WaPo Finally Mentions JFK Revisited-- Check Out the Bizarre Non-Review

[W. Niederhut]

Spike Lee’s flirtation with 9/11 trutherism isn’t a surprise. But it should be a warning.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/08/26/spike-lees-flirtation-with-911-trutherism-isnt-surprise-it-should-be-warning/?nid=top_pb_signin&arcId=TSW6WZZZOFAWFPVHNSBZIZOZEI&account_location=ONSITE_HEADER_ARTICLE

 

Filmmaker Spike Lee outside his studio in the Fort Green section of Brooklyn. (Andre D. Wagner for The Washington Post)

Opinion by

Sonny Bunch

Contributing columnist

Today at 8:00 a.m. EDT

 

Initially, the news that acclaimed filmmaker Spike Lee is sympathetic to a noxious class of conspiracy theories about the 9/11 terrorist attacks seems shocking. But it’s hardly the first time that Lee has elevated conspiratorial thinking. And he’s not alone: Filmmakers have long gravitated to conspiracy theories as excellent sources of plot and atmosphere.

However, it’s worth taking a closer look at the claptrap some artists are feeding the public — and to recognize that it’s more than benign entertainment.

The so-called 9/11 Truth movement, which questions the obvious explanation for what happened that day — that hijackers flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, while passengers forced down United 93 in the fields of Pennsylvania — and posits alternative and sinister explanations for why the buildings came down has a sordid history. So it’s natural that the New York Times’ Reggie Ugwu would ask Lee why he included extensive comments from a 9/11 Truther in his new documentary “New York Epicenters: 9/11 – 2021½.”

“I got questions,” Lee said, parroting well-known 9/11 Truth talking points. “The amount of heat that it takes to make steel melt, that temperature’s not reached. And then the juxtaposition of the way Building 7 fell to the ground — when you put it next to other building collapses that were demolitions, it’s like you’re looking at the same thing.”

This isn’t the first time Lee’s raised such “questions.” In his Hurricane Katrina documentary “When the Levees Broke,” Lee gave airtime to folks who darkly hinted that the levees in New Orleans had previously been destroyed during Hurricane Betsy in 1965, and may have been deliberately blown up again during Katrina to flood poor Black neighborhoods.

Lee’s filmography often deals with the ways in which minority communities have been abused by those in power, so it’s not surprising that he often sees dark forces at work behind the scenes. But it is somewhat surprising he can’t turn that part of his brain off even when confronting a tragedy we all saw play out live on TV.

Lee is by no means the only great filmmaker to channel his conspiratorial leanings into his work. Oliver Stone is currently making the festival rounds with “JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass,” a documentary he hopes “ties up many loose threads, and hopefully repudiates much of the ignorance around” both John F. Kennedy’s assassination and “JFK,” the fictionalized movie Stone made about the case.

Richard Linklater included old pal and rabid conspiracy theorist Alex Jones in his films “Waking Life“ and “A Scanner Darkly,” the latter of which posited a strange confluence of American hyper-surveillance and the ills of the pharma-industrial complex.

It is not difficult to separate art from artist here. Lee’s “Bamboozled” remains a bracing comment on the nature of racial depictions on TV and in film, regardless of whether or not he’s willing to entertain the idea that George W. Bush did 9/11. Nor is it difficult to separate art from truth: “JFK” remains one of the best-edited movies I’ve ever seen, the rapid cutting replicating the verbal avalanches used by conspiracy theorists to overwhelm common sense, even if Lee Harvey Oswald absolutely and without a doubt killed Kennedy.

But in an age of resurgent conspiracism, with wild talk about QAnon and vaccination misinformation filling the void as 9/11 Truth has ebbed, it is worth thinking about the ways in which mainstream filmmakers have helped give rise to our new paranoid moment.

“We have some complicity in sort of narrativizing conspiracies and building a universe in which, you know, there’s always a twist and there’s always a secret bad guy/organization behind stuff,” screenwriter John August recently said on his podcast with fellow screenwriter Craig Mazin, “Scriptnotes.”

Mazin’s words were even stronger.

“It oughta give strong, clear pause if you are thinking about writing a conspiracy theory story. Because we have absolutely fed into this,” Mazin said in response to a question from listeners about whether or not the rise of Q and similar theories could be traced back to shows such as “The X-Files.” “The insistence that everything that happens in the world has occurred because humans wanted it to happen, and that anybody that thinks otherwise is naive and foolish, that’s a problem. It has absolutely fed into this stuff.”

Mazin and August highlighted the Jason Bourne movies — about a clandestine superspy organization keeping tabs on everyone all over the globe at the same time — but this sort of device pops up everywhere. From the big-budget comic book blockbusters, which feature organizations such as S.H.I.E.L.D. in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Amanda Waller’s Suicide Squad in DC’s movies; to the final reveal in mid-budget horror titles such as “Old”; to the entire “Purge” franchise, which is predicated upon the idea that the government would sanction the murder of minorities for fun and profit, there’s a sinister, controlling hand at work nearly everywhere we look.

Certainly Fox Mulder didn’t create Q; “The Parallax View” isn’t responsible for vaccine hesitancy. But it’s hard to deny that a media saturated in paranoia contributes to a public steeped in mistrust. When Lee says he simply wants to put “information in the movie and let people decide for themselves,” I can’t help but think of all the people doing their own “research” on covid-19 vaccines in an effort to talk themselves out of getting a lifesaving shot.

“A person is smart,” Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) tells Agent J (Will Smith) in a key conspiracy text, “Men in Black.” “People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals, and you know it.” Conspiratorial thinking may be fun to play with on screen. But filmmakers concerned about the brains of their audience might want to consider whether to keep feeding that sort of dumb panic.

 

Edited August 27, 2021 by W. Niederhut

[James DiEugenio]

OSWALD ABSOLUTELY AND WITHOUT DOUBT KILLED KENNEDY?

This is what I wrote about and thought would happen.  That whole rightwing Q movement would be deliberately mixed in with the JFK critical community and then be used as a brush to smear the JFK critics with.  When in fact they are not at all related, let alone the same.

I have tried to explain this on more than one occasion, once with that sell out Steven Gillon.  He was all so eager to do this in order to cover his tracks for cooperating with someone like Dale "Single Bullet Fact" Myers on a JFK special. 

 https://www.kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/steven-gillon-mark-lane-equals-donald-trump

[Benjamin Cole]

7 minutes ago, James DiEugenio said:

OSWALD ABSOLUTELY AND WITHOUT DOUBT KILLED KENNEDY?

This is what I wrote about and thought would happen.  That whole rightwing Q movement would be deliberately mixed in with the JFK critical community and then be used as a brush to smear the JFK critics with.  When in fact they are not at all related, let alone the same.

I have tried to explain this on more than one occasion, once with that sell out Steven Gillon.  He was all so eager to do this in order to cover his tracks for cooperating with someone like Dale "Single Bullet Fact" Myers on a JFK special. 

 https://www.kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/steven-gillon-mark-lane-equals-donald-trump

This is worse than I could have imagined. The WaPo is a mouthpiece for the national security state and the Donk Party.  

 

[W. Niederhut]

50 minutes ago, James DiEugenio said:

OSWALD ABSOLUTELY AND WITHOUT DOUBT KILLED KENNEDY?

This is what I wrote about and thought would happen.  That whole rightwing Q movement would be deliberately mixed in with the JFK critical community and then be used as a brush to smear the JFK critics with.  When in fact they are not at all related, let alone the same.

I have tried to explain this on more than one occasion, once with that sell out Steven Gillon.  He was all so eager to do this in order to cover his tracks for cooperating with someone like Dale "Single Bullet Fact" Myers on a JFK special. 

 https://www.kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/steven-gillon-mark-lane-equals-donald-trump

It's amazing to see how many false statements and inaccurate characterizations Sonny Bunch was able to cram into that brief, miserable op-ed.

It's like an entertainment article from the "news" bureau in George Orwell's novel 1984.

Bunch's Lone Nutter statement about Oswald was the worst, but how about his attribution of Spike Lee's rational skepticism about the official 9/11 narrative to African American paranoia?   Huh?

Bunch needs to go back and study "the tragedy we all saw play out on live on television" more carefully.  He, apparently missed the serial explosions that pulverized and demolished the WTC towers.

 

Edited August 27, 2021 by W. Niederhut

[James DiEugenio]

To really see how far off this is, in my article this is a key statement:

Robert Alan Greenberg, in his book Enemies Within: The Culture of Conspiracy in Modern America, describes some of what Revilo Oliver thought about the murder of President Kennedy:

The conspirators had become impatient with Kennedy when his efforts to foment domestic chaos through the civil rights movement and “economic collapse” had fallen behind schedule. (Greenberg, p. 110)

They thought JFK was a commie plant!  I mean how different can you get?  But this is how eager the MSM is to use the Q phenomenon as a discrediting device. I actually think this is an act of desperation on their part.  Sort of like pouring boiling oil over the ramparts of the castle.

[Benjamin Cole]

49 minutes ago, James DiEugenio said:

To really see how far off this is, in my article this is a key statement:

Robert Alan Greenberg, in his book Enemies Within: The Culture of Conspiracy in Modern America, describes some of what Revilo Oliver thought about the murder of President Kennedy:

The conspirators had become impatient with Kennedy when his efforts to foment domestic chaos through the civil rights movement and “economic collapse” had fallen behind schedule. (Greenberg, p. 110)

They thought JFK was a commie plant!  I mean how different can you get?  But this is how eager the MSM is to use the Q phenomenon as a discrediting device. I actually think this is an act of desperation on their part.  Sort of like pouring boiling oil over the ramparts of the castle.

"I actually think this is an act of desperation on their part." --JD

This may be right.

Something about the Afghanistan collapse is driving the establishment batty. The story is not what a long-run catastrophe and obvious, overt example of globalist hubris was Afghanistan.  The story is "Biden's Blunderous Bungle."  The MSM wants this dead albatross hung around Biden's neck and memorialized that way. They would have hung it on Trump's neck if he had pulled out. 

 

 

 

 

[W. Niederhut]

Is there any reasonable doubt at this point that a 21st century iteration of Operation Mockingbird is alive and well?

This week's coordinated M$M assault on Spike Lee and the Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth is proof positive, IMO.

And, in an obvious case of overplaying their hand, WaPo even dragged Oliver Stone into the smear campaign-- after blacklisting any coverage of JFK Revisited all summer.

Edited August 27, 2021 by W. Niederhut

[Benjamin Cole]

8 hours ago, W. Niederhut said:

Is there any reasonable doubt at this point that a 21st century iteration of Operation Mockingbird is alive and well?

This week's coordinated M$M assault on Spike Lee and the Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth is proof positive, IMO.

And, in an obvious case of overplaying their hand, WaPo even dragged Oliver Stone into the smear campaign-- after blacklisting any coverage of JFK Revisited all summer.

W.--

 

Just out of curiosity.

You see how WaPo handles the JFKA and 9/11 topics.

But then how do they handle the 1/6 topic?

If there there is a story behind the story on 1/6, would you trust WaPo to dig it out? 

 

 

 

[Ron Bulman]

10 hours ago, W. Niederhut said:

Is there any reasonable doubt at this point that a 21st century iteration of Operation Mockingbird is alive and well?

This week's coordinated M$M assault on Spike Lee and the Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth is proof positive, IMO.

And, in an obvious case of overplaying their hand, WaPo even dragged Oliver Stone into the smear campaign-- after blacklisting any coverage of JFK Revisited all summer.

I've never thought Mockingbird went away or was abandoned.  It probably has a new acronym by now, been re shaped, re focused over the years.  Especially with the consolidation of the ownership of the ownership of the M$M by the 1%.  What is it 95 or 98% owned by Them.  They were there pounding Stone's JFK well before it opened.  The were damned sure there in Dealy Plaza for the 50th anniversary, in full pre planned control.  On horseback, literally.

And while Through The Looking Glass: JFK Revisited gets great reviews and distributed widely in the rest of the world its ignored and not distributed, yet at least, in the USA. 

[Benjamin Cole]

16 minutes ago, Ron Bulman said:

I've never thought Mockingbird went away or was abandoned.  It probably has a new acronym by now, been re shaped, re focused over the years.  Especially with the consolidation of the ownership of the ownership of the M$M by the 1%.  What is it 95 or 98% owned by Them.  They were there pounding Stone's JFK well before it opened.  The were damned sure there in Dealy Plaza for the 50th anniversary, in full pre planned control.  On horseback, literally.

And while Through The Looking Glass: JFK Revisited gets great reviews and distributed widely in the rest of the world its ignored and not distributed, yet at least, in the USA. 

A bit dated, but interesting report  from Reason. 

https://reason.com/2016/10/10/the-pentagon-accounts-for-more-than-half/

Pentagon spends $600 million to $800 million every year on PR. 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2015/12/14/meet-the-2nd-largest-pr-firm-in-the-world-the-u-s-government/?sh=19fe2d4830cb

The Pentagon spends huge gobs of money to hire PR consultants. This is just what is public record. 

The figures above refer to the Obama years.  Worse or better under Trump or Biden? Who knows? 

And all those people on the gravy train are bought--they cannot get out of line or they might get cut off from the money. 

The JFKA research community, in its entirety, probably has a budget equal to a few PR execs hired by the Pentagon.  We have some websites and Oliver Stone, and they have nearly the entire swath of media. 

Well, David slew Goliath...but how about a whole platoon of Goliaths? 

 

 

[W. Niederhut]

13 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

W.--

 

Just out of curiosity.

You see how WaPo handles the JFKA and 9/11 topics.

But then how do they handle the 1/6 topic?

If there there is a story behind the story on 1/6, would you trust WaPo to dig it out?

Ben,

     I have no inside information about how the Washington Post operates but my impression, as a reader, is that they cover U.S. political news very well, except in matters pertaining to the CIA and covert military ops.

     The late Katherine Graham, who owned the WaPo, famously said, "There are some things that the American people don't need to know"-- i.e., like the true history of covert CIA and military ops at home and abroad since WWII... 🤥

    

[Benjamin Cole]

9 hours ago, W. Niederhut said:

Ben,

     I have no inside information about how the Washington Post operates but my impression, as a reader, is that they cover U.S. political news very well, except in matters pertaining to the CIA and covert military ops.

     The late Katherine Graham, who owned the WaPo, famously said, "There are some things that the American people don't need to know"-- i.e., like the true history of covert CIA and military ops at home and abroad since WWII... 🤥

    

So, if elements of the national security state were involved in the Jan. 6 scrum...you would not expect the WaPo to inform you? 

[W. Niederhut]

3 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

So, if elements of the national security state were involved in the Jan. 6 scrum...you would not expect the WaPo to inform you? 

No, I wouldn't, Ben.   But I still don't see how the January 6th insurrection could have possibly been in the interest of the "national security state" -- unless the objective was to create a pretext for removing Pence from the Capitol before the election could be certified.

[Ron Bulman]

Damnit Benjamin this was not an English soccer or rugby match scrum.  Why do you keep trying to deduce it to that?  It was fucxing insurrection.

Edited August 29, 2021 by Ron Bulman

[Benjamin Cole]

8 hours ago, Ron Bulman said:

Damnit Benjamin this was not an English soccer or rugby match scrum.  Why do you keep trying to deduce it to that?  It was fucxing insurrection.

Ron B.--

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/exclusive-fbi-finds-scant-evidence-us-capitol-attack-was-coordinated-sources-2021-08-20/

Well, FBI says mostly just a bunch of kooks. That is my take from reading arrest reports and prosecutions---not relying on WaPo and other party-affiliated news media. Doing my own primary research. 

So why would the FBI say the Jan 6 incident was mostly a bunch of kooks? Two options:

1. Jan. 6 was mostly a bunch of kooks. So the FBI is just telling the truth. 

2. There were government infiltrators and plants in the crowd, who had (perhaps even inadvertently) had enabled elements in the crowd to arrive and assemble. 

If you are familiar with the history of hunting terrorists and commies in the USA, and with the more recent Governor Whitmer kidnapping case, these marginalized organizations are rife with plant and informants or agents, who often provide financing or goad participants on. It is entrapment, but goes on.  

"Michigan governor kidnap plot dreamt up by FBI informants, accused leader claims"

The whole Whitmer kidnapping case looks fishy.

 

 

 

Edited August 29, 2021 by Benjamin Cole
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