Frankly, the fact that he was one of the Secret Service agents assigned to Jackie Kennedy instantly makes him and his outlandish story newsworthy. They’re in the business of selling newspapers. That doesn’t necessarily mean they agree with his morphed account.
That wasn't my point. The point is that they are at least treating him as credible. Which they don't typically do with books that go into JFK assassination conspiracy territory. Do you think the Times didn't do their due diligence and ask people if Landis is senile or has a history of lying or exaggerating before running that article? This isn't anything like Tucker Carlson saying a friend told him the CIA killed JFK.
But IMHO, the Vanity Fair article on Landis is better written and has more details than Pete Baker's NY Times article. That's why I cited the VF article in the original post.