Fortunately, Talk to Action contributor John Gorenfeld has a breakthrough book out on the Moon empire, Bad Moon Rising, from which Darksyde quotes in his post today.

It is sometimes difficult to get our minds around the impact of The Washington Times and other elements of the seemingly obscure and hard to understand Moon organization.  It is also hard to imagine that the lions and lionesses of mainstream journalism take the Moon owned, controlled and bankrolled media empire as if they were legitimate news organizations. Darksyde picks a good example out of John's book to illustrate the point:  Did you know that the malicious rumor that Barack Obama is a Muslim owes much of its currency to the Washington Times - related internet (formerly print) news magazine, Insight??

And that that Insight magazine story was picked up by major media -- especially Fox News -- before it was debunked by others?

Meanwhile, Insight continues to be published by the Washington Times, helping to shape our national discourse, and along with the Times itself, occasionally releasing nasty "news" viruses into the body politic that falsely frame, and deeply distort the normal functions of electoral democracy. The Moon media empire, is a vital cog in the Religious Right (You know, the movement said by various pundits to be dead, dying or irrelevant.)  

My point is this:

It is silly and frankly dangerous to make the same errors of underestimation, misunderstanding and premature declarations of death that have marked purportedly informed discussion of the Religious Right for many years. It is these very errors that paved the way for political successes far greater than the Religious Right could have achieved if only other sectors of society had  smarter and better - informed analyses to work with.

The media share some of the blame, but so do organizations and leaders who have yet to come up to speed on the Religious Right, and still get surprised when for example, a state legislature or a school board push and indeed implement religious right programs such as intelligent design; Christian nationalist revisions of American history; or abstinence only sexuality education (that has been repeatedly proved does not work.)

A dead political movement can't do stuff like that... can they?

I believe that there is much that could be done to thwart the Religious Right in general, and on many particulars. But the counter productive Religious Right is dead, dying or irrelevant narrative is an obstacle to the rational gathering and sifting and analysis of facts, and therefore is an obstacle to good reporting; good political analysis, and appropriate political action.

So today, my hat is off to Darksyde and to John Gorenfeld, who are dedicated to bringing us better information and analysis about the Religious Right. (Oh yeah, and to Bill Berkowitz who this past week has a detailed discussion of the relationship between the Moon organization and George H. W. Bush's brother Neil.)