John Foster "Chip" Berlet (;"Chip Berlet, Tea Parties, White Rage & Right-Wing Populism Recorded on November 30th, 2010" November 22, 1949 – January 30, 2026) was an American investigative journalist, research analyst, photojournalist, scholar, and activist specializing in the study of extreme right-wing movements in the United States. He also studied the spread of conspiracy theories. Starting with the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, Berlet regularly appeared in the media to discuss extremist news stories. He was a senior analyst at Political Research Associates (PRA), a non-profit group that tracks right-wing networks.
Berlet, a paralegal, was a vice-president of the National Lawyers Guild. He served on the advisory board of the Center for Millennial Studies at Boston University, and for over 20 years was on the board of the Defending Dissent Foundation. 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. He served on the advisory board of the Campaign to Defend the Constitution.
Background Berlet attended the University of Denver for three years, where he majored in sociology with a minor in journalism. A member of the 1960s student left, he dropped out of the university in 1971 to work as an alternative journalist without completing 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 (S.A.C.C.), the National Lawyers Guild, the American Indian Movement, Socialist Workers Party, the Christic Institute, and the American Friends Service Committee (a Quaker group). He was a founder member of the Chicago Area Friends of Albania, leaving the organization when he relocated to Boston in 1987.
Along with journalist Russ Bellant, Berlet wrote about Lyndon LaRouche's National Caucus of Labor Committees, calling it anti-Jewish and neo-Nazi, and urging an investigation of alleged illegal activities.LaRouche Cult Continues to Grow By Russ Bellant, Chip Berlet, & Dennis King, Political Research Associates, December 16, 1981 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 was one of the first researchers to have drawn attention to the efforts by white supremacist and antisemitic groups to recruit farmers in the Midwestern United States in the 1970s and 1980s. Berlet was originally on the board of advisers of Public Information Research, founded by Daniel Brandt. Between 1990 and 1992, three members of Brandt's PIR advisory board, including Berlet, resigned over issues concerning another board member, L. Fletcher Prouty and Prouty's book The Secret Team. Berlet discussed this in a study titled "Right-Woos Left".Chip Berlet, "Right Woos Left: Populist Party, LaRouchite, and Other Neo-fascist Overtures To Progressives, And Why They Must Be Rejected," Cambridge, Massachusetts: Political Research Associates, 1991.
In 1996, he acted as an adviser 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 criticized Ralph Nader and his associates for a close working relationship with Republican textile magnate Roger Milliken, erstwhile major backer of the 1996 presidential campaign of Pat Buchanan, and anti-unionization stalwart.Right-Wing Populism in America by Chip Berlet, pp. 338–344 Berlet provided research assistance to a campaign run by the mother of Jeremiah Duggan, a British student who died in disputed circumstances near Wiesbaden, Germany, and to reopen the investigation into his death.
Photojournalism As a photojournalist, Berlet's 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, The Washington Star, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Reception Berlet's second book, co-authored with Matthew N. Lyons, is Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort, was published by The Guilford Press in 2000. It is a broad historical overview of right-wing populism in the United States. The book received generally favorable reviews. Library Journal said it was a "detailed historical examination" that "strikes an excellent balance between narrative and theory." The New York Review of Books described it as an excellent account describing the outermost fringes of American conservatism. Reprinted as Chapter 9 in A review by Jerome Himmelstein in the journal Contemporary Sociology said that "it offers more than a scholarly treatise on the activities of the Third Reich", that it provides a background to help the reader understand the Holocaust, and that it "merits close attention from scholars of the political right in America and of social movements generally."Himmelstein, Jerome L., Review of book Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort, Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Jan. 2002), pp. 76–77, American Sociological Association
Robert H. Churchill of the private University of Hartford criticized Berlet and other authors writing about the right-wing as lacking breadth and depth in their analysis.Churchill, Robert H. "Beyond the Narrative of 1995 - Recent Examinations of the American Far Right." Terrorism and Political Violence, Vol. 13, No. 4 (Winter 2001), pp. 125–136. In Who Watches the Watchmen?, Laird Wilcox criticized Berlet and other writers for what Wilcox says is their use of a technique he describes as "Links and Ties," which he says is a form of guilt by association. Jack Z. Bratich, an associate professor in the Journalism and Media Studies Department at Rutgers University, said that Berlet uses the methods of conspiracy theorists.Bratich, Jack Z, Conspiracy Panics: Political Rationality and Popular Culture, SUNY Press 2008, p. 100
Death Chip Berlet died from leukemia at home in Salem, Massachusetts, on January 30, 2026, at the age of 76.
Bibliography Clouds Blur the Rainbow: The Other Side of New Alliance Party. Political Research Associates, June 1987. , . Full text available. Eyes Right! Challenging the Right Wing Backlash. Boston, Massachusetts: South End Press, 1995. . . . 398 pp. Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort. Co-authored by Matthew N. Lyons. Edited by Douglas Kellner. New York: Guilford Press, 2000. . . . 498 pp.Sklar, Holly. "Review of Right Wing Populism in America by Chip Berlet." Guilford Press. guilford.com.
"This book shines brilliant light on right-wing populist movements that have undermined democracy throughout U.S. history—and are still influencing politics and policies today. The book shows how populist rhetoric has been used by far-right and mainstream politicians alike to divide people with scapegoating and deflect them from achieving greater social and economic equity."Reed, Adolph (Jr). "Review of Right Wing Populism in America, by Chip Berlet." Guilford Press. guilford.com.
"Chip Berlet has been a valuable resource for many years to everyone concerned about the potentially dangerous right-wing ideological strains that operate in this country. His work with Political Research Associates has been a most important source of data and analysis. Now he and Matthew Lyons have made yet another major contribution. Right Wing Populism in America builds on their years of expertise to provide a sweeping historical account of the tradition of such tendencies in American politics....This is an important analysis for everyone—scholars and nonspecialists alike—who wishes to understand the complex, sometimes ugly forces that have participated in shaping the American political landscape." Toxic to Democracy: Conspiracy Theories, Demonization & Scapegoating. Political Research Associates, June 2009. . Up in Arms: A Guide to Oregon’s Patriot Movement. Spencer Sunshine with Rural Organizing Project and Political Research Associates, 2016. . Trumping Democracy: From Reagan to the Alt-Right. Routledge, 2019. .
See also Religious right in the United States
References
External links
Biography of Berlet at Center for Millennial Studies. at Political Research Associates. Chip Berlet at HathiTrust.
Chip Berlet at WorldCat , a description of Chip Berlet's work Chip Berlet on "The Becking of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords" – video report by Democracy Now!