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From: Stig Agermose <stig.agermose@get2net.dk>
Date: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 00:07:24
Fwd Date: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 14:47:51 -0400
Subject: RUFOs, JFK, and Richard Belzer


Source: The Village Voice,

http://www.villagevoice.com/features/9924/vest.shtml

Stig

***

June 16 - 22, 1999

Stand-Up Conspiracist

UFOS, JFK, and Richard Belzer

by

Jason Vest

*

Washington— The baby looked utterly horrified upon beholding the
approaching man in a dark suit and even darker glasses .

And who could blame him? Even if his cognizance of the shadowy
world of conspiracy theories couldn't be articulated, the infant
seemed to instinctively know that a visit from a man in black
does not portend pleasantness. Forget the fact I'm strapped to
mom's chest and in the middle of a bookstore, his
terror-stricken face seemed to say. This dude is bad news.

The refrain seemed to frighten the baby even more, and Richard
Belzer gave up, handing him back to his mother. "Whip out the
breast, babe, because I don't want him crying when I read," he
snapped, and made his way to the podium surrounded by a deluge
of Homicide fans and conspiracy buffs, all assembled to hear the
actor-comedian riff off his book, UFOs, JFK, and Elvis:
Conspiracies You Don't Have To Be Crazy To Believe. According to
some, you do indeed have to be crazy to believe what Belzer
serves up; in the book, he unabashedly worships at the altar of
Jim Marrs, a Texas journalist whose book on the Kennedy
assassination, Crossfire, is regarded by many serious
researchers with skepticism, and whose recent offering, Alien
Agenda, is, well, out there. And the format of Belzer's book—
short chapters, lots of sidebars and boxes, no footnotes—
doesn't exactly buttress the jacket's claim that "the truth is
in here."

But, as Belzer explains, the book is better read as provocation,
not as Revealed Truth. "What I really want to do is goose
people's imaginations," he says. "It's clear I believe there was
a conspiracy involved in the murder of the president, but I make
clear what I believe and what is theory. This is stuff I've
wanted to get off my chest and brain for a long time."

Blend the personification of "just because you ain't paranoid
don't mean they ain't out to get you" with the sensibilities of
a latter-day chautauquan gone cynical and you have Belzer in a
nutshell. He rues the stratified oligarchy that he sees being
constructed on the somniferous ruins of democracy. Like the
Homicide character Detective John Munch, he believes that if
people have an opportunity to take advantage of others, they
will. Given this view of human nature, the word "conspiracy" has
no stigma for Belzer; as he points out, its Latin root simply
means "to breathe together," and, to him, conspiracies are as
natural as breathing. If a conspiracy led by a drunk,
out-of-work actor could kill a president over 100 years ago, he
asks, is it so ridiculous to believe more sophisticated people
in power can't execute any number of nefarious plots? Is it so
absurd to entertain notions that involve ulterior motives and
hidden agendas?

"One of my purposes is, I want to convert people to looking at
things in a different way— there's a lot out there that's not
blaring across the front page, but people can find out for
themselves," he says. "There's more going on than we ever
suspected. I mean, look at all the tourists who come to
Washington. It seems that Washington is really beautiful. But
what it really is is a beautifully wrapped package with maggots
and shit inside." Which was part of the reason, he says, that he
reveled in the Homicide­Law & Order crossover episodes set in
Washington last season in which the shows' characters found
themselves overwhelmed by a maze of lies and abuses of power. "I
loved those episodes because they showed what people with power
can do and how people and information can be manipulated."

This theme is one that has held Belzer's interest most of his
adult life; working in Connecticut as a reporter at his hometown
Bridgeport Post in the late '60s, he keenly recalls his latent
anti-authoritarian notions being stoked by a sense of revulsion
at what he saw covering courts and cops. "Hearing these people
talk, I was like, these aren't the pristine authority figures I
had grown up believing to be always right— I didn't realize how
sinister and cavalier people in power are until I really got to
be around them," he says. "I remember hearing the police
commissioner talking about people in this kind of patronizing— I
don't want to say racist [way], but let's say he showed contempt
for certain kinds of people— and this really, really disturbed
me."

Leaving Connecticut journalism to move to New York, Belzer was
further radicalized by alternative media. Ever the voracious
reader, he still dives into books and devours at least five
newspapers a day. He used to think of himself as a stand-up
journalist, and to some extent, it's still the best description
for what Belzer does best. As Belzer continually emerged like a
town crier from his trailer on the set of Homicide after hours
of news and conspiracy research, the show's writers began to
integrate his political rants into scripts, which fit nicely
with his Detective Munch character. A '60s-era pothead
alternative journalist who, because of a love for the slick TV
detective shows of his youth, ends up using his bullshit
detection skills in the service of The Man, who he clearly
doesn't trust. Indeed, Munch may be the only TV cop who isn't
down with the War on Drugs because he knows the conspiratorial
history of marijuana criminalization. "It was true, so [NBC]
really couldn't censor it," he says. "And I liked it because it
showed there are people who work for the state who aren't happy
with the state."

That said, though, discerning readers might wonder if Belzer, in
his zeal to inspire political vigilance, has let his ardor trump
his intellect. According to a veteran conspiracy researcher and
fan of Belzer's, by relying on the work of Jim Marrs— who, among
other things, asserts that the moon moves not in an ellipse but
in an almost precise circular orbit, and thus was placed off
earth by aliens— Belzer does his intellectual reputation a
disservice. "He's so much smarter than that!" says the
researcher. But Belzer's not fazed. "Friends of mine say,
'You're crazy' or 'You're making that up,' and I just say I'm a
messenger. That's why I include a bibiliography. I just want
people to look deeper."

Take Rudy Giuliani's New York, he says. "It seems like all the
homeless people are literally disappearing. I had a cabbie tell
me last year, 'It's great, but where are they?' Curious how the
undesirable people disappear as things start gentrifying, isn't
it?" It may be a phenomenon Detective Munch can investigate this
fall; despite Homicide's cancellation, it looks like Belzer will
return as the conspiracy-spouting investigator on the new Law &
Order spinoff. Though it's hard to picture a cop who sounds like
Richard Belzer lasting long on Howard Safir's NYPD if he voices
anything like what Belzer believes: "I think you can have a
clean, civil city without being so heavy-handed and
mean-spirited."


Tell us what you think.

editor@villagevoice.com