terror experts and the Moon-supported institutes and those affiliated with the Israeli lobby," typified by the Zionist and pro-Israel commentators Walter Laqueur, Michael Ledeen, and Edward Luttwak.

The Terrorism Industry also outlines much about the Moon empire, including the International Security Council, the main Moon terrorism propaganda organisation, which strongly supports the Strategic Defense Initiative.

Other "Chomsky effect" publications may include the writing of Robert Parry, such as his outline of the $3 billion spent by Moon on the Washington Times. Parry's article draws on insider accounts and leaked intelligence documents which suggest that in the 1970s, South Korea formed a plan to infiltrate and influence the U.S. media:

In late 1975, the CIA intercepted a secret South Korean document entitled "1976 Plan for Operations in the United States." In the name of "strengthening the execution of the U.S. security commitment to the ROK [South Korea]," it called for influencing U.S. public opinion by penetrating American media, government and academia. Thousands of dollars were earmarked for "special manipulation" of congressmen; their staffs were to be infiltrated with paid "collaborators"; an "intelligence network" was to be put into the White House; money was targeted for "manipulation" of officials at the Pentagon, State Department and CIA; some U.S. journalists were to be spied on, while others would be paid; a "black newspaper" would be started in New York; contacts with American scholars would be coordinated "with Psychological Warfare Bureau"; and "an organizational network of anti-communist fronts" would be created.

According to Parry, this South Korean intelligence plan seemed to be linked to Moon:

In 1976, Moon’s search for growing influence in the United States seemed to be following the KCIA script. Moon started a small-circulation newspaper in New York City that featured a column by civil rights leader Jesse Jackson. Moon promoted the anti-communist cause through front groups which held lavish conferences and paid speaking fees to academics, journalists and political leaders.

In 1976, Moon, Bo Hi Pak and other church members deepened their investments in the U.S. capital, buying stock in the Washington-based Diplomat National Bank. Simultaneously, South Korean agent Tongsun Park was investing heavily in the same bank. But the South Korean scheme backfired in the late 1970s with the explosion of the "Koreagate" scandal. Rep. Donald Fraser, a Democrat from Minnesota, led a congressional probe which tracked Tongsun Park's influence-buying campaign and exposed the KCIA links to the Unification Church.

People

The Founder

• Rev.Sun Myung Moon

WMA Staff

Executive Director • Larry Moffitt General Manager • Tomiko Duggan Executive Assistant • Nancy Bulow E- Journal Editor • Diane M. Falk Overseas Director • Timothy P. Elder Website Designer • Wilfredo Rivera

WMA Advisors

Writer and columnist • Cynthia Grenier Editor, UPI Religion & Spirituality Forum • Larry Moffitt President and CEO, Black Press International • William Reed President, Educational Foundation of the Americas • Amb. Phillip Sanchez