SENT 07-22-95 FROM KENNON_LARRY @AUSTIN July 21, 1995 Playboy 680 North Lake Shore Drive Chicago, Illinois 60611 Dear Playboy: Just the other day I received the August 1995 issue of Playboy. For the first time this year I bought a subscription. I have been buying Playboy at the newstand regularly for well over a quarter of a century. I am not the least bit ashamed to say that I read the articles and fiction after I look at the pictures and usually get a chuckle or two out of the cartoons. I have alway thought that Playboy was an intellectually honest magazine. I remember Hugh Hefner's very brilliant articles on human rights in the sixties. I remember the interview with philosopher Ayn Rand. I even remember the interview with Jane Fonda. As a Vietnam veteran I am not a fan of Hanoi Jane, but I was not incensed that Playboy chose to feature her interview. I am incensed that you chose to feature Michael Reynolds' piece of fiction parading as objective reporting. I am referring to the August 1995 article "Day of the Zealots" by the Southern Poverty Law Center's Michael Reynolds. Mr. Reynolds' article is a premier example of yellow journalism, of deliberate twisting of the truth, of deliberate fear-mongering and character assassination. Supposedly the article is a look "Inside the Right-Wing Militia". That is how you, Playboy, billed the article on the front cover. Playboy and Mr. Reynolds are liars. This article is not about the "right-wing militia". It is a look inside the Christian Identity movement and white supremacy movements such as the Klu Klux Klan and the Covenant, Sword and Arm of the Lord (or whatever name they are currently going under). That such groups exist and spew out their particular brand of hatred is true. That they are the behind the militia movement or represent the "right wing" is a lie, a lie born either of willful misrepresentation or sheer ignorance and cultural myopia. I suspect the latter. To illustrate let me cull a few telling quotes from the article. In the beginning Mr. Reynolds describes the character "Don" thus: "A grin stripped Don's teeth as he peered malevolently at me over his Wal-Mart glasses". Later he describes people at the "meeting": "The pastors in JCPenny and Western-styled suits with crisp white shirts and out-of-date neckties". Jumping back to the first page of the article: "Here [ Branson, Missouri ] in the tawdry mecca of bad white culture,...". Am I mistaken that Mr. Reynolds has a prejudice against blue- collar folks who happen to work for their living and listen to country music? People who buy their clothes and eyeglasses at Wal-Mart and JCPenny, not Christian Dior or on Rodeo boulevard? Is this objective reporting, or a careful and deliberate manipulation of class prejudice? Just for the record I live in an upper middle class neighborhood, am in the process of building a brand new house, don't normally listen to country music, and yes, I also shop at Wal-Mart and JCPennys. And I know a lot of very comfortable people who also do. Almost every accusation posed by Mr. Reynolds is done by innuendo and association. For example he freely admits that this is not really a militia meeting but a Christian Identity meeting: "Officially, this was a gathering of Christian Identity,...". So how does he get off saying this is really "right-wing militia": "I took a seat among the congregation and looked carefully at the faithful...They were mostly men...Plenty of militia types. Hard faced ex-cons and military vets". Just how did he determine this? How did he _know_ which were the cons? That they were "militia types"? No answer. I guess we just have to trust Mr. Reynolds' hunches and instincts. After all, he is an educated upperclass type who just knows these things. Objective reporting? Just for the record I am a veteran. Would Mr. Reynolds be able to pick me out as such in a crowded room? I doubt it. I won't be the one wearing BDUs. I was particularly incensed by Mr. Reynolds' character assassination of Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America (GOA). He says of Mr. Pratt: "The former Virginia legislator [ Larry Pratt ] has been in constant contact with an array of extremist bodies for more than a decade, from racist meetings like the one in Branson to Peter's [ Pete Peters, an Identity minister? ] Estes Park strategy sessions to visits with militia officers in the Phillipines and members of Guatemalan death squads". Where is Mr. Reynolds' proof of these accusations? I have heard Larry Pratt speak and have followed his writings via the Internet for years. If there is a racist bone in him I would be very suprised. Associations with "Guatemalan death squads"? Proof? Documentation? Mr. Reynolds' is obviously very well aquainted with the character assassins tools, phrases like "...is linked with [by whom? blankout] ...", "is known to have associated with [by whom? blankout]...", "is reported to have visited [by whom? blankout]...". Mr. Reynolds knows the tools of the character assassin well, tools of innuendo and rumor. I think Mr. Reynolds could possibly earn a good living writing for one of the grocery store tabloids. What does that say about Playboy when they publish him? I have followed and been involved with several movements in the last several years. I would describe those movements as gun-rights, patriotic, and militia movements. They are inter- twined movements. I know a lot of people that are involved. I have yet to meet any of the characters depicted in Mr. Reynolds article. I have sat in militia meetings in Texas next to hispanic men. I have protested the the Assault Weapons Ban in Kansas City, Missouri next to the biggest, blackest man you would not want to see from the wrong side of the sights of an AR-15. I have corresponded with a man prominent on the Paul Revere Network (computer BBS network) who just happens to be proudly Jewish. And yes I have met a fair share of John Birchers and white Christians. The prevalent racism that Mr. Reynolds describes is one thing I have not seen. Again, I have attended militia meetings in Texas where the first order of business was to inform the crowd that "Anyone who has a problem with racism, or wants to start a war tomorrow, can get the hell out, right now"! Nor is religion a primary focus of any militia meeting I have attended, although obviously some people who attend are very religious people. Just for the record I am an atheist. I have never felt unwelcome in this crowd. In any large group of people you can usually find some whose outlook is suspect. For example, at any gun-rights protest I have attended there were a very large majority of well-dressed and polite people. But when the news reporters arrive to whom are they drawn like a magnet? The unkempt guy in BDUs who theorizes that it is all a new world order conspiracy abetted by space aliens. That is Mr. Reynolds. He will always be drawn like a magnet to the object of his paranoia. That paranoia is well illustrated in his article: "I knew I had nothing to fear so long as I was here in Branson...But after I drove out of town, there were 10,000 holes in the Ozarks where my body could be dumped for all eternity". "I drove out of Branson in a cold, dismal rain and snaked down into Arkansas. I wasn't followed ...". I think Mr. Reynolds views middle America as enemy territory. In the circles I move in there are those ultra paranoids who see conspiracy everywhere they look. They see cryptic signs on the back of road signs which they believe are designed to lead U.N. troops to FEMA concentration camps. Mr. Reynolds is not unlike them. The mission of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Mr. Reynolds' employer, is to fight racism. Their paranoia is such that they must find it everywhere, as some find meaning on the back of those road signs. That is why I don't believe Mr. Reynolds is a deliberate liar. I just think that like a lot of other paranoids he can't see truth when it smacks him in the face, and he will search under every rock to find his vision of the truth. But it wasn't the truth. It wasn't objective reporting. It was a hatchet job and fiction writing at its best (or worst). And that is why I am angry at you, at Playboy. Because you are supposed to hold yourself to a higher standard. Just for the record I will be cancelling my subscription. I will not be buying Playboy again until I see some equal time for people like Larry Pratt, or some reasonable voice from my side. I will be scanning the cover at the newstands. When I see that then I will buy Playboy again. And I will be bringing this message to many, many thousands via the Internet and a plethora of computer BBS networks. Count on it. Sincerely, Lawrence Kennon 1128 Greenbriar Loop Round Rock, Texas 78664 p.s. You may forward this letter to Mr. Reynolds if you like. Why don't you ask him when he, or the Southern Poverty Law Center, plans to do an investigative report on the BATF and it's involvement in the "Good Old Boys Roundup", the racist law enforcement meetings featured in the news recently where "Federal Nigger Hunting Licenses" are a commodity for sale (and reported to the media by the Alabama Militia).