Federal agencies have just released sealed documents related to the murder of President John F. Kennedy. There is no smoking gun in this latest release, but Oct. 26 is the date se by law for final release of all classified JFK documents.

Locally, a television star-turned-filmmaker thinks the crime was solved years go. John Barbour’s film is called “The American Media and Second Assassination of President John F. Kennedy.”

The assassination of President Kennedy changed our country in many ways.

Most Americans don’t believe the official story that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, despite the fact that major media outlets have largely supported that narrative from the beginning.

Filmmaker John Barbour thinks the JFK murder represents the beginning of what he calls fake news.

“The LA Times called my film ‘Conspiracy Porn’ and said, ‘John Barbour is nothing but an angry curmudgeon.’ Well, I am an angry curmudgeon.”

But that’s not how a generation of TV viewers remembers John Barbour. He was a writer and comedian who ran with Frank Sinatra, shared a Las Vegas stage with Bobby Darin, then achieved mega-stardom as producer and co-host of Real People, the most popular show on television. But he lost both fame and fortune after becoming hooked on book written by former New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison.

“I’m not a conspiracy theorist, as you know. I’m just a story teller and to me, Jim Garrison’s story is by far the greatest and most important story in American history, and the murder of JFK,” Barbour said.

Garrison is still the only prosecutor to ever bring charges in the assassination of President Kennedy. Barbour’s attempt to tell Garrison’s story on national TV led to a blowup with NBC, which, Barbour said, sabotaged his report. So, he funded his own project based on the most in-depth interview Garrison ever gave.

Over three-and-a-half hours, Garrison laid out his case that Lee Harvey Oswald had been a patsy, that the JFK assassination had been set in motion by a cabal within the government after Kennedy had threatened to dismantle the CIA and withdraw the U.S. from Vietnam.

Garrison’s investigation focused on businessman Clay Shaw, and a pilot named David Ferrie, both of whom had interacted with Oswald in New Orleans, and both of whom were suspected of working for the CIA.

Barbour’s first film about Garrison focused on the conspiracy to kill Kennedy. His new film is a harsh indictment of media complicity in a JFK coverup. Federal agencies worked vigorously to impede Garrison’s investigation of Clay Shaw, blocked his access to the Zapruder film, placed agents inside his office staff, and planted negative stories with the media.

Barbour’s interview was taped in 1980, but Garrison was already lamenting the coordinated attacks on his integrity by the media, and journalism’s all too eager acceptance of the Warren Commission report, which concluded that Oswald has acted alone.

Former Garrision Aide Endorses Barbour Film

“The story in this film, the story of fake news, how it was created, how Jim Garrison encountered it in his investigation into the murder, and how it is still misinforming us today,” Barbour said.  “CIA created a project to infiltrate the media called Project Mockingbird. In the movie you see all of them infiltrating the New York Times, Washington Post, Time magazine, Newsweek, and my favorite, Reader’s Digest, all infiltrated, taken over by an intelligence apparatus to create fake news and to create fake wars.”

Link to a Facebook group who talks about the film

Barbour says he was inspired to dig back into Garrison’s story because of the current drumbeat about fake news. His new documentary has been well received by JFK researchers, but hasn’t been accepted by film festivals, including in New Orleans. The tone is, as Barbour admits, a bit curmudgeonly.

“In this country, through the media and the government, we’ve been turned into political non-functioning zombies,” he said.

Barbour’s film, which can be access via Amazon, ends with the names of 10 people, still alive, who according to Jim Garrison deserved to be prosecuted for the murder of John Kennedy.

Barbour delivered the names to the Department of Justice, but is not holding his breath that any action will be taken.

Barbour thinks the seeds of the JFK conspiracy were planted in Las Vegas when the CIA recruited the mafia to kill Fidel Castro.