In June 1998, Tom Metzger's White Aryan Resistance Update first reported that Willis Carto, founder and leader of the right-wing anti-Semitic propaganda group Liberty Lobby, had paid the Michigan tax bill which, in the end, came to only a few hundred dollars, including tax, penalty and interest and acquired Resistance Records.

At first, Resistance kept the new owner's identity under wraps, possibly because Carto was not especially popular with many in the movement. But by the fall of 1998, Resistance Magazine subscribers started receiving The Spotlight, Liberty Lobby's weekly newspaper, with a cover letter beginning "Dear RESISTANCE Subscriber." It solicited new subscriptions, but also offered six months of The Spotlight, to replace the missing issues of Resistance. The letter thanked a "generous (but anonymous) Resistance subscriber who has made this offer possible." The letter noted that Carto and company could easily identify with Resistance Records' experience, seeing themselves also as victims of a conspiracy to shut them down: "As you know, an illegal raid by authorities motivated by politics closed down the magazine. Hopefully not forever. We here at The Spotlight can certainly relate to this type of strong-arm tactic."

By October 1998, Resistance Records had relocated to Etiwanda, California, near San Bernardino, under the joint ownership of Carto and his business partner, Todd Blodgett, a former low-level White House staffer in the Reagan administration. Blodgett finished journalism school in 1983 and then worked for various Republican politicians. By 1995, he had fallen under Carto's influence, handling more business and marketing functions for him as time progressed. He eventually became Carto's partner.

The Spotlight and Resistance Magazine had vastly different readerships at the time when the change in ownership occurred. Resistance focused exclusively on the hate rock scene and its young audience, while The Spotlight's average reader was so much older that Blodgett reportedly joked that it was "filled with ads for denture adhesives and incontinence underwear."

The Carto-Blodgett partnership soon hit rough waters. Carto was dealing with financial difficulties stemming from a legal struggle to control his Holocaust-denial propaganda machine, the Institute for Historical Review. He was ultimately forced to declare bankruptcy and relinquish control. After falling out with Blodgett, Carto decided to sell his stake in the company and, by March 1999, Blodgett had found an eager taker in Dr. William Pierce, leader of the National Alliance, one of the most dangerous organized neo-Nazi hate groups in the United States today.

Next: National Alliance Takes Charge