The JFK Files: Rhetoric vs. Truth
It’s autumn of 2021 and along with falling leaves, football and apple cider, the time is upon us for the latest round of inflated oratory from the JFK conspiracy theorists clamoring for the release of the “secret JFK files.” President Biden announced on October 23rd that more time is needed to process the records that were due to be released on the 26th. This decision was not greeted warmly by those who are convinced that a conspiracy killed the 35th President. Leading the way for critics of Biden’s ruling, as always, is former Washington Post editor and gadfly Jefferson Morley. When Morley burst on the assassination scene in the late nineties, he represented himself as an activist for the release of JFK files who was agnostic on the question of conspiracy and indeed leaned toward the idea that Oswald was guilty. But an early “red flag” was Morley’s insistence that we will never know the truth until every scrap of paper even tangentially related to the JFK case is released. Fast...