Photo by afagen

Some 600 people gathered at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel yesterday for a gala event celebrating the 30th anniversary of The Washington Times, the city’s flagship conservative newspaper.

According to, well, The Washington Times, speakers ranging from former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to Fox News correspondent John Stossel sang the praises of the newspaper, saying it provided a necessary conservative alternative to other local media outlets:

“I salute your record of accomplishment over three decades and hope to follow your good work for years to come,” Mr. Rumsfeld said.

The Rev. Hyung Jin Moon, the spiritual heir of The Washington Times’ founder, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, told the crowd of more than 600 who packed the ballroom at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel that he remained committed to the vision of the paper’s role laid out by his father 30 years ago. He said the theological basis of the teachings of his father, who passed away a month ago at the age of 92, was that “freedom is God’s greatest gift.”

Moon, 33, joked to the crowd that he could “truthfully say I have been reading The Washington Times my entire life.”

Master of ceremonies and Fox Business News correspondent John Stossel told the capacity crowd that the newspaper was conceived and brought to the market to “make sure that our capital had an alternative source of information and opinion.”
“And that’s a good thing,” he said.

Fans of the Times probably should be celebrating—it was only a few years ago that the paper seemed destined to close, until founder Rev. Sun Myung Moon swept in and again opened up his pockets to fund a publication that has survived off of an estimated $2 billion in subsidies since it opened its doors.

Of course, Moon recently passed away, so it remains to be seen whether the Times will survive another decade, let alone three. Even if it doesn’t, though, The Washington Examiner will likely be around to carry the conservative torch. Opened in 2005 in D.C. and owned by billionaire Philip Anschutz, the Examiner largely skews right in its editorials, much like the Times. For the time being, though, D.C. has two right-leaning newspapers that are wholly subsidized by their rich owners.