Insight on the News

Background and history

Insight was founded in 1985. In 1991 the magazine was one of the first publications to use the word "Islamophobia". In 1997 Insight reported that the administration of President Bill Clinton gave political donors rights to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery. This charge was widely repeated on talk radio and other conservative outlets; but was later denied by the United States Army, which has charge over Arlington Cemetery. Media investigations turned up the burial of M. Larry Lawrence, a former United States Ambassador to Switzerland at Arlington, which led to a congressional investigation.

In 1998 CNN reported that Insight "created a stir" when Paula Jones, who had filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against President Clinton, was the magazine's guest at the annual White House Correspondents Association dinner where Clinton spoke. In 1999 Insight criticized Project Megiddo, an FBI report on possible right-wing terrorism predicted for the year 2000. In 2000, Insight published a cover story listing what it considered the top 15 colleges in the United States. The list included 3 state-owned schools, 2 evangelical Christian schools, 3 Presbyterian schools, 3 Roman Catholic schools, and 4 secular private schools.

In 2001 Insight published a story on the Soviet Union's shoot-down of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 which claimed that both the Soviet and American governments had covered up information about the incident. In the same year it printed an article by Dan Smith which said that immigration and an ethnically diverse population helped to protect the United States against terrorism. This article was reprinted as a chapter in the 2004 book Terrorism: Opposing Viewpoints.

In 2002 Insight printed a story by Washington Times reporter Steve Miller writing that African Americans were doing well economically. This story was reprinted in the 2005 book Race Relations: Opposing Viewpoints. In 2004 Insight printed an article by Abdulwahah Alkebsi defending the role of Islam in bringing democracy to the Middle East. The story was reprinted as a chapter in the 2004 book: Islam: Opposing Viewpoints.

In 2003, Insight misquoted President Abraham Lincoln as saying during the American Civil War: "Congressmen who willfully take action during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs, and should be arrested, exiled or hanged." By 2008, this statement had been repeated several times in the publication, although Lincoln never said or wrote it.

In 2004, News World Communications discontinued publication of the print magazine and hired Jeffrey T. Kuhner to run Insight as a stand-alone website. Under Kuhner, Insight did not identify its reporters, in what Kuhner described as an effort to encourage contributions from sources who "do not want to reveal their names". Kuhner said about this:

“Reporters in Washington know a whole lot of what is going on and feel themselves shackled and prevented from reporting what they know is going on. Insight is almost like an outlet, an escape valve where they can come out with this information.”

Clinton/Obama controversy in 2008 Presidential Campaign

On January 17, 2007, Insight reported that someone on the campaign staff of American presidential candidate Senator Hillary Clinton had leaked a report to one of Insight's reporters which said, according to the Washington Post, that Senator Barack Obama had "spent at least four years in a so-called madrassa, or Muslim seminary, in Indonesia" According to the International Herald Tribune, the report said that the Clinton campaign was "preparing an accusation that her rival Senator Barack Obama had covered up a brief period he had spent in an Islamic religious school in Indonesia when he was 6." Senator Clinton denied the allegations. When interviewed by the New York Times, Kuhner did not name the person said to be the reporter's source.

Soon after Insight's story, CNN reporter John Vause visited State Elementary School Menteng 01, a secular public school which Obama had attended for one year after attending a Roman Catholic school for three, and found that each student received two hours of religious instruction per week in his or her own faith. He was told by Hardi Priyono, deputy headmaster of the school, "This is a public school. We don't focus on religion. In our daily lives, we try to respect religion, but we don't give preferential treatment." Students at Besuki wore Western clothing, and the Chicago Tribune described the school as "so progressive that teachers wore miniskirts and all students were encouraged to celebrate Christmas". Interviews by Nedra Pickler of the Associated Press found that students of all faiths have been welcome there since before Obama's attendance. Akmad Solichin, the vice principal of the school, told Pickler: “The allegations are completely baseless. Yes, most of our students are Muslim, but there are Christians as well. Everyone's welcome here ... it's a public school.”

In 2016 CNN reported that Insight's report was the beginning of the "birther" movement which questioned then President Obama's status as a natural born citizen of the United States.

Cease of Publication

In May 2008 Insight ceased publication and wrote to its readers: "The kind of cutting edge behind-the-scenes political intelligence you have come to rely upon from Insight will now be available from its sister publication, The Washington Times."