Posted on 04/06/2018 5:47:09 AM PDT by Kaslin
One measure of how old we're getting is realizing how many voters today have no familiarity with the Chappaquiddick scandal. In July of 1969, then-Sen. Ted Kennedy drove off a bridge into a pond with a young woman in the passenger seat and left the scene of the accident alone. Kennedy waited 10 hours to report it, and Mary Jo Kopechne died.
This is one compelling reason why many older voters thought liberals sounded preposterous when they suggested Donald Trump's presidential campaign should be canceled over the "Access Hollywood" tape of him boasting of grabbing women in the crotch. Kennedy had a woman's death on his resume, and it never stopped the left from boosting him as the finest presidential timber.
How far has the manipulative Kennedy dynasty fallen? Somehow, the movie "Chappaquiddick" was made with well-known actors and distributed to movie theaters. Seven years ago, pressure caused the History Channel to deep-six a dramatic Kennedy miniseries (it ended up on the obscure cable channel Reelz).
This movie is drawing favorable reviews from the movie critics. That's in part because they recognize the filmmakers didn't make a hard-edged cartoon -- like, for example, the way Oliver Stone smeared then-President George W. Bush in 2008. From the first moments, the Ted Kennedy in this film is haunted by his older brothers, who were inflated into political giants, and spurned as a loser by his nearly mute father, who suffered a stroke in 1961.
Staying close to the historical record is brutal enough. Kennedy left the scene of a fatal accident, failed to report it for hours, lied to investigators and the public about how and when it happened, and then expected that everyone would accept what he had done and re-elect him. The film notes at the end he was re-elected overwhelmingly and became known (to some) as the "Lion of the Senate."
It also shows how the Kennedy political machine arrived to manipulate the press, and even the Kopechne family. There was no autopsy. This was pitched as another Kennedy tragedy, and the national media eagerly xeroxed the narrative.
One of the things that the moviemakers get wrong is the idea that the press were hostile. The only named reporter in the movie was James Reston of The New York Times, who the script suggests was skeptical of Kennedy's claim of having suffered a concussion. In real life, Reston was, in the words of media critic Jack Shafer, one of those who "attended to the family's legend like priests on retainer."
Reston's first draft on Chappaquiddick began, "Tragedy has again struck the Kennedy family." Mention of the actual victim was submerged in paragraph four. Luckily, the Times advised Reston to edit it and mention the actual victim in the lede. After Kennedy spoke to the nation with his dishonest narrative about what happened, Reston oozed again that he was a "tragic 'profile in courage.'"
For the rest of Sen. Kennedy's life, the media treated Chappaquiddick as an extremely distasteful subject only conspiracy-obsessed right-wingers thought was important. Whenever the scandal surfaced, journalists turned it into a story of "redemption."
That's still happening. Former Boston Globe reporter Peter Canellos, now executive editor of Politico Magazine, did a write-up on the movie and oozed that it "marked the start of one of the most remarkable revivals in American politics, as Kennedy settled down to the hard work of legislating and, almost as penance, went on to amass the most impressive list of accomplishments in Senate history."
As long as a politician can pass "landmark" liberal bills, his personal scandals are washed away by liberal journalists. And they call themselves idealists.
Pictures in which evil danced like this are complex. Maybe being shunned by Joe gave us a less evil Ted than we would otherwise have seen. If this is Joe’s idea of winning, then one might consider losing to be superior.
“Ted Kennedy drove off a bridge into a pond with a young woman in the passenger seat and left the scene of the accident alone. Kennedy waited 10 hours to report it, and Mary Jo Kopechne died.”
An on scene investigator stated on video the car damage was inconsistent with Kennedy’s account, instead indicating Kennedy crashed the car injuring Kopechne earlier, then pushed the car with help into the water.
As I noted above, the New York Times is famous for its prostitutes who masquerade as reporters, and are very cheaply bought. I noted how the so-called “Dean” of Washington “journalism”, one Arthur Krock, was on a dirty secret retainer from old Joe Kennedy to write great things about JFK. Krock followed in the footsteps of an even worse and cheaper whore named Walter Duranty, who wrote glowing articles about Stalin and the murderous Reds in Russia and repeatedly told the world that there was “no famine” in the Ukraine, Russia’s breadbasket, where Stalin and his henchman, Lazar Kaganovich, the Communist version of Hitler, stole the farmer’s crops and deliberately starved eight million people to death. Duranty was bought off by liquor and prostitutes supplied by the KGB; people believed him because there were almost no westerners in the USSR at that time. And, by the way, he got the Pulitzer Prize for his “reporting”, an award never disavowed by the newspaper of record, The New York Times. When this was verified decades later, the best the Times could do is to characterize Duranty’s filth as “some of the worst reporting ever to appear in this newspaper”. His heirs I outlook and journalism work there today.
OIS
A reporter asked John Connelly a question about some scandal he had been connected to. Connelly responded “At least I never drowned anybody”.
If Kennedy would have drowned, instead of MaryJo, perhaps we wouldn’t have the illegal immigration problems besetting us today.
Good point.
The Drowning occurred in Massachuttes, not America
Some likely wonder if he was in the Navy in WW II
“It also shows how the Kennedy political machine arrived to manipulate the press, and even the Kopechne family. There was no autopsy.”
Question: What sex act would cause Kennedy to lose control of the car, not report the accident for ten hours and the family not want an autopsy performed? Tough question, yes it is.
I respectfully disagree. Ted was the dumbest and least talented of the four Kennedy brothers. An influential background can only get you so far--witness Chelsea.
I view Ted a bit differently in psychological terms. He reminds me of some people I know who have had the misfortune of "impossible expectations syndrome."
There's now way he could have lived up to what was expected of him. But, it's difficult to fully escape those expectations. I've known a few people with this problem who are always trying to live up to those impossible parental expectations. They have strong political views (usually liberal), but also have messy personal lives with a tendency towards personal abuse. Ted was never going to take over the world. As a President, he would have needed steering by others.
Don't get me wrong. The 1965 Immigration Act credited to the Lion of the Senate may ultimately prove to be the undoing of the Republic. But, Ted was a driven person, rather than the driver of his acts.
I respectfully disagree. Ted was the dumbest and least talented of the four Kennedy brothers. An influential background can only get you so far--witness Chelsea.
I view Ted a bit differently in psychological terms. He reminds me of some people I know who have had the misfortune of "impossible expectations syndrome."
There's now way he could have lived up to what was expected of him. But, it's difficult to fully escape those expectations. I've known a few people with this problem who are always trying to live up to those impossible parental expectations. They have strong political views (usually liberal), but also have messy personal lives with a tendency towards personal abuse. Ted was never going to take over the world. As a President, he would have needed steering by others.
Don't get me wrong. The 1965 Immigration Act credited to the Lion of the Senate may ultimately prove to be the undoing of the Republic. But, Ted was a driven person, rather than the driver of his acts.
“Liberals” are cynics. They are cynical about society and, therefore, naive about government.
From the first moments, the Ted Kennedy in this film is haunted by his older brothers, who were inflated into political giants, and spurned as a loser by his nearly mute father, who suffered a stroke in 1961.
Joe... an a-hole, yes, but a perceptive one.
Whatever else he was, Joe Kennedy was no ahole. A patriot who died while on a secret mission to destroy the V-2 launch sites on the coast of France. The B-24 he was flying exploded on the way to the target....He deserves our respect, and a kind word.
For the Duranty whitewashes alone, an organization with even an iota of integrity would have padlocked its doors and skulked away in ignominious shame.
But no, the Slimes at the Times, like good little apparatchiks, have carried on to this day as water carriers for the would-be subverters of American values.
The true shame is upon those who continue to support that viper’s nest in its delusion of being ‘the paper of record’.
Maybe you are not talking about the dad Joe. Joe Kennedy who was ambassador to England and was in the same column as King Edward, sympathetic if not supportive of Hitler. That is the old man Joe Kennedy. Perhaps his son (s) got more character and wisdom from Rose.
Teddy was weak. A big no no in the Kennedy family. Corrupt and debauched OK. Weak not OK.
You're talking about the son, I was talking about the father. Young Joe, JFK's older brother was a hero, no doubt. But, I was addressing the relationship between the older Joe Sr and Ted.
...just goes to show ya, what a POS
the wabbit killer was....
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