The Mad Hibernian called my attention to this drivel from the AP Wire:

Some historians and professional groups are complaining about not being consulted before President Bush nominated a historian to head the National Archives who is best known for a book that concluded Alger Hiss was a Soviet spy.

* * *

Weinstein's work has stirred controversy, including his 1978 book, "Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case." It concluded that Hiss was a Soviet agent when he worked for the State Department in the 1940s.

Hiss was indicted on two counts of perjury after being pursued by then-Rep. Richard Nixon of California as a spy. One jury deadlocked but a second convicted Hiss in 1950 on both counts, and he served almost four years of a five-year sentence. He maintained his innocence until his death in 1996.

Besides putting Nixon on a career path that led to the presidency, the Hiss case led eventually to the infamous McCarthy hearings of the early 1950s.

Two things are striking here. First, the article tries to balance the charges against Hiss by stating that Hiss "maintained his innocence until his death in 1996," without mentioning that the Soviet archives later proved that Hiss was, in fact, a Soviet spy. Second, it's not at all clear that the Hiss story even has anything to do with the controversy, which appears to be more of a procedural fight.

Grr.