The Spotlight
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.[1] 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.[2]
Description
The Spotlight has been described in media reports as promoting an
Circulation
Circulation of The Spotlight peaked in 1981 at 315,000 but fell to about 90,000 by 1992.[7]
Critical reaction
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.[2]
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.[9]
Controversies
Lawsuit by E. Howard Hunt
On August 14, 1978, The Spotlight published an article by
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.[10][11] Hunt, represented by attorney Ellis Rubin, said that he suffered a $27,000 drop in income after the article was published.[10][11] He also said that he was in Washington, D.C., on the day that Kennedy was killed.[11] 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.[10] On December 17, 1981, the jury found in Hunt's favor and awarded him $650,000 in damages.[10] The decision was later overturned due to an error in jury instructions.[12]
In the second trial, Hunt was represented by Baltimore attorney William Snyder.[12] Hunt testified that he was in Washington, D.C., with his wife and son when he first heard of the assassination.[12] Snyder told the jury that Hunt had already been cleared in the assassination by various commissions and inquiries.[12] 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.[12] Lane successfully defended Liberty Lobby against the defamation charges,[13] which became the basis for Lane's book Plausible Denial.
Lawsuit by the National Review
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.[14]
Timothy McVeigh
After the
End of publication
The Spotlight ceased publication in 2001 after Liberty Lobby was forced into
Other activities
From 1988 to 2001, the paper sponsored the Radio Free America talk show which was heard on
See also
- Alternative media (U.S. political right)
- Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc.
- The Barnes Review
- Ron Paul newsletters
References
- ISBN 978-1-134-37762-6. Retrieved 17 May 2020.
Willis Carto and the Liberty Lobby were identified as the leading antiSemite and leading anti-Semitic organization respectively throughout the 1970s to the 1990s.
- ^ a b Willis Carto Archived 2010-04-10 at the Wayback Machine, Anti-Defamation League website, accessed 4 May 2010
- ^ Campbell, Linda. "Liberty Lobby in the Spotlight with Duke, Buchanan In Race", Chicago Tribune, January 12, 1992
- ^ Anderson, Jack and Whitten, Les. "Liberty Lobby Bootlegs Laetrile". Sarasota Herald-Tribune, August 16, 1977
- ISBN 0-02-910312-6p. 85
- ^ "Spotlight Newspaper". NameBase. Retrieved 2010-05-04.[dead link]
- ^ George, John and Wilcox, Laird. Nazis, Communists, Klansmen, and Others on the Fringe, Prometheus Books, p. 260
- ^ Ruff, Howard J. How to Prosper During the Coming Bad Years, New York: Time Books, 1979
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d e f "Watergate Figure Wins Suit Accusing Newspaper of Libel". The New York Times. New York. AP. December 18, 1981. Retrieved December 8, 2014.
- ^ a b c d "Hunt Denies Any Link To The Kennedy Killing". Ocala Star-Banner. Ocala, Florida. AP. December 17, 1981. p. 10B. Retrieved December 8, 2014.
- ^ a b c d e Payne, Karen (January 29, 1985). "Hunt says he was in D.C. that fatal day in Dallas". The Miami News. Miami, Florida. p. 6A. Retrieved December 8, 2014.
- ^ 824 F2d 916 Hunt v. Marchetti, United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.
- ^ Archibald, George (October 25, 1985). "Jury begged not to let Buckley 'punish and destroy' Spotlight" (PDF). The Washington Times. Washington, D.C. p. 3-A. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 23, 2017. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 11, 1995.
- ^ "Spotlight on The Spotlight", Newsweek, May 15, 1995
- Washington Times, July 10, 2001
- ^ 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 Archived 2009-06-07 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ ".News Archive, the SPOTLIGHT by Liberty Lobby".