Teddy, Miss Kopechne, and the "National Lampoon"

Since we were on the subject,  I thought it would be fun to look at the Volkswagen ad again. Don't miss the line near the bottom, which competes for the title of history's greatest retraction.

President Ronald Wilson Dontmatter

"Kennedy docs show death threats as late as 1985"

That is the AP headline this morning over a story on newly released documents dealing with the life of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of the House of Hyannisport.

Now please read carefully from the second AP paragraph,   to which the headline refers:

"The documents showed that on May 23, 1985, the U.S. Capitol Police passed onto the FBI a copy of a letter sent to the Secret Service, ostensibly by a Warren, Mich., resident. The sender, whose name was redacted, declared: 'Brass tacks, I'm gonna kill Kennedy and (President Ronald) Reagan, and I really mean it'."

The crazy Michigan woman didn't kill anyone, but this morning an AP writer and at least one AP editor murdered a fair segment of the media's remaining credibility. 


Call it a stupid mistake by two so-called professionals who know full well that many, many readers never go further than the headline and that fewer still go beyond the first paragraph. The quoted paragraph follows  a lede also  mentioning  the threat to Teddy but not the president.

Or perhaps they were aware of the readership studies but somehow secured employment with the world's largest (and once great) wire service with news judgment which holds that a threat to assassinate a senator is highly significant while an identical threat against a sitting president is worth just a throwaway line. 


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There's also some fresh documentation that we are quite correct in despising the youngest Kennedy for his cowardice and calculated lies and actions  while Mary Jo sucked in that last horrid lungful of  sea water.  But it is buried deep in the usually  unread sentences which, like as not, would be on the dead-tree jump page if not cut altogether.


For instance, the FBI helped Ted  buy time to get his story arranged for the fawning reporters who aspired,  above all,  to be favored Kennedy courtiers.

'smithing the 1911

Dirt Crashr has found a WW2 barrel for his 1911, and his photographs create an interesting look at approaches to reliable 1911 feeding.

 

The Big 12: Urgent Federal Action Needed

Iowa State is a land-grant university with three over-riding goals, to wit: 

--(a) Teach lads to efficiently grow more row crops than they can profitably sell on the open market. 

--(b) Instruct the same lads in means of extorting sufficient taxpayer money  to guarantee  themselves handsome profits  for  the  unsellable goods mentioned in (a). 

--(c)  Provide low-level entertainment to the rural  masses via wholly-owned subsidiaries playing football and basketball.

Therein comes  comes the  crisis.  Iowa State is a member of the Big 12 athletic conference which seems to be on the verge of going toes up.  The sky is falling. What to do? 

Why, son, go talk to the federal government in the persons of your senators Grassley (R) and Harkin (D) who have each taken this thing seriously and issued profound statements on the matter.

I'm especially anxious to see reports of President  Obama's reaction to this Heartland  drama. Certainly his good friend Sen. Harkin will alert him to the national danger of the Cyclones not having a conference to play in.

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Is nothing beneath demands for federal  action?