From: Proskauer <prgm@CLASS.ORG>
Date: Sat, 23 Apr 94 06:46:17 PDT
To: David Mandl <dmandl@lehman.com>
Subject: Re: Spotlight
In-Reply-To: <9404221252.AA28817@disvnm2.lehman.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.3.89.9404230651.D17192-0100000@class.class.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


On Sportlight, I recall someone (Factsheet 5?) recommending another pub, 
the quarterly Paranoia (which you can actually buy on newsstands in NYC), 
because "they get a lot of stuff from Spotlight, so you won;t have to 
soil you hands with the original source."  It's a fine magazine, and even 
has an email address: paranoia@aol.com (but would a paranoid use email?)

James O'Meara
Proskauer Rose Goetz & Mendelsohn	E-mail: prgm@class.org	
1585 Broadway				Voice: 212-969-5021
New York, NY 10036			Fax: 212-969-2900	


On Fri, 22 Apr 1994, David Mandl wrote:

> > From: wcs@anchor.ho.att.com (bill.stewart@pleasantonca.ncr.com +1-510-484-6204)
> > The Spotlight *used* to be a really revolting rag; some people I was
> > talking to recently who were selling it said they've tried to get rid
> > of the anti-Semitism and racist hate stuff that the Carto folks were pushing
> > and concentrate more on Truth (or whatever the conspiracy-wacko version of
> > Truth is at any given time :-).  I didn't buy their magazine to find out
> > if it's really improved or if they're just saying it, but it was nice to 
> > hear them say it.
> 
> Bill--
> 
> Far as I know, things haven't really changed.  What the Spotlight and
> other papers/organizations like it have been doing recently is trying
> to clean up their public image to gain respectability and a wider
> audience (look at David Duke himself, for example).  They've been
> fairly successful, unfortunately.  There's been an increased interest
> in the last few years in conspiracy theories and the like (an interest
> I share), and as a result the readership of papers like the Spotlight
> has been growing.  I think that if you flipped through a copy of the
> Spotlight today, you'd merely get the impression that they're healthy
> skeptics trying to expose the misdeeds of the government and other evil
> conspirators.  Fair enough.  But their real agenda hasn't changed.
> 
> My analysis:
> 
> The recent growth of these organizations shows that there's been a real
> increase in interest in anarchistic ideas and distrust of authority
> among the general public.  Good news.  The bad news is that there are
> various vermin waiting in the wings to take advantage of people's
> openness to new and "radical" ideas.  Caveat emptor.
> 
> > The other magazine called "Spotlight" I've run into is the New Jersey
> > Symphony Orchestra's program handout, truly a hotbed of radical
> > something-or-other-ism :-)
> 
> Sounds dangerous to me.  I'd watch out.
> 
>    --Dave.
>