JFK Revisited and Homophobia

[W. Tracy Parnell]

Jim D has evidently been bashing James Kirchick on Twitter. So, I think it is only fair that I post a link to Kirchick's article here.

The Homophobia at the Heart of Oliver Stone's "JFK Revisited" - Air Mail

[Ron Bulman]

1 hour ago, W. Tracy Parnell said:

Jim D has evidently been bashing James Kirchick on Twitter. So, I think it is only fair that I post a link to Kirchick's article here.

The Homophobia at the Heart of Oliver Stone's "JFK Revisited" - Air Mail

I won't enter my email to read the article.  Why waste my time?   Where in the film does it lean on homophobia?  You posted the link, you tell us. 

[Benjamin Cole]

"As the historian Max Holland has written, the claim that the C.I.A. played a role in the Kennedy assassination through its “agent” Clay Shaw—which Garrison promoted, JFK popularized, JFK Revisited reproduces, and a majority of Americans believe—is almost certainly a K.G.B. fabrication."--Air Mail

Egads, where to start with this? 

Again, this article, although supremely lurid---and yes, a reminder of the unfortunate anti-gay biases of the past---does not begin to address the evidence presented in JFK-Revisited. 

BTW, the author of the Air Mail article:

James Kirchick is the author of The End of Europe: Dictators, Demagogues, and the Coming Dark Age. His next book, Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington, will be published by Henry Holt in May

The book's ads say

Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington is a chronicle of American politics like no other. Beginning with the tragic story of Sumner Welles, Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s brilliant diplomatic advisor and the man at the center of “the greatest national scandal since the existence of the United States,” award-winning journalist and author James Kirchick illuminates how the idea of homosexuality shaped each successive presidential administration, impacting everything from the creation of America’s earliest civilian intelligence agency to the rise and fall of McCarthyism, the struggle for African American civil rights, and the conservative movement.

---30---

I never even heard of Sumner Welles. I will be interested to know how the "idea of homosexuality" shaped the Eisenhower Administration. 

 

[David Andrews]

James Kirchick is a columnist for Tablet magazine, a Nonresident Senior Fellow for the Europe Center at the Atlantic Council, and the author of Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington. A widely published journalist, he has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the Spectator, the Atlantic, Commentary, the New York Review of Books, and the Times Literary Supplement, among many other publications. His first book, “The End of Europe: Dictators, Demagogues and the Coming Dark Age,” was published by Yale University Press in 2017.

From 2017 to 2021, Kirchick was a visiting fellow at the Center on the United States and Europe and Project on International Order and Strategy at the Brookings Institution. Prior to Brookings, he was a fellow at the Foreign Policy Initiative in Washington, DC, and a Robert Bosch Foundation fellow in Berlin. In 2010, he became writer-at-large for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague, where he covered the politics and cultures of the twenty-one countries in the news company’s broadcast region. He covered major events including the First Libyan Civil War, a fraudulent presidential election in Belarus, and revolution and ethnic clashes in Kyrgyzstan.

Kirchick began his professional journalism career  at The New Republic, where he covered domestic politics, lobbying, intelligence, and American foreign policy. Recognized for his voice on American gay politics and international gay rights, he is a recipient of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association’s Journalist of the Year Award. He is a professional member of the PEN American Center.

Kirchick has spoken at venues across the United States and around the world including the Oslo Freedom Forum, the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, the Stockholm Free World Forum, the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, and Yale, Columbia and Princeton Universities. He is a frequent commentator on television and radio. Born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, he is a graduate of the Roxbury Latin School and Yale College.

https://jameskirchick.com/about/

Edited February 3, 2022 by David Andrews

[Benjamin Cole]

1 hour ago, David Andrews said:

James Kirchick is a columnist for Tablet magazine, a Nonresident Senior Fellow for the Europe Center at the Atlantic Council, and the author of Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington. A widely published journalist, he has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the Spectator, the Atlantic, Commentary, the New York Review of Books, and the Times Literary Supplement, among many other publications. His first book, “The End of Europe: Dictators, Demagogues and the Coming Dark Age,” was published by Yale University Press in 2017.

From 2017 to 2021, Kirchick was a visiting fellow at the Center on the United States and Europe and Project on International Order and Strategy at the Brookings Institution. Prior to Brookings, he was a fellow at the Foreign Policy Initiative in Washington, DC, and a Robert Bosch Foundation fellow in Berlin. In 2010, he became writer-at-large for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague, where he covered the politics and cultures of the twenty-one countries in the news company’s broadcast region. He covered major events including the First Libyan Civil War, a fraudulent presidential election in Belarus, and revolution and ethnic clashes in Kyrgyzstan.

Kirchick began his professional journalism career  at The New Republic, where he covered domestic politics, lobbying, intelligence, and American foreign policy. Recognized for his voice on American gay politics and international gay rights, he is a recipient of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association’s Journalist of the Year Award. He is a professional member of the PEN American Center.

Kirchick has spoken at venues across the United States and around the world including the Oslo Freedom Forum, the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, the Stockholm Free World Forum, the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, and Yale, Columbia and Princeton Universities. He is a frequent commentator on television and radio. Born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, he is a graduate of the Roxbury Latin School and Yale College.

https://jameskirchick.com/about/

Paint a rainbow on the shells...and bombs away! 

[David Andrews]

Kirchick's CV has certain resonances with Anthony Thorne's essay on think-tank connections, written for Coup in Dallas.

Tonight I'm making chicken in red curry, and I'm fretting over using canned peas rather than frozen.  What do you think?

Edited February 3, 2022 by David Andrews

[John Butler]

10 hours ago, Ron Bulman said:

I won't enter my email to read the article.  Why waste my time?   Where in the film does it lean on homophobia?  You posted the link, you tell us. 

I too think there wasn't anything like that in the film.  However, I believe Jim Garrison thought there was a homosexual angle to the works of Shaw, Ferrie, and Oswald in NO.

[W. Tracy Parnell]

"Guilt by Orientation" - The CIA Strikes Again! (onthetrailofdelusion.com)

[W. Tracy Parnell]

11 hours ago, Ron Bulman said:

I won't enter my email to read the article.  Why waste my time?   Where in the film does it lean on homophobia?  You posted the link, you tell us. 

Stone wouldn't dare do it overtly as he did in 1991. It is explained here:

Oliver Stone with "JFK Revisited" Crucifies Clay Shaw Once Again (onthetrailofdelusion.com)

[W. Niederhut]

Not sure which is the more onerous task this morning-- shoveling snow in -4 F weather or reading Parnell's Litwin-esque propaganda.

At least there's an end to shoveling the snow... 🤥

[Cory Santos]

2 hours ago, W. Niederhut said:

Not sure which is the more onerous task this morning-- shoveling snow in -4 F weather or reading Parnell's Litwin-esque propaganda.

At least there's an end to shoveling the snow... 🤥

In a way he is posting for Fred.   Why he doesn’t express his own opinion, even if based on someone else’s opinion, is odd.   A forum like this is so people discuss.   Just posting someone else’s blog is contrary to the purpose of a forum like this.  

Edited February 3, 2022 by Cory Santos

[W. Tracy Parnell]

1 hour ago, Cory Santos said:

In a way he is posting for Fred.   Why he doesn’t express his own opinion, even if based on someone else’s opinion, is odd.   A forum like this is so people discuss.   Just posting someone else’s blog is contrary to the purpose of a forum like this.  

My opinion is Garrison's probe was based on homophobia for the reasons given by Fred, Kirchick and Alecia Long. Stone's 1991 film was homophobic and he faced protests at the time. The current film is homophobic by omission since it is not honest with the viewer and does not repudiate the homophobic elements of the previous film. Anyone can read the articles I linked to find out more or read the books by Long and Fred.

Kirchick has been criticized for denying that Shaw worked for the CIA but not mentioning the statement by CIA historian McDonald that Shaw was a "highly paid contract source" until 1956. I agree to the extent that Kirchick would have been better off to include this information and Fred's rebuttal of it. This would have averted criticism on that issue. Otherwise, I agree with him.

[Micah Mileto]

17 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

"As the historian Max Holland has written

 

Max Holland? The guy who was exposed by Pat Speer for faking his laser experiment in Dealey Plaza? The experiment that must have cost a fortune to arrange? The guy who, before his own TV special aired, admitted that his central theory was disproven (a hole in a traffic sign visible on a film)? The guy who wrote articles on the JFK assassination which were literally published by the CIA?  That's the talking head we're going with here, on the subject of whether CIA people were involved in the assassination? I have a feeling he's a little biased.

Edited February 3, 2022 by Micah Mileto

[David Andrews]

I'm disappointed that no one cares about my curry recipe, especially since I have to go to the store now.

[Sean Coleman]

33 minutes ago, David Andrews said:

I'm disappointed that no one cares about my curry recipe, especially since I have to go to the store now.

Lentils? Kidney beans at a push. Fresh too