The "Debate Club" is a feature of US News and World Report, or at least its online edition, which is billed as "a meeting of the sharpest minds on the day's most important topics."
I don't know about that – but I'll take them at their word.
A few weeks ago an editor from US News contacted me and asked if I would contribute a 500 word Debate Club op/ed on the question, Was there a conspiracy to assassinate JFK?
He asked because I wrote a book on the subject, first published in hardcover in 2007. It re-emerged as an e-book this past October.
He also asked because the 50th anniversary of the assassination is coming up.
Within a day or so I'd completed the 500 words (550, as it turned out) and sent them along. I have not heard a peep out of USNWR since.
I had to sign a contract that, among other things, prevents me from quoting my op/ed here. I'll link to it from this blog if they use it. If they don't, it still belongs to me and I'll be free to post it. I'm not all that confident they will use it. I'm sure they asked a lot of others to contribute.
Ego being what it is, I hope to reach the wide audience the Debate Club might afford. But of course, I'm no Vincent Bugliosi. I toned down the rhetoric, but the thrust of my essay is that the Debate Club's question is stupid. So I'm not holding my breath.
The current Debate Club topic, as this is written, is whether the Washington Redskins football team should change their name. Coincidentally I just blogged about that. I did not tone down the rhetoric on that one!
A few weeks ago an editor from US News contacted me and asked if I would contribute a 500 word Debate Club op/ed on the question, Was there a conspiracy to assassinate JFK?
He asked because I wrote a book on the subject, first published in hardcover in 2007. It re-emerged as an e-book this past October.
He also asked because the 50th anniversary of the assassination is coming up.
Within a day or so I'd completed the 500 words (550, as it turned out) and sent them along. I have not heard a peep out of USNWR since.
I had to sign a contract that, among other things, prevents me from quoting my op/ed here. I'll link to it from this blog if they use it. If they don't, it still belongs to me and I'll be free to post it. I'm not all that confident they will use it. I'm sure they asked a lot of others to contribute.
Ego being what it is, I hope to reach the wide audience the Debate Club might afford. But of course, I'm no Vincent Bugliosi. I toned down the rhetoric, but the thrust of my essay is that the Debate Club's question is stupid. So I'm not holding my breath.
The current Debate Club topic, as this is written, is whether the Washington Redskins football team should change their name. Coincidentally I just blogged about that. I did not tone down the rhetoric on that one!
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