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      white shirts and out-of-date neckties".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).