“Confirming Mr. Barnes’s account is problematic after so much time“
More Unsubstantiated NYT’s Stories from the Grave
A Four-Decade Secret: One Man’s Story of Sabotaging Carter’s Re-election
So, with almost every witness to this history shaking “story” taking a dirt-nap except for the influence hustler Ben Barnes (in search of his last hurrah), the estimable New York Times decides to shake the global ground by trying, yet again, to slime the legacy of one of the greatest Presidents in United States history…Ronald Reagan.
As per NYT’s SOP, create a fantastical and convoluted smear against the legacy of a revered and dead Republican icon:
Former Texas Democrat Governor John Connally traveled the Middle East in 1980 to secretly sabotage President Jimmy Carter’s sinking campaign on behalf of the Reagan campaign.
And, in the absence of an “unknown source”:
Dredge up a has-been nobody as a source:
Long-forgotten Texas Democrat Lt. Governor Ben Barnes (who is never specifically and clearly identified as a Democrat in the article).
Burnish the nobody’s rancid credentials by further dredging up kudos from an even more distasteful political grifter, Viet Nam warmonger Lyndon Johnson:
“Lyndon B. Johnson predicted that Mr. Barnes would become president someday.”
Supply the reader with a dark conspiracy that absolves a liberal icon from failing as a result of failing:
“Mr. Connally…took him (Barnes) to one Middle Eastern capital after another…meeting with a host of regional leaders to deliver a blunt message to be passed to Iran: Don’t release the hostages before the election. Mr. Reagan will win and give you a better deal.”
Be certain that any actual corroborating witnesses to the claim are all taking dirt-naps:
“Confirming Mr. Barnes’s account is problematic after so much time. Mr. Connally, Mr. Casey and other central figures have long since died and Mr. Barnes has no diaries or memos to corroborate his account.”
And then, finally, the coup de grâce…produce hearsay witnesses in the spirit of Christine Blasey Ford:
“Mr. Barnes identified four living people he said he had confided in over the years…All four of them confirmed in recent days that Mr. Barnes shared the story with them years ago. ‘As far as I know, Ben never has lied to me’….”
GUILTY AS CHARGED!
COPYRIGHT 2023 DAN SARGIS