The New York Times today has a rundown on the latest woes at the Washington Times, which, astonishingly, now has a disappearing circulation of just 67,000 readers. That's right, 67,000. There are probably penny shoppers with bigger circulation that today's WashTimes.

The NY Times details what others have been reporting in recent weeks, that a family feud among the children of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church, has put the Times in the middle of the battle, with Unification Church money from Asia that keeps the Times afloat reportedly being cut off.

What caught my eye was the vague way the NY Times described Rev. Moon and his relationship with the newspaper:

The Washington Times has always been something of a vanity project for Mr. Moon, the father, who was endlessly willing to lose money on his paper and its editorial page.

Vanity project? That's an understatement. By some estimates, Moon has lost more than $1 billion on the Times, which strikes me as something more than a “vanity project.” And who exactly is Rev. Moon? According to the NYT article, he's simply the “founder” of the Unification Church. i.e. A man of God.

Why the traditional press regularly ignores the truth about Rev. Moon remains a mystery. After all, neither Moon nor his followers have ever been shy about his messianic ways.

For instance, from trueloveking.net [emphasis added]:

Here you are invited to discover why Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon was chosen by God and called by Jesus Christ to fulfill the mission of the Messiah, Savior and Lord of the Second Advent with the responsibility to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. Together with his loving wife, Mrs. Hak Ja Moon, they are the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and all humanity who embody the true love of God.

Wouldn't that strike most journalists as rather odd, the fact that the man Jesus Christ chose to save mankind is now running a money-losing daily in Washington, D.C.? Shouldn't that be part of any story about the Times' fate, the fact that its founder was sent by God to create a new kingdom here on earth?

But today's New York Times, like most news outlets covering the loopy Moonie newspaper, politely looks away from Moon's odd proclamations and simply describe the newspaper as being “conservative.”

BTW, here's an insider's view of the WashTimes: