That JFK file release barely had anything new in it

I read through the actual documents from the latest dump on the archives site and like 90% of it was already redacted or heavily sanitized. Am I missing something or did everyone just assume it was a big reveal without checking the files first?

4 comments

4 Comments

the_elizabeth5d ago

Wait, did anyone actually find that "appendix B" menu in full anywhere? I've been trying to track down a decent scan but the only copy I stumbled on was so blurry it looked like it was faxed from a submarine. That 1978 Cuban restaurant detail is the weirdest breadcrumb I've seen yet, makes me wonder if there's a pattern to these random documents that nobody's bothered to piece together.

lilyt235d ago

Oh great, another government "transparency" event where they dump 50,000 pages of blank paper and call it a win. I looked at one file and it was literally just 47 pages of "scrambled" with a sticky note that said "maybe later." The only thing less useful than this release is the guy who paid 50 bucks for the digital copy thinking he'd find the second gunman.

val9745d ago

mitchell.thomas hit the nail on the head with that "see appendix B" bit. I spent an afternoon going through a batch of files and found one that was just 30 pages of a grocery list from 1982. Two cans of Jif peanut butter and a carton of eggs. I almost paid 50 bucks for the whole digital set too, but my credit card declined. Probably for the best, I would have spent a week searching for the second gunman in a coupon for half-off pork chops.

mitchell.thomas5d ago

Ask @lilyt23 if they actually clicked past the first page or just stopped after seeing the sticky note? I went ahead and cross-referenced the document numbers against the previous releases from the 90s and found that at least 30 of the "new" files were actually just scans of the same pages with different cover sheets. The real kicker was finding a file that had a handwritten note saying "see appendix B" but appendix B was just a photocopy of a 1978 menu from a Cuban restaurant in Miami. If anyone actually found something useful in there, they're keeping it real quiet.