A Four-Decade Secret: One Man’s Story of Sabotaging Carter’s Re-election,” read a March 18 headline in the New York Times. As their White House correspondent Peter Baker explains, 85-year-old Democrat Ben Barnes claims that Ronald Reagan’s Republican allies delayed the release of American hostages from Iran in 1980. Without this sabotage, the piece implies, Georgia Democrat Jimmy Carter was a lock for a second term in the Oval Office. Establishment media were all over it.

“Reagan Allies Schemed to Delay U.S. Hostages Freedom to Sabotage Carter, Alleged Witness Says,” headlined Rolling Stone. “Republicans tried to delay release of US hostages to sabotage Carter, ex-aide claims,” proclaimed the Guardian. A key player is John Connally, the Democratic governor of Texas from 1963-1969, who “ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1980,” as the report contends.

“Former Texas lt. gov says political mentor sabotaged Iran hostage talks to stop Jimmy Carter’s re-election,” read the headline in the New York Post. Government media also got on board.