After Ted Kennedy’s death last week, the media flooded the airwaves, interwebs and column inches with stories about how great of a man and senator he was.
And though he clearly deserved all that kind of attention, the coverage did gloss over the more controversial parts of Kennedy’s life. You know, the proverbial elephant in the room ‘- Chappaquiddick.
While the media was busy lauding his ability to be at the forefront of almost every major issue in our country over the past 40 years, there wasn’t much about the incident where his actions led to the death of a woman in 1969.
Pushing forward this skewed view of a famous individual after their death is something the media has gotten good at this summer, as we saw in the events following Michael Jackson’s death in June.
After the King of Pop passed away, the swell of attention focused on the better (and earlier) parts of his life, not the controversy that surrounded him for the past 15 years ‘- whether it be the accusations of sexual assault toward children, his obsession with plastic surgery or his generally nutty behavior.
It is understandable to not want to speak ill of the dead, especially in relation to individuals who meant so much to our culture, but it has been a little surprising to see the media be so selective in these cases, especially after the two of them were covered so heinously during their lives.
Kennedy and Jackson were certainly influential people who did a lot of great things for people in their own ways, but also found themselves amongst controversy.
And in this day and age, where the media seemingly wants to take everyone to task for every little thing and knock them off the ‘celebrity’ pedestal, the coverage of these two men is even more odd.
On the other hand, maybe we should be thanking the media for overlooking the negative aspects of Kennedy and Jackson’s lives.
When we lose people close to us, there is the tendency to only think about the positive effects they had on our lives. Disgruntled children forgive their parents, siblings reconcile and ultimately death can bring families closer together in celebration of the life lost.
In this context, the way the media has treated the deaths of these two men who were probably ‘like family’ to millions of people around the world almost makes sense.
Almost everyone knows about Chappaquiddick. Almost everyone knows about Jacko’s ridiculously long list of issues.
But we don’t have to bring those up to celebrate the other things ‘- the great things ‘- these two men accomplished.
Kennedy and Jackson were complicated guys who made numerous mistakes (some of them deadly), but were ultimately pillars of our society, for better or worse.
And it’s only fitting we honor them as such, however hypocritical and short-sighted it might be.
