Getting insights and inside far right groups
Chip Berlet · 2020
The Public Eye Network was formed in 1978 by a group of progressive investigative reporters, licensed investigators, paralegal investigators, attorneys, and activists who shared information about political repression and right-wing movements that undermine civil liberties and civil rights. Alternative journalists Dennis King in New York and Russ Bellant in Detroit were also researching and writing about the LaRouchites. Movement journalists are sometimes asked to do things that are clearly unethical in terms of corporate journalism. In 1991 then federal judge Clarence Thomas, a Black man with intensely conservative views, was facing nomination hearings for appointment as a Supreme Court Justice. A paralegal investigator works under the direct supervision of an attorney, while a licensed private investigator can work for an attorney or directly with a client. In the late 1970s a small discussion group was established by women from the Chicago-based Reproductive Rights National Network to discuss the growth of right-wing groups ranging from the neo-Nazis to the Christian Right.