Texas Monthly lone nutters skipping JFK assassination coverage for 50th

[Guest Robert Morrow]

Or, rather, I should say pretty much skipping it and not putting on the cover the single most important political and historical event in Texas and modern American history: the murder of John Kennedy in a high level domestic coup. Texas Monthy's position: it's obvious that a lone nut commie killed JFK and we see no need to talk about it anymore.

I have come to expect this from Texas Monthly - it has been that way for decades; very little in the way of quality JFK assassination research or commentary. A cipher.

The political blogger at Texas Monthly, Paul Burka, is a well known toady of the Bush family. I remember one time I referred to the Bush family as the "Bush Crime Family" in the comments section and the Monthly editors about had a conniption fit.

Check out this gushing, blushing school girl interview of one of the great political criminals in modern history - GHW Bush - interview by Evan Smith: http://www.texasmonthly.com/content/flfw-will-see-you-now

My approach would have been a tad different. I would have started off the interview by asking Poppy Bush "Did you, Jeb Bush and Oliver North murder CIA drug smuggler Barry Seal in 1986?"

Texas Monthy - pretty much a toady for Lyndon Johnson and the LBJ family as well.

Texas Monthly and its former editor Evan Smith are servants to power of the Texas elite - be it Republican elite or Democratic elite (Johnson family) in years past. They will never bite the hand that feeds it. Luci Baines Johnson gave $5,000 in one year to support Smith's Texas Tribune venture. What are the odds of an "LBJ did it" story over there?

You can't talk credibly about the JFK assassination, or CIA drug smuggling, or 1980 October surprise, decades of Bush political crimes or even Gov. Rick Perry's hilarious homosexual Craigslist adventures at that venue. I guess you could accurately call the Texas Monthly crew - past and present - as court scribes or even "court jesters."

I think this next nugget is a précis of how Texas Monthly approaches political and historical journalism: Paul Burka to incoming US president George W. Bush Dec. 2000: "When I went up to him in the reception line, I handed him a note in which I thanked him for being incredibly generous with his time, access, and candor, and I told him that covering him had been the best experience of my professional life."

My comment:

"It is ok to get on your knees, grovel and bark like a dog when you do this. Your masters will always give you an exclusive interview when they close out their term. That is the reward for selling your soul for a career."

Texas Monthly lone nutters saying we pretty much are not even going to cover the JFK assassination:

http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/jfk-assassination-at-50?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Editors%20Desk&utm_campaign=Editors%20Desk

The Assassination at 50

by Jake Silverstein

November 2013

In November 1973, Texas Monthly , which was still in its first year of existence, marked the tenth anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy with a profile of Lee Harvey Oswald’s mother, Marguerite; the cover, however, went to Tom Landry. Two years later, in November 1975, the cover featured Dallas Times Herald photographer Bob Jackson’s famous image of Oswald being shot and a story about the shooter, Jack Ruby. On the assassination’s twentieth anniversary, in 1983, an eerie Vivienne Flesher portrait of Oswald peered out from under the magazine’s logo, with the line “Oswald’s Ghost.” We skipped the twenty-fifth and thirtieth anniversaries entirely—no covers, no stories on the inside, nothing. Then we caught the fever again and published special issues for the thirty-fifth, in 1998, and the fortieth, in 2003, both of them featuring romantic cover photos of JFK and Jackie. Five years ago we did nothing. Which brings us to the present occasion.

There are a handful of pieces in this month’s issue relating to the assassination, but it is not the cover story, and I doubt it will ever be the cover story again. I wouldn’t have said this a year or two ago, when the fiftieth first began to loom into view. But the truth is that most of what needs to be expressed about the event has already been said, by us and by others. Its impact on Dallas and on Texas has been thoroughly considered (most insightfully, I believe, in Dallas native Lawrence Wright’s story “Why Do They Hate Us So Much?” in our November 1983 issue, as well as his book In the New World ). Its many reverberations in American politics and society have been considered from every angle. Most importantly, there is no longer any legitimate mystery about what happened—or any need to spend time indulging or debunking conspiracy theorists.

Which is why, instead of focusing on the assassination, this month’s cover pays tribute to the wild, over-the-top prosperity of the boom that’s currently under way in the Eagle Ford Shale and the Permian Basin. This seems appropriate; it was the oil boom of the seventies, after all, that helped turn the page on the darkness of the previous decade. Money, especially oil money, is a powerful reviver. As Bryan Mealer writes in his vivid portrait of the shale bonanza (“  ‘Y’all Smell That? That’s the Smell of Money’  ”), booms are “our proof that the American dream is alive and well. For the dream flourishes in every boom, or at least a feverish version of it.”

Enough dreams have flourished since November 22, 1963, that the alarm and desolation of that day have long since faded. As executive editor Pamela Colloff points out in her story about the letters of sympathy sent to Jackie (“  ‘May God Be With You, My Dear Mrs. Kennedy’  ”), only a quarter of Texans living today were alive fifty years ago. The job of discovery and explanation has been completed. What remains for us—what will always remain—is the simpler job of remembering. And getting on with things.

Edited October 26, 2013 by Robert Morrow

[Pat Speer]

"Most importantly, there is no longer any legitimate mystery about what happened—or any need to spend time indulging or debunking conspiracy theorists."

That's just ignorant. While it's called Texas Monthly, that doesn't mean it has to reflect the education and intelligence of the average Texan.

Edited October 26, 2013 by Pat Speer

[Guest Robert Morrow]

"Most importantly, there is no longer any legitimate mystery about what happened—or any need to spend time indulging or debunking conspiracy theorists."

That's just ignorant. While it's called Texas Monthly, that doesn't mean it has to reflect the education and intelligence of the average Texan.

It precisely reflects the view of the Johnson family (Democratic old Texas power elite) and the Bush family (Republican new Texas power elite). One political establishment - across the board. Many Texans know the truth about the JFK assassination; it is the political, business and social elite who finds that denial serves their interests.

Both Bush family and LBJ: very close ties to CIA, military contractors and Big Oil.

Texas Monthly is but a willing tool for this bipartisan establishment with so many dirty secrets to keep and family legacies to preserve.

Edited October 26, 2013 by Robert Morrow

[Douglas Caddy]

I have always found Texas Monthly to be an overrated publication, bordering on being just plain boring. But once in awhile it does carry an article of merit.

[Christopher Hall]

I have subscribed to it on occasion because I like Texas (i.e. authentic) country music, because I like reading about Texas culture and because I like reading about the various locales in the state, but that is about it.

I invariably drop my coverage at some point.

We will continue to see the LN crowd and their emissaries in the media summarily disposing of the JFK assassination mystery, as the passage that Pat quoted, but their wholesale dismissals have no impact on history, on the truth or on public opinion, which is not favorable to the LN party line.