That's the claim made by the Times' former editorial page Richard Miniter, who also claims he was “coerced” by the newspaper's president into attending a Unification Church mass wedding ceremony in New York City last year. The Moonie Times, owned by the Rev. Sung Myung Moon, the self-proclaimed son of God, has been beset with internal, Moonie-related conflict. Editor John Solomon quit the daily last week.
Miniter has filed discrimination charges, according to a report in today's Washington Examiner. The article reports:
This incident and several others make up the discrimination charges that Miniter filed Tuesday with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He said he was discriminated against because of his religion, age and disability. He also maintained that the company's vice president of human resources started a series of investigations against him, causing him to work from home, in retribution for his refusal to sign a fraudulent document. In addition, he says, he signed a year-long contract with the paper in February when he was promoted to editorial page editor. “The Times backed me in a corner and it looked like the company was going to go under and not ... pay me,” Miniter said.
Miniter's complaint comes at a time when The Washington Times' future is in question. The paper's top three executives were ousted last week, and the departure of the top editor John Solomon soon followed. “We tried for weeks to amicably work something out,” Miniter said. “With the departure of John Solomon and the other executives, I don't know if the company is going to exist next week,” he added, as an explanation for why he chose now to file these claims.