The “On this day” column in this morning’s paper highlights that it’s 40 years since Ted Kennedy drove his car off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, drowning his companion.
It had never occurred to me just how close this incident was to the first moon landing, which happened only a few days later. Was Kennedy spared much negative publicity by having the moon landing occur and take over all of the front pages of the papers?
I’m sure he was, much like Gary Condit dropped off the front pages after September 2001.
I recall it in the news but not how heavily it was reported. No doubt the moon landing did take some of the edge off. Still, they say that scotched any presidential ambitions he may have had.
Wow. I have a vague recollection of the Chappaquiddick incident, but I had no idea it was so close to the moon landing, which I vividly remember. (I was 10, which might explain why I remember one but not the other.)
If you have not read Joyce Carol Oates’s (very short) novel Black Water, I highly recommend it. It is an amazing piece of writing.
The moon landing knocked Chappaquidick off the front pages, but it sure didn’t knock it out of the news entirely. And just like today, there were plenty of people who wouldn’t let the story go.
Read all about the famous National Lampoon ad parody. And that was from 1973.
Haha! I recall someone labelling it the Chappaquickdick Incident. I think that may have been National Lampoon too.
Ted got away with murder. Must be nice to be a Kennedy.
Posted as a poster, not a moderator.
You get away with murder on these boards every day.
After searching my newspaper database, reading the front page of five or so different papers during the week or two in question, I’d say they shared the front page pretty equally during the period. Certainly the moon landing became the dominant story.
Interesting. Thanks for that.
The two stories ran concurrently, and Teddy didn’t get knocked off the coverage like Condit did.
For example, on August 1, 1969, roughly two weeks after the Chappaquiddick incident and the moon landing, Ted made the cover of TIME: “The Kennedy Debacle: A Girl Dead, A Career in Jeopardy.”
The moon landing had been the cover story for the two previous issues, on July 18, 1969 and July 25, 1969.
Thanks for that. I was five at the time and remember the moon coverage quite well. In fact, I think I still have the front page of the newspaper somewhere. I don’t remember any details of Chappaquiddick, or my parents talking about it or anything like that. Of course, as American political news, it may not even have been reported in much detail in Australia.
Don’t forget, in 1969, the Kennedy propaganda machine was larger and morepowerful than to day. The Kennedy machine paid off the Kopechne famiy, and even had Cardinal Cushing call on the parents…to urge them not to order an autopsy.
Plus, there was no internet, and many of the top reporters in the USA were being paid off by old Joe Kennedy.
. Got any cites about that? The Cardinal Cushing thing in particular.
“Many” must at least mean 2 or more. Can you name them for us?
Not to mention that Joseph Kennedy was quite disabled during most of the 1960s; unable to speak and confined to a wheelchair. I find it hard to believe that he manipulated the media in that state.
You’re welcome. I don’t know which I find odder - that I remembered that TIME cover with Ted in the neck brace, which I saw at my grandmother’s house when I was nine, or that I was able to find it online in a matter of minutes using modern technology.
BTW, the airplane accident in which JFK, Jr., his wife and sister-in-law were killed was ten years ago last Thursday.
I find it odious to agree with you, but yes.
Did anyone ever see the A&E special report on Chappaquiddick?
It shows that Ted wasn’t even driving. Mary Jo was. Ted wasn’t even in the car. No way he would have been able to crawl out the window under water. He didn’t report the accident that night because he didn’t even know it had happened.
Maybe the show is available for viewing on the internet somewhere, but you can buy it here. Very interesting.
http://shop.aetv.com/detail.php?p=67011&v=aetv_show_crime-and-investigation&pagemax=all
Joe Kennedy regularly paid Joseph Alsop and Arthur Krock; these journalists always wrote favorably of the Kennedy clan. These stipends were paid by checks drawn on the account of Joseph Kennedy enterprises, and were accounted as “business expenses”. As far as I can discover, the IRS never challenged these deductions.
Got any more questions?