Changes

Four years later, on November 15, 1996, Alger Hiss died. His original Associated Press obituary said that Hiss proclaimed vindication "when a Russian general in charge of Soviet intelligence archives declared that Hiss had never been a spy, but rather a victim of Cold War hysteria and the McCarthy Red-hunting era."<ref>L. Brent Bozell III, "[http://www.mediaresearch.org/BozellColumns/newscolumn/1996/col19961121.asp Hiss Obituaries Prove Network Laziness]," Creators Syndicate, November 21, 1996</ref> That night, NBC's Tom Brokaw said, "Hiss considered vindication a declaration by a Russian General, who controlled the KGB archives, saying that Hiss had never been a spy."<ref>Wes Vernon, "[http://www.aim.org/aim-report/aim-report-media-wont-give-up-on-red-spy-alger-hiss-july-b/ Media Won’t Give Up on Red Spy Alger Hiss]," ''AIM Report'', July B (July 19, 2007)</ref> ABC's Peter Jennings said Hiss "protested his innocence until the very end and last year we reported that the Russian President Boris Yeltsin said that KGB files had supported Mr. Hiss's claim."<ref>Brent Baker, [http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/1996/cyb19961118.asp CyberAlert (Media Research Center), Vol. One, No. 115] (November 18, 1996)</ref> MSNBC anchor Brigitte Quinn said, "In 1987 [sic], a Russian general declared that Hiss was never a spy, but a victim of Cold War hysteria." None of these stories mentioned Volkogonov's retraction. Three days passed before Brokaw corrected the record; four days for Jennings (who belatedly admitted that the source was not Yeltsin, but Volkogonov).<ref>Brent Baker, [http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/1996/cyb19961122.asp CyberAlert (Media Research Center), Vol. One, No. 116] (November 22, 1996)</ref>

Four years later, on November 15, 1996, Alger Hiss died. His original Associated Press obituary said that Hiss proclaimed vindication "when a Russian general in charge of Soviet intelligence archives declared that Hiss had never been a spy, but rather a victim of Cold War hysteria and the McCarthy Red-hunting era."<ref>L. Brent Bozell III, "[http://www.mediaresearch.org/BozellColumns/newscolumn/1996/col19961121.asp Hiss Obituaries Prove Network Laziness]," Creators Syndicate, November 21, 1996</ref> That night, NBC's Tom Brokaw said, "Hiss considered vindication a declaration by a Russian General, who controlled the KGB archives, saying that Hiss had never been a spy."<ref>Wes Vernon, "[http://www.aim.org/aim-report/aim-report-media-wont-give-up-on-red-spy-alger-hiss-july-b/ Media Won’t Give Up on Red Spy Alger Hiss]," ''AIM Report'', July B (July 19, 2007)</ref> ABC's Peter Jennings said Hiss "protested his innocence until the very end and last year we reported that the Russian President Boris Yeltsin said that KGB files had supported Mr. Hiss's claim."<ref>Brent Baker, [http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/1996/cyb19961118.asp CyberAlert (Media Research Center), Vol. One, No. 115] (November 18, 1996)</ref> MSNBC anchor Brigitte Quinn said, "In 1987 [sic], a Russian general declared that Hiss was never a spy, but a victim of Cold War hysteria." None of these stories mentioned Volkogonov's retraction. Three days passed before Brokaw corrected the record; four days for Jennings (who belatedly admitted that the source was not Yeltsin, but Volkogonov).<ref>Brent Baker, [http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/1996/cyb19961122.asp CyberAlert (Media Research Center), Vol. One, No. 116] (November 22, 1996)</ref>

Meanwhile, the U.S. government had released the [[Venona project]] files, Mária Schmidt had published the Hungarian files, the Russian government shut down research access to Soviet-era files, Volkogonov died and retired KGB General Julius N. Kobyakov (whom Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes write "insists that Hiss was not a spy, while nostalgically applauding the greatness of the KGB and lamenting the fall of the USSR")<ref>Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes, "Professors of Denial: Ignoring the truth about American Communists," ''The Weekly Standard'', Volume 010, Issue 25, March 21, 2005</ref> had claimed that it was not Volkogonov but he who had actually searched the Soviet files.<ref>Julius N. Kobyakov, [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0310&week=b&msg=xPNOEFLppoOgkkWbtl1dQw&user=&pw=], H-DIPLO (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), October 10, 2003</ref>

Meanwhile, the U.S. government had released the [[Venona project]] files, Mária Schmidt had published the Hungarian files, the Russian government shut down research access to Soviet-era files, Volkogonov died and retired KGB General Julius N. Kobyakov (whom Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes write "insists that Hiss was not a spy, while nostalgically applauding the greatness of the KGB and lamenting the fall of the USSR")<ref>Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes, "Professors of Denial: Ignoring the truth about American Communists," ''The Weekly Standard'', Volume 010, Issue 25, March 21, 2005</ref> had claimed that it was not Volkogonov but he who had actually searched the Soviet files.<ref>Julius Kobyakov, [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0310&week=b&msg=xPNOEFLppoOgkkWbtl1dQw&user=&pw= Lowenthal and Alger Hiss], Diplomatic History (H-DIPLO) Discussion List, Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online (H-Net), October 10, 2003</ref>

Like Volkogonov, Kobyakov admitted that he had not even seen the GRU files ("No, I did not examine Soviet military archives"); instead, he took the GRU's word for their contents ("I wrote a letter to the GRU and received the relevant answer"). What was that answer? Kobyakov isn't telling: "That of course was, and, I believe, still is a classified correspondence." Why correspondence about 60- or 70-year-old files of a regime that no longer exists is classified, he did not say&mdash;although he did mention that he strongly disapproved of the post-Communist government allowing researchers access to Soviet archives, adding, "fortunately they had no access to the files I worked with."<ref>Julius N. Kobyakov, "[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0310&week=c&msg=/%2bj6%2bNHkqbEMRV0ioyVHUQ&user=&pw= Alger Hiss]," H-DIPLO (Humanities and Social Services Net Online), October 16, 2003</ref>  

Like Volkogonov, Kobyakov admitted that he had not even seen the GRU files ("No, I did not examine Soviet military archives"); instead, he took the GRU's word for their contents ("I wrote a letter to the GRU and received the relevant answer"). What was that answer? Kobyakov isn't telling: "That of course was, and, I believe, still is a classified correspondence." Why correspondence about 60- or 70-year-old files of a regime that no longer exists is classified, he did not say&mdash;although he did mention that he strongly disapproved of the post-Communist government allowing researchers access to Soviet archives, adding, "fortunately they had no access to the files I worked with."<ref>Julius N. Kobyakov, "[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0310&week=c&msg=/%2bj6%2bNHkqbEMRV0ioyVHUQ&user=&pw= Alger Hiss]," H-DIPLO (Humanities and Social Services Net Online), October 16, 2003</ref>  

Few serious scholars still regard the matter of Hiss's guilt as unresolved. Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein, who began believing Hiss innocent, and had the cooperation of Hiss and access to his attorneys' files in his research,<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,918154,00.html A Verdict: 'Hiss Has Been Lying']," ''Time'', March 29, 1976</ref> concluded, "the body of available evidence proves that Hiss perjured himself when describing his secret dealings with Chambers, so that the jury in his second trial made no mistake in finding Alger Hiss guilty as charged."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997), ISBN 0394495462, p. 513</ref> The bipartisan [[Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy|Moynihan commission]] went further&mdash;not just on perjury, but on espionage&mdash;the commission's unanimous Final Report concluding, "The complicity of Alger Hiss of the State Department seems settled."<ref>"[http://www.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/pdf/12hist1.pdf Report of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy] (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1997), Appendix A, p. A-37 (PDF p. 39)</ref> Writing in ''American History'' magazine, James Gray of West Georgia College agreed, "the preponderance of evidence does weigh heavily against Hiss."<ref>James Gray, "[http://www.historynet.com/magazines/american_history/3032686.html?page=4&c=y The Alger Hiss Spy Case]," ''American History'', June 1998</ref> Even Yeshiva University Professor Ellen Schrecker (infamous for her argument that the Rosenbergs were guilty only of "nontraditional patriotism")<ref> Joseph Rago, "[http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110007878 Rosenberg Reruns]," ''The Wall Street Journal'', January 27, 2006</ref>now concedes, "There is now too much evidence from too many different sources for anyone but the most die-hard loyalists to argue convincingly for the innocence of Hiss…." Referring to Hiss in a review of ''The Haunted Wood,'' Hamilton College history professor Maurice Isserman, probably the best regarded of the left-wing scholars of Communism, wrote, "Let's face it, the debate just ended."<ref>Jacob Weisberg, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F01E4DE1F3CF93BA15752C1A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1  Cold War Without End]," ''The New York Times'', November 28, 1999</ref>

Few serious scholars still regard the matter of Hiss's guilt as unresolved. Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein, who began believing Hiss innocent, and had the cooperation of Hiss and access to his attorneys' files in his research,<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,918154,00.html A Verdict: 'Hiss Has Been Lying']," ''Time'', March 29, 1976</ref> concluded, "the body of available evidence proves that Hiss perjured himself when describing his secret dealings with Chambers, so that the jury in his second trial made no mistake in finding Alger Hiss guilty as charged."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997), ISBN 0394495462, p. 513</ref> The bipartisan [[Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy|Moynihan commission]] went further&mdash;not just on perjury, but on espionage&mdash;the commission's unanimous Final Report concluding, "The complicity of Alger Hiss of the State Department seems settled."<ref>"[http://www.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/pdf/12hist1.pdf Report of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy] (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1997), Appendix A, p. A-37 (PDF p. 39)</ref> Writing in ''American History'' magazine, James Gray of West Georgia College agreed, "the preponderance of evidence does weigh heavily against Hiss."<ref>James Gray, "[http://www.historynet.com/magazines/american_history/3032686.html?page=4&c=y The Alger Hiss Spy Case]," ''American History'', June 1998</ref> Even Yeshiva University Professor Ellen Schrecker (infamous for her argument that the Rosenbergs were guilty only of "nontraditional patriotism")<ref> Joseph Rago, "[http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110007878 Rosenberg Reruns]," ''The Wall Street Journal'', January 27, 2006</ref>now concedes, "There is now too much evidence from too many different sources for anyone but the most die-hard loyalists to argue convincingly for the innocence of Hiss…." Referring to Hiss in a review of ''The Haunted Wood,'' Hamilton College history professor Maurice Isserman, probably the best regarded of the left-wing scholars of Communism, wrote, "Let's face it, the debate just ended."<ref>Jacob Weisberg, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F01E4DE1F3CF93BA15752C1A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1  Cold War Without End]," ''The New York Times'', November 28, 1999</ref>

A wide variety of scholars&mdash;across the political spectrum&mdash;now agree that the historical consensus is that Hiss was guilty. "'ALES' is assumed by most scholars to be Alger Hiss," observes Douglas O. Linder of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.<ref>Douglas O. Linder, "[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissvenona.html The VENONA Files and the Alger Hiss Case]," Famous Trials: The Trials of Alger Hiss (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law)</ref> "In the end, the publication of the Venona intercepts... settled the matter—to all but the truest of believers," writes Stanley Kutler of the University of Wisconsin Law School.<ref>Stanley I. Kutler, "[http://writ.lp.findlaw.com/books/reviews/20040806_kutler.html Rethinking the Story of Alger Hiss]," FindLaw, August 6, 2004</ref> In light of recent scholarship, notes Hayden Peake, curator of CIA’s Historical Intelligence Collection,  "it is hard to see how even the most frequently made counterargument—that there was ''no Communist involvement in espionage''&mdash;can be sustained…. The same is true when it comes to specific cases, but supporters of Alger Hiss … will no doubt persist."<ref>Hayden B. Peake, "The VENONA Progeny," ''Naval War College Review'', Summer 2000</ref> "Hiss’ defenders stubbornly tried to rebut each revelation, but eventually they were overwhelmed," recounts foreign affairs analyst John Ehrman of the United States Directorate of Intelligence, writing in the journal ''Studies in Intelligence''. He concludes that ''Nation'' publisher Victor Navasky is "now virtually alone in his rejection of the case against Hiss."<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/csi/studies/winter_spring01/article01.pdf A Half-Century of Controversy: The Alger Hiss Case]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Winter-Spring 2001</ref> "Outside the ranks of ''Nation'' readers and a dwindling coterie of academic leftists, there are few people still willing to claim that Alger Hiss and Harry Dexter White were not Soviet agents," agrees Harvey Klehr, Andrew Mellon professor of politics and history at Emory University.<ref>Harvey Klehr, "[http://hnn.us/articles/816.html Books: Jerrold and Leona Schecter's ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History'']," ''The Weekly Standard'', July 1, 2002</ref> Ronald Radosh, emeritus professor of history at the City College of New York, concurs, "Except for a dwindling group—mostly ''Nation'' magazine readers and editors …. the consensus has solidified: Hiss was undoubtedly a Soviet spy."<ref>Ronald Radosh, "[http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-4052302/To-the-bitter-end-Alger.html To the Bitter End]," ''National Review'', March 22, 2004</ref> ''Nation'' contributor Athan Theoharis concedes that the "conventional assessment" is that Hiss was "an unreconstructed Soviet spy."<ref>Athan Theoharis, "[http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8723(200006)87%3A1%3C292%3ATVFAWA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-5 The View from Alger's Window]," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 87, No. 1 (Jun., 2000), pp. 292-293</ref> Berkeley professor J. Bradford DeLong, a former Clinton official, writes, "Was Alger Hiss at some time a spy for the Soviet Union? Probably."<ref>J. Bradford DeLong, "[http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2007/04/kai_bird_thinks.html Kai Bird Thinks That Alger Hiss Wasn't the "Ales" Mentioned in VENONA]," Grasping Reality with Both Hands: Economist Brad DeLong's Fair, Balanced, and Reality-Based Semi-Daily Journal, April 9, 2007</ref> Even Kai Bird, a contributing editor at ''The Nation'', and his coauthor, Svetlana Chervonnaya of the Russian Academy of Sciences, admit, "Most historians have conceded the argument to  Weinstein,"<ref>Kai Bird and Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.theamericanscholar.org/su07/ales-birdlong.html The Mystery of Ales]," ''The American Scholar'', Summer, 2007</ref> (Chervonnaya has since suggested that this consensus amounts to an orthodoxy, writing of her "hope of dethroning the autocracy of cold war historical scholarship on the matter of Alger Hiss," describing her motive as "to overthrow the regime.")<ref>Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=w072307&s=correspondence072607 Correspondence: Boo, Hiss]," ''TNR Online,'' July 26, 2007</ref>

A wide variety of scholars&mdash;across the political spectrum&mdash;now agree that the historical consensus is that Hiss was guilty. "'ALES' is assumed by most scholars to be Alger Hiss," observes Douglas O. Linder of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.<ref>Douglas O. Linder, "[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissvenona.html The VENONA Files and the Alger Hiss Case]," Famous Trials: The Trials of Alger Hiss (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law)</ref> "In the end, the publication of the Venona intercepts... settled the matter—to all but the truest of believers," writes Stanley Kutler of the University of Wisconsin Law School.<ref>Stanley I. Kutler, "[http://writ.lp.findlaw.com/books/reviews/20040806_kutler.html Rethinking the Story of Alger Hiss]," FindLaw, August 6, 2004</ref> In light of recent scholarship, notes Hayden Peake, curator of CIA’s Historical Intelligence Collection,  "it is hard to see how even the most frequently made counterargument—that there was ''no Communist involvement in espionage''&mdash;can be sustained…. The same is true when it comes to specific cases, but supporters of Alger Hiss … will no doubt persist."<ref>Hayden B. Peake, "[http://cicentre.com/BK/BOOKS_Peake_Venona.htm The VENONA Progeny]," ''Naval War College Review'', Summer 2000</ref> "Hiss’ defenders stubbornly tried to rebut each revelation, but eventually they were overwhelmed," recounts foreign affairs analyst John Ehrman of the United States Directorate of Intelligence, writing in the journal ''Studies in Intelligence''. He concludes that ''Nation'' publisher Victor Navasky is "now virtually alone in his rejection of the case against Hiss."<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/csi/studies/winter_spring01/article01.pdf A Half-Century of Controversy: The Alger Hiss Case]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Winter-Spring 2001</ref> "Outside the ranks of ''Nation'' readers and a dwindling coterie of academic leftists, there are few people still willing to claim that Alger Hiss and Harry Dexter White were not Soviet agents," agrees Harvey Klehr, Andrew Mellon professor of politics and history at Emory University.<ref>Harvey Klehr, "[http://hnn.us/articles/816.html Books: Jerrold and Leona Schecter's ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History'']," ''The Weekly Standard'', July 1, 2002</ref> Ronald Radosh, emeritus professor of history at the City College of New York, concurs, "Except for a dwindling group—mostly ''Nation'' magazine readers and editors …. the consensus has solidified: Hiss was undoubtedly a Soviet spy."<ref>Ronald Radosh, "[http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-4052302/To-the-bitter-end-Alger.html To the Bitter End]," ''National Review'', March 22, 2004</ref> ''Nation'' contributor Athan Theoharis concedes that the "conventional assessment" is that Hiss was "an unreconstructed Soviet spy."<ref>Athan Theoharis, "[http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8723(200006)87%3A1%3C292%3ATVFAWA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-5 The View from Alger's Window]," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 87, No. 1 (Jun., 2000), pp. 292-293</ref> Berkeley professor J. Bradford DeLong, a former Clinton official, writes, "Was Alger Hiss at some time a spy for the Soviet Union? Probably."<ref>J. Bradford DeLong, "[http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2007/04/kai_bird_thinks.html Kai Bird Thinks That Alger Hiss Wasn't the "Ales" Mentioned in VENONA]," Grasping Reality with Both Hands: Economist Brad DeLong's Fair, Balanced, and Reality-Based Semi-Daily Journal, April 9, 2007</ref> Even Kai Bird, a contributing editor at ''The Nation'', and his coauthor, Svetlana Chervonnaya of the Russian Academy of Sciences, admit, "Most historians have conceded the argument to  Weinstein,"<ref>Kai Bird and Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.theamericanscholar.org/su07/ales-birdlong.html The Mystery of Ales]," ''The American Scholar'', Summer, 2007</ref> (Chervonnaya has since suggested that this consensus amounts to an orthodoxy, writing of her "hope of dethroning the autocracy of cold war historical scholarship on the matter of Alger Hiss," describing her motive as "to overthrow the regime.")<ref>Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=w072307&s=correspondence072607 Correspondence: Boo, Hiss]," ''TNR Online,'' July 26, 2007</ref>

So broad is this academic consensus that it has even begun to seep into the popular press. By 1991, even the ''New York Times'' was reporting that "a handful of Hiss supporters continues to doubt his guilt, but for most historians it is all but certain."<ref>Ann Douglas, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/06/27/reviews/990627.27dougl.html Family Ties]," ''The New York Times'', June 27, 1999</ref> Two years later, the paper reiterated that "the trend of scholarship on the Hiss case in the 1990's [reflects] a growing consensus that Hiss, indeed, had most likely been a Soviet agent."<ref>James Barron, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=technology&res=9C00E2D8173EF935A2575BC0A9679C8B63 Online, the Hiss Defense Doesn't Rest]," ''The New York Times,'', August 16, 2001</ref> In 2004, the ''Times''' former executive editor, Pulitzer-prize winner Max Frankel, wrote that "most historians" now "accept Hiss's guilt."<ref>Max Frankel, [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04E7DF103DF93AA15751C0A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 "Reading Alger Hiss's Mind]," ''The New York Times'', February 29, 2004</ref> "The sum and substance of this growing body of material is that.... Alger Hiss, a darling of the establishment was guilty," wrote liberal columnist Nicholas Von Hoffman.<ref>Nicholas Von Hoffman, "Was McCarthy right about the left?" ''The Washington Post'', April 14, 1996, p. C1</ref> That Hiss “brought home stolen State Department documents for handoff to a fellow Communist and spy named Whittaker Chambers” is “the commonly accepted story line,” agrees the ''Washington Post''.<ref>Lynne Duke, "[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402714_pf.html Stepping Out Of the Shadows]," ''The Washington Post'', April 5, 2007</ref> ''Time'' magazine concurs that "the weight of historical evidence indicates that Hiss was... a member of the communist underground and a Soviet spy."<ref>John Elson, "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,985571,00.html Gentleman and a Spy?]" ''Time'', November 25, 1996</ref> ''The New York Review of Books'' concludes, "The evidence now, following the publication of VENONA and The Haunted Wood, is simply overwhelming. What it shows is that Hiss was one of a number of young, brainy, overexcited converts to communism hurrying about Washington in the 1930s recruiting others to serve 'real, existing Socialism' in the Soviet Union for high-minded reasons which should not have survived the opening days of the Moscow Trials, but somehow did."<ref>Thomas Powers, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/118 The Plot Thickens]," ''The New York Review of Books'', May 11, 2000 (Volume 47, Number 8)</ref> London's ''Independent'' reports that "some of the individuals defended by the 1950s left and savaged by McCarthy were actually Soviet spies. The most prominent is the left's old ''cause célèbre'', Alger Hiss."<ref>Johann Hari, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20040326/ai_n12775721 The exhumation of Joe McCarthy]," ''The Independent'',  March 26, 2004</ref> Slate.com adds that "even many on the left—including younger historians such as Rick Perlstein" have become convinced "that Hiss was guilty, although old-school loyalists like Navasky remained skeptical,"<ref>Ron Rosenbaum, "[http://www.slate.com/id/2170415/ Alger Hiss Rides Again]," Slate.com, July 16, 2007</ref> and, in another article (arguing that liberals should moderate certain of their their historical views) says, "if we paleo-libs continue in our ancient rancors, we'll start looking like those troglodytes who still plump for Alger Hiss' innocence."<ref>Louis Bayard, "[http://www.salon.com/books/review/2008/05/13/ronald_reagan/ Why Ronald Reagan didn't completely suck]," Slate.com, May 13, 2008</ref>

So broad is this academic consensus that it has even begun to seep into the popular press. By 1991, even the ''New York Times'' was reporting that "a handful of Hiss supporters continues to doubt his guilt, but for most historians it is all but certain."<ref>Ann Douglas, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/06/27/reviews/990627.27dougl.html Family Ties]," ''The New York Times'', June 27, 1999</ref> Two years later, the paper reiterated that "the trend of scholarship on the Hiss case in the 1990's [reflects] a growing consensus that Hiss, indeed, had most likely been a Soviet agent."<ref>James Barron, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=technology&res=9C00E2D8173EF935A2575BC0A9679C8B63 Online, the Hiss Defense Doesn't Rest]," ''The New York Times,'', August 16, 2001</ref> In 2004, the ''Times''' former executive editor, Pulitzer-prize winner Max Frankel, wrote that "most historians" now "accept Hiss's guilt."<ref>Max Frankel, [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04E7DF103DF93AA15751C0A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 "Reading Alger Hiss's Mind]," ''The New York Times'', February 29, 2004</ref> "The sum and substance of this growing body of material is that.... Alger Hiss, a darling of the establishment was guilty," wrote liberal columnist Nicholas Von Hoffman.<ref>Nicholas Von Hoffman, "Was McCarthy right about the left?" ''The Washington Post'', April 14, 1996, p. C1</ref> That Hiss “brought home stolen State Department documents for handoff to a fellow Communist and spy named Whittaker Chambers” is “the commonly accepted story line,” agrees the ''Washington Post''.<ref>Lynne Duke, "[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402714_pf.html Stepping Out Of the Shadows]," ''The Washington Post'', April 5, 2007</ref> ''Time'' magazine concurs that "the weight of historical evidence indicates that Hiss was... a member of the communist underground and a Soviet spy."<ref>John Elson, "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,985571,00.html Gentleman and a Spy?]" ''Time'', November 25, 1996</ref> ''The New York Review of Books'' concludes, "The evidence now, following the publication of VENONA and The Haunted Wood, is simply overwhelming. What it shows is that Hiss was one of a number of young, brainy, overexcited converts to communism hurrying about Washington in the 1930s recruiting others to serve 'real, existing Socialism' in the Soviet Union for high-minded reasons which should not have survived the opening days of the Moscow Trials, but somehow did."<ref>Thomas Powers, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/118 The Plot Thickens]," ''The New York Review of Books'', May 11, 2000 (Volume 47, Number 8)</ref> London's ''Independent'' reports that "some of the individuals defended by the 1950s left and savaged by McCarthy were actually Soviet spies. The most prominent is the left's old ''cause célèbre'', Alger Hiss."<ref>Johann Hari, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20040326/ai_n12775721 The exhumation of Joe McCarthy]," ''The Independent'',  March 26, 2004</ref> Slate.com adds that "even many on the left—including younger historians such as Rick Perlstein" have become convinced "that Hiss was guilty, although old-school loyalists like Navasky remained skeptical,"<ref>Ron Rosenbaum, "[http://www.slate.com/id/2170415/ Alger Hiss Rides Again]," Slate.com, July 16, 2007</ref> and, in another article (arguing that liberals should moderate certain of their their historical views) says, "if we paleo-libs continue in our ancient rancors, we'll start looking like those troglodytes who still plump for Alger Hiss' innocence."<ref>Louis Bayard, "[http://www.salon.com/books/review/2008/05/13/ronald_reagan/ Why Ronald Reagan didn't completely suck]," Slate.com, May 13, 2008</ref>