POLITICS, FORTUNE AND THE MEDIA
Behind the myth of the 'Kennedy curse'
By
Monica Moorehead
The accidental death of John F. Kennedy Jr. in the crash of
his small plane has produced the kind of intense media coverage
not seen since the untimely death of Britain's Princess
Diana.
In the arena of media attention, of course, it helps if you
are a straight, white male who is filthy rich and considered
attractive. Most important of all is if you come from a
ruling-class family that has been idolized as the closest thing
to royalty within a bourgeois democracy.
Although Kennedy is survived by his sister, Caroline, who
has three children, one of the main issues raised by the media
is that there will no male heirs to bear the JFK name.
The death of Kennedy along with his wife, Carolyn Kennedy,
and her sister, Lauren Bessette, played out like a real-life
soap opera as the major networks traced every move of first the
search-and-rescue efforts and then the search-and-recovery
efforts in the Atlantic Ocean off Martha's Vineyard.
The news media, in collusion with the Coast Guard and
National Transportation Safety Board, took advantage of this
tragedy by making a concerned public believe there was some
hope of survivors long after that was impossible. The motive
was obvious: It insured constant viewing.
With the United States leading the way in the globalization
of the media, more people from around the world were able to
tune in to this unfolding development. This meant fabulous
ratings for the U.S.-based networks--which shifted away from
their regular programming within an hour after the airplane was
first reported missing on the morning of July 17.
Higher ratings mean more profits. During the weekend
coverage of the accident, NBC's ratings tripled and ABC's
doubled.
No other U.S. ruling-class family has taken on such a
mythical quality during this century as the New England-based
Kennedys. The patriarch, Joseph Ken nedy, became a national
political figure when he was named U.S. ambassador to England
during World War II. Kennedy had made his fortune during
Prohibition as a well-known bootlegger who took in millions of
dollars selling illegal alcohol through the organized-crime
syndicate. As ambassador, he was a notorious Nazi
sympathizer.
After his son, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, became the first
Catholic U.S. president, the media began heralding the
launching of a "Camelot" era in U.S. capitalist
politics--treating the wealthy JFK as a virtual king, but one
with a common touch. Kennedy was characterized as a liberal
sympathetic to the civil-rights struggle, which was rapidly
growing and becoming more militant.
Despite Kennedy's liberal image, however, his administration
worked overtime in futile attempts to overthrow the Cuban
revolution. And it began the ill-fated war in Vietnam.
When President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 during a
turbulent period in U.S. history, the media covered up what was
worrying millions around the country: the involvement of a
violent right-wing movement which had been openly agitating
against him, and the collusion of the Dallas police in letting
a petty hoodlum, Jack Ruby, shoot Lee Harvey Oswald before
there could be an investigation or trial. The police had
declared Oswald to be the assassin.
Instead, the media focused on the Kennedy family's personal
tragedy, repeatedly showing the 3-year-old John F. Kennedy Jr.
saluting his father's coffin, as they are doing again today.
Over the years, the corporate media have obscured the broader
political questions involved in the assassinations of both JFK
and his brother Robert by lumping them together with more
mundane accidents in the family and talk of a "Kennedy
curse."
The celebrity coverage of ruling-class figures and their
heirs serves as a class diversion from the real issues that
affect the masses. When is the last time you have seen 48-hour
coverage on police brutality, the health-care crisis, the
prison-industrial complex, or the life-and-death impact of the
current heat wave?
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
HOME :: U.S. NEWS :: WORLD NEWS :: EDITORIALS :: SUBSCRIBE :: DONATE
Email
this article
Printable
page