Edward Kennedy, the Media and Republican complaining about Coverage of Edward Kennedy

[erpowers]

What news media are the Republicans watching? Yesterday, I bought a copy of the weekend edition of the USA Today newspaper. I turned to the opinion page and saw an opinion that claimed the media was failing to discuss Edward Kennedy’s Chappaquiddick incident. The opinion piece actually stated, “Let the stain stand out on Kennedy’s legacy.” My first thought was the sentence I started this post with, what media are the Republicans watching. My second thought was about Reagan and his past that the media actually fails mention. During the coverage of Reagan’s death the media either rarely or never mentioned the fact that Reagan cheated on his first wife and got Nancy Reagan pregnant before he married her. I stated rarely mentioned in the previous sentence, but I myself never heard the media mention those facts about Reagan. However, since the death of Edward Kennedy NBC’s Today Show and ABC’s Good Morning America mentioned the Chappaquiddick incident every time they talked about Kennedy’s legacy.

Complaining about a false lack of media coverage is not just contained to stories about Edward Kennedy. Last year a number of Republican, especially the guy behind the documentary that claimed the media helped Barack Obama get elected, claimed the media was not discussing the topics of Obama’s connection to William Ayers and Joe Biden’s supposed plagiarism. However, in each of those cases, as with the Edward Kennedy case, the media took advantage of every opportunity to discuss both of those issues. I did a little research on both of those issues last years and found a great deal of news stories discussing each story. Like with the coverage of Kennedy, in the last few days, the media mentioned Biden alleged plagiarism every time a story was written about Biden. In addition, these stories were written in major newspapers like the Chicago Tribune. That is why I asked what media are the Republicans watching. However, after thinking about things for a few minutes I came to the conclusion that Republicans are not upset about the fact that the media is not reporting these incidents, the media is reporting these incidents at an high rate, they are angry that the media when reporting the failures or mistakes of Democrats refuse to claim that these Democrats are horrible people who should not be able to live in America. What republicans want is for the media to claim that these Democrats, beyond being flawed individuals are communists who should have been kicked out of the country.

On other occasions while watching the coverage of Edward Kennedy members of the media have mentioned that some have complained about the treatment Kennedy has received. One instance of this was when Kennedy’s procession stopped in front of the Senate steps. During that time Tom Brokaw stated that some were angered by the attention Kennedy had received in the last few days. At that point I once again compared Kennedy to Reagan. From what I have heard in the last few days Kennedy was at least 100 times the father Reagan was. Questioning Reagan parenting skills is not a liberal thing. Reagan’s own kids say he was a horrible father. For some reason all the Reagan supporters did not have a problem with all the attention Reagan was given.

In the end, despite Republican claims that the supposed liberal media fails to report the faults of Democrats, it is actually the opposite. It is the Democrats who have to live with their pasts and have their pasts reexamined at every possible opportunity. On the other hand it is the Republicans who get the free passes on their faults and past mistakes.

[monmouth]

1. When Cheney dies, it will be interesting to see what coverage he

receives. Personally I cannot think of a more despicable human being in the present day public eye, but you can bet the corporate media will turn him into an icon of magnificent proportions.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

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[TahitiNut]

3. "we"??? Speaking for yourself and your tapeworm??

:eyes:

[FrenchieCat]

4. Well Chappaquiddick was an accident that ended in a tragedy,

Infidelity is a choice one makes that goes against a vow one makes.

Mrs. Bush killed her 17 year old boyfriend, while she was driving the car. Was it an accident?

Just sayin'.

[Laelth]

5. Welcome to DU.

For the record, I have no idea what you are talking about. Care to explain?

:dem:

-Laelth

[AllieB]

6. What about the millions of lives that Bush/Cheney took in Iraq and through their policies?

How quickly you forget.

[Fla Dem]

8. Regan's sin to ignore the AIDS crisis for fear of alienating his base trumps anything Kennedy may

have done. By the time Regan even acknowledged that AIDS was killing Americans, over 20,000 had died.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/06/08/EDG777163F1.DTL


"Writing in the Washington Post in late 1985, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, stated: "It is surprising that the president could remain silent as 6,000 Americans died, that he could fail to acknowledge the epidemic's existence. Perhaps his staff felt he had to, since many of his New Right supporters have raised money by campaigning against homosexuals."

Reagan would ultimately address the issue of AIDS while president. His remarks came May 31, 1987 (near the end of his second term), at the Third International Conference on AIDS in Washington. When he spoke, 36,058 Americans had been diagnosed with AIDS and 20,849 had died. The disease had spread to 113 countries, with more than 50,000 cases.

As millions eulogize Reagan this week, the tragedy lies in what he might have done."



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/06/08/EDG777163F1.DTL#ixzz0PhjyO8Hs

[intheflow]

7. Reagan's infidelity happened when he was a godless, union-loving actor.

But he had a conversion experience to heartless, soul-sucking Dementor-style conservatism, so whatever he did before is now okay to repukes. Because as we know, repukes don't want to look at the past, they just want to move this country forward.

Oh, wait.