Chip Berlet

Chip.jpg|right|frame|Chip Berlet.
Used with permission, © 1999 MH/PRA]] John Foster "Chip" Berlet (born November 22, 1949) is an American researcher specializing in the study of right-wing movements in the United States, particularly the religious right, white supremacists, homophobic groups, and paramilitary organizations. He also studies the spread of conspiracy theories in the mainstream media and on the Internet.

He is the senior analyst at Political Research Associates, a non-profit watchdog group that tracks right-wing networks, ^* and is known as one of the first researchers to have drawn attention to the efforts by white supremacist and anti-Semitic groups to recruit farmers in the American mid-west in the 1970s and 1980s. He is the co-author of Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort and editor of Eyes Right! Challenging the Right Wing Backlash.

Berlet is a former vice-president of the National Lawyers Guild, a liberal bar association. He has served on the advisory board of the Center for Millennial Studies at Boston University, and currently sits on the advisory board of the National Committee Against Repressive Legislation. In 1982, he was a Mencken Awards finalist in the best news story category for "War on Drugs: The Strange Story of Lyndon LaRouche," which was published in High Times.

Biography

Berlet attended the University of Denver for three years, where he majored in sociology with a journalism minor. He left the university in 1971 to work as an alternative journalist. Berlet did not complete his degree. In the mid-1970s, he went on to co-edit a series of books on student activism for the National Student Association and National Student Educational Fund. He also became an active shop steward with the National Lawyers' Guild.

During the late 1970s, he became the Washington, D.C. bureau chief of High Times magazine, and in 1979, he helped to organize citizens' hearings on FBI surveillance practices. From then until 1982, he worked as a paralegal investigator at the Better Government Association in Chicago, conducting research for an American Civil Liberties Union case, involving police surveillance by the Chicago police (which became known as the "Chicago Red Squad" case ^*). He also worked on cases filed against the FBI or police on behalf of the Spanish Action Committee of Chicago, the National Lawyers' Guild, the American Indian Movement, Socialist Workers Party, the Christic Institute, and the American Friends Service Committee (a Quaker group). Berlet served as Vice President of the National Lawyer's Guild, although he himself is not an attorney and does not have a law degree.

In 1982, Berlet joined Political Research Associates, and in 1985, he founded the Public Eye BBS, the first computer bulletin board aimed at challenging the spread of white-supremacist and neo-Nazi material through electronic media, and the first to provide an online application kit for requesting information under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act He helped found the "Chicago Area Friends of Albania", in 1983.[http://www.discoverthenetwork.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=1243

Berlet is also a photojournalist. His photographs, particularly of Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi rallies, have been carried on the Associated Press wire, have appeared on book and magazine covers, album covers and posters, and have been published in the Denver Post, Washington Star, and Chronicle of Higher Education.

Berlet was originally on the board of advisors of Public Information Research, founded by Daniel Brandt. Between 1990 and 1992, three members of Brandt's PIR advisory board, including Berlet, resigned after complaining that another board member, L. Fletcher Prouty, was openly working with and defending Liberty Lobby and the Holocaust denial group the Institute for Historical Review, which republished Prouty's book Secret Team. According to Berlet, Brandt defended Prouty, and brushed off complaints that he (Brandt) was promoting alliances with right-wing conspiracist groups, some of which Berlet considered antisemitic or even pro-fascist. Dan Brandt, "An Incorrect Political Memoir," Lobster, No. 24 (December 1992); Chip Berlet, "Right Woos Left: Populist Party, LaRouchite, and Other Neo-fascist Overtures To Progressives, And Why They Must Be Rejected," Cambridge, MA: Political Research Associates, 1991.^*

In 1991, Berlet wrote a report "Right Woos Left" critical of an increasing number of critics of U.S. intelligence policy including Prouty, Mark Lane, Dick Gregory, Craig B. Hulet, and Victor Marchetti being willing to work with groups on the right such as the John Birch Society or Liberty Lobby. Berlet has more recently criticized Ralph Nader for working with Roger Milliken on antiglobalization issues [http://www.wpunj.edu/newpol/issue29/hawkin29.htm.

In 1996, he acted as an advisor on the Public Broadcasting Service documentary mini-series With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America, which was later published as a book by William Martin ^*^*.

Berlet argues that the U.S. is currently undergoing a right-wing backlash that is the most sustained of its kind in U.S. history. He argues that, although 95% of the USA's hate crimes are committed by people not affiliated with any group, they have nevertheless internalized a narrative developed and promoted by the right wing that demonizes certain groups, including blacks or gays. He argues that the left must develop coalitions to find a way to counter-balance these narratives, instead of becoming isolated as another side of the "lunatic fringe" ^*.

In ZOG Ate My Brains, Berlet warns of a "troubling resurgence on the political Left" of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories as a result of Gulf intervention and the 9/11 Terrorist attacks. ^*

Criticism of Berlet

Berlet has been criticized by The New American for having accused the Anti-Defamation League, in a 1993 op-ed piece for the New York Times, of down-playing the right-wing threat while focusing on left-wing groups ^*.

Online Journal Associate Editor Larry Chin charged that "Berlet is a gatekeeper who has made a career out of slandering and attacking whistleblowers, researchers and critics of the US government, of every political affiliation."^*

In 2003, Berlet wrote for the Southern Poverty Law Center, "Into the Mainstream," an article which named conservative activist David Horowitz's Center for the Study of Popular Culture (CSPC) as one of an "array of right-wing foundations and think tanks supportefforts to make bigoted and discredited ideas respectable." In an open letter to SPLC president Morris Dees, Horowitz asked that the article be removed from the SPLC website. Dees declined. Since then, Horowitz's Front Page Magazine has carried a response from Berlet accusing Horowitz of "dismiss[ing the idea that there are serious unresolved issues concerning racism and white supremacy in the United States", a further rejoinder from Horowitz addressed to Dees, and an article by Chris Arabia harshly critical of Berlet. Chris Arabia wrote that "Chip Berlet has a demonstrated record of intolerance, inaccuracy, and distortion." He suggested Berlet is a communist, described him as having "genuine affection for Stalinism", and characterized Berlet as supportive of Albania's former dictator, Enver Hoxha. The article accused Berlet of attempting to smear non-leftists by associating them with extreme right-wing groups like the Ku Klux Klan.

Bibliography

Books

(1995) editor of Eyes Right! Challenging the Right Wing Backlash, South End Press, Boston; paperback edition ISBN 0896085236
(2000) with Matthew N. Lyons, Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort, Guilford Press, New York; paperback edition ISBN 1572305622

Selected papers and articles

(1980) "Lyndon LaRouche and the U.S. Labor Party: Cult Fanaticism and the Politics of Paranoia", Chicago Reader, March 7, 1980.
(1981) "Ever Hear of Lyndon LaRouche? He May be Keeping Tabs on You", Des Moines Register, September 23, 1981.
(1982) "Private Spies: A New Threat To Constitutional Rights", The Public Eye, Vol. III, Issues 3 & 4, 1982.
(1982) with Russ Bellant and Dennis King, "LaRouche Cult Continues to Grow: Researchers Call for Probe of Potentially Illegal Acts", The Public Eye, Vol. III, Issues 3 & 4
(1984) with Russ Bellant "LaRouche Loses Libel Suit", The Guardian, NY, November 14, 1984
(1987) Review of Inventing Reality: The Politics of Mass Media by Michael Parenti, in The Library Quarterly, Vol. 57 No. 2, April
(1990) Review of The False Prophet: Rabbi Meir Kahane FBI Informant to Knesset Member, Z Magazine
(1995) "The Violence of Right-Wing Populism", Peace Review, Vol. 7, Nos. 3 & 4, pp. 283288. Oxford: Journals Oxford Ltd.
(1995) "Uniting to Defend the Four Freedoms", in Chip Berlet, ed., Eyes Right! Challenging the Right Wing Backlash, Boston, South End Press.
(1995) with Margaret Quigley, "Theocracy & White Supremacy", in Chip Berlet, ed., Eyes Right! Challenging the Right Wing Backlash, Boston, South End Press.
(1996) "Three Models for Analyzing Conspiracist Mass Movements of the Right", in Eric Ward, ed., Conspiracies: Real Grievances, Paranoia, and Mass Movements, Seattle: Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment Publishing.
(1997) "Fascism's Franchises: Stating the Differences from Movement to Totalitarian Government", presented to the American Sociological Association, Toronto
(1997) "An Introduction to Propaganda Analysis", in Uncovering the Right on Campus: A Guide to Resisting Conservative Attacks on Equality and Social Justice, Cambridge, MA: Center for Campus Organizing.
(1998) "Following the Threads: A Work in Progress", in Amy Elizabeth Ansell, ed., Unraveling the Right: The New Conservatism in American Thought and Politics, New York: Westview
(1998) "Mad as Hell: Right-wing Populism, Fascism, and Apocalyptic Millennialism", presented at the 14th World Congress of Sociology, International Sociological Association, Montreal
(1998) "The Ideological Weaponry of the American Right: 'Dangerous Classes' and 'Welfare Queens'", presented at the international symposium, The "American Model:" an Hegemonic Perspective for the End of the Millennium?, Group Regards Critiques, University of Lausanne, Switzerland.
(1998) "Who's Mediating the Storm? Right-wing Alternative Information Networks", in Linda Kintz & Julia Lesage, eds., Culture, Media, and the Religious Right, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
(1998) "Y2K and Millennial Pinball: How Y2K Shapes Survivalism in the U.S. Christian Right, Patriot and Armed Militia Movements, and Far Right", presented at the annual symposium, Center for Millennial Studies, Boston University
(1998) with Matthew N. Lyons, "One Key to Litigating Against Government Prosecution of Dissidents: Understanding the Underlying Assumptions, " Police Misconduct and Civil Rights Law Report, in two parts, Vol. 5, No. 13, Vol. 5, No. 14, West Group.
(1999) "Abstaining from Bad Sects: Understanding Sects, Cadres, and Mass Movement Organizations"
(2000) with Matthew N. Lyons, Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort, New York: Guiford Press.
(2001) "Hate Groups, Racial Tension and Ethnoviolence in an Integrating Chicago Neighborhood 1976-1988", in Betty A. Dobratz, Lisa K. Walder, and Timothy Buzzell, eds., Research in Political Sociology, Volume 9: The Politics of Social Inequality, pp. 117-163.
(2002) "Anti-Masonic Conspiracy Theories: A Narrative Form of Demonization and Scapegoating", Heredom, Vol. 10, pp. 243-275.
(2002) "Encountering and Countering Political Repression", in The Global Activists Manual: Local Ways to Change the World, edited by Mike Prokosch, Laura Raymond, and Michael Prokosch, New York: Thunder Mouth Press/Nation Books
(2004) "Mapping the Political Right: Gender and Race Oppression in Right-Wing Movements", in Abby Ferber, ed, Home-Grown Hate: Gender and Organized Racism, New York: Routledge.

References

Sources

Biography of Berlet, Political Research Associates
Biography of Berlet, Center for Millennial Studies
Biography of Berlet, Discover the Truth Network
National Committee against Repressive Legislation
Chicago Historical Society
History of the Public Eye Electronic Forums, Political Research Associates
"Big Stories, Spooky Sources" by Chip Berlet, Columbia Journalism Review, May-June 1993
"With God On Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America", IMDb entry, Amazon
"Race, Class and Gender: Justice in the Intersections", brief description of Chip Berlet's work, Faith in Action dept., Unitarian Universality Association, 1999
"The John Train Salon", LaRouche in 2004, no byline, undated, retrieved January 7, 2005
"Lyndon LaRouche", Disinfopedia, Center for Media & Democracy; describes the John Train allegations, undated, no byline, retrieved January 7, 2005
"Researcher Says 'Watchdogs' Exaggerate Hate Group Threat" by Robert Stacy McCain, The Washington Times, May 9, 2000
"Propagandizing the Police" by William Norman Grigg, The New American, November 9, 1999
"The A.D.L. Under Fire: It's Shift to Right Has Led to Scandal", by Dennis King and Chip Berlet, The New York Times, May 28, 1993, p. A29 (Op-Ed).

External links

Public Eye.org - the Political Research Associates official website.

Investigative journalists | Photojournalists | 1949 births | Living people | Dominionism