John Guardiano has an exceptionally silly piece on New Majority, arguing that even as people on the right go crazy about Obama's birth certificate, the health care death panel, and other such things, the left has their crazies too, led by... JFK conspiracy theorist Oliver Stone? Here's Guardiano:
But why are leftists and the media silent when one of their own propagates an even more malicious and bizarre theory about our nation’s military and intelligence personnel? Worse yet, why do some of America’s leading media outlets give these crackpots a platform to propagate their lies?I'm not arguing that there aren't crazy people on the left- but is Oliver Stone's JFK theory really the best you can do?This happens more often than you may realize. The latest case in point is a recent Huffington Post piece by the acclaimed director Oliver Stone, in which Stone asserts unequivocally that “the military-intelligence community” assassinated President Kennedy.
First of all, this is a pretty old issue; "JFK" came out 18 years ago. I'm guessing if any liberal was going to denounce Stone for it, they would have done so back in 1991. If liberals didn't repudiate Stone this week, it was probably for one of two reasons: they didn't see his Huffington Post piece, or they're ignoring Stone because he's been irrelevant for years.
He made a movie about 9/11 that wasn't that bad, but nobody saw it. Then he made one about Bush that wasn't so bad either, but... nobody saw that either. Now he's readying a sequel to "Wall Street" that sounds like the worst movie idea of the decade.
So let's review: the crazy right includes all the birthers, all the death panelers, several members of Congress who back both, and much of the conservative media establishment. The crazy left consists of... Oliver Stone.
And hey, I agree with Guardiano that Stone is dead wrong about the JFK assassination, and I know I'm not the only liberal who feels that way.
David Frum's New Majority site has done some very good work, attempting to chart an intelligent, respectable future for conservatism while standing up to the likes of Sarah Palin and Mark Levin. But this piece wasn't one of its shining moments.
Posted by Stephen Silver at August 12, 2009 11:48 PM