NY Times article on RFK Jr.

[garybeck]

from "Another Kennedy Living Dangerously"
by Mark Leibovich


The New York Times, June 25, 2o06




... "Now it's much more fundamental than protecting the environment for Bobby," said his friend Laurie David, the liberal advocate and producer of "An Inconvenient Truth," the Al Gore movie. "He fears that the country is being lost, that democracy is at stake."

Mr. Kennedy said that he had "continually expanded my realm of interest." His recent focus on the 2004 election exists on that continuum, he added.

He had heard low-grade rumblings about alleged abuses in Ohio, faulty voting machines and minority voters waiting hours in line at the polls. But he remained skeptical, or complacent. "I kept the same kind of deliberate blinders on that much of the media did," he said, bemoaning the news media's relative preoccupation with "Brad and Angelina and the Duke lacrosse team."

THEN Mr. Kennedy spent Christmas skiing in Sun Valley, Idaho, at the home of Ms. David and her husband, Larry David, the "Seinfeld" creator and "Curb Your Enthusiasm" protagonist. Mr. David urged him to read a book on the 2004 election by the news media critic Mark Crispin Miller.

Mr. Kennedy did, and a few days later he was skiing with the Rolling Stone publisher, Jann S. Wenner, an old friend and Sun Valley homeowner. Mr. Kennedy suggested that Mr. Wenner commission a story on the "stolen election." Mr. Wenner said he would, provided Mr. Kennedy wrote it. He had written a much-discussed and much-challenged story for Rolling Stone last year linking childhood vaccines and a rise in autism.

After some hesitation, Mr. Kennedy said, he agreed to write the election article. Since it was posted on Rolling Stone's Web site on June 1, the Web has been ablog with a split between those who believe this is the biggest unreported story ever and those who think it's old news, discredited long ago...


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/fashion/25bobby.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5070&en=1e48fe1a09c1e6d8&ex=1151812800&emc=eta1

[Mythsaje]

1. A rather biased article, really...

But worth reading anyway...

[bleever]

2. George Costanza saves the global climate

and takes the bus home.


:thumbsup:

[Gabi Hayes]

3. how I love the NY Times:

''those who think it's old news, discredited long ago...''

as in: reported once, in scoffing terms, ala Dana Milbank's hit piece on Conyers' basement investo, then tossed down the memory hole?



how can anybody take them seriously?

seriesly.....

[suziedemocrat]

7. The Downing Street Memo was "old news" too.

That's why they didn't report it. God knows the media doesn't like to over-report stories now-a-days! :sarcasm:

[earth mom]

18. You mean-the media that WON'T cover stories these days!

:sarcasm:

[halobeam]

4. I liked the part when he said this gives him more fuel for thought

in running for office (paraphrasing)...

A Kennedy running for office. OMG. I'd like to live in a world with him in a very powerful position.

in edit... very inflammatory headline indeed. A note to the editor will be sent for sure.

[Kagemusha]

5. Given the title, the reference to the skiing is a cheap shot

since a relative died during one of those outings a few years ago.

[wryter2000]

12. Yup

IMHO, any reference to a Kennedy suffering an unusual death is a cheap shot. By any chance, was this article hidden behind extensive coverage of the death of Jon-Benet's mother? FU, NYT

[Senator]

6. k&r

[H2O Man]

8. Robert is

a good man. He is helping lead the fight for democracy in America.

[druidity33]

9. one of the best...

I'd love to see him head the EPA, or become the new AG. He'd be an excellenet candidate for either job. But i don't think he'd win a national election becacuse his voice is so difficult to listen to. As a longtime supporter of the NRDC, i have always been impressed by his work and dedication.

To RFK Jr!
:toast:

[Olney Blue]

19. I've wondered about his voice. What causes that?

I wish it could be fixed. It must be very frustrating for him.

[bklyncowgirl]

10. Not a great piece--Kennedy tilting at windmills--nice profile though

Would it have hurt them to talk to John Conyers, or Rush Holt or any other democrat who's been a leader on election reform. Hell, did they even try and contact Howard Dean, who had some decent comments on the article publicshed in Rolling Stone.

No, of course not. How silly. It's just tinfoil hat bloggers out there and now RFK Jr. a guy who rappels over rapids without a helmet.

[DaveT]

11. Oh the ironies of postmodern "information"

Bobby Jr did his country a great service when he lent his royal name to the hitherto officially "crazy" notion that there might be something fishy about the votes counted in secret that gave us another four years of George Walker Bush. The standard mainstream media treatment of Miller and Conyers is The Silent Treatment. But the Kennedy "magic" is just too compelling to ignore completely.

So this nimrod Leibovich has to twist his piece into a pretzel in order to get it past the commisars of fitness to print at the good, grey Times. Oh that RFK,Jr. -- what rich-kid wackiness is he up to next? Skiing here and there with all those other limousine liberals -- and now he's dabbling with the conspiracy theorists.

Unspoken is the fact that this is the first Kennedy to be prominently associated with any conspiracy theory -- reversing the ultimate trump card for the received wisdom that this man's father and uncle were murdered by random lunatics acting entirely on their own.

Ah, but there is no such thing as bad publicity. They can try to put a condescending and dismissive frame around this Kennedy tilt at windmills -- but they have done a tiny bit more to bring this dark secret into the light.

The issue is even clearer and simpler than the fraudulent war in Iraq -- if you can't verify the results of an election, democracy is toast. You lock your door when you leave the house because you can't trust other people that you don't know. Somebody might just come in and steal something.

If an election can be stolen, it will be stolen. Duh.


This truth is too obvious to hide in plain sight forever.

Thanks, Bobby Jr.

[tomp]

13. living dangerously? sounds like a threat to me.

why should writing an article on election fraud be in any way construed as dangerous? seriously, explain it to me.

[chill_wind]

20. EXCELLENT observation

The title--and your own blunt excellent question, one our State Controlled Media itself would never pose--speaks volumes on both the state of our government and our laughable "free press".

[DarleenMB]

14. so why is this article in the Fashion section?

just wondering if environmentalism is now a fashion accessory.

[DaveT]

16. At the Times, it is.

And for the truly daring set, there is the ultra-chicness of Conspiracy Theory coming this Fall.

Look for Rush and Annie Dice Clay to punch this angle up big time.

Nevertheless, the story moves forward about how the votes get counted.

[Warren Stupidity]

23. Yeah exactly.

It was an either an editorial slap in the face or else somebody on the style section staff decided to put it in the paper on the theory better covered here than nowhere.

[faithnotgreed]

24. interesting since actual truth is not in fashion at all for the nyt

[cali]

15. Yawn,

It's a typical Sunday Styles profile, a little arch, a little elitest, a lot about personality and not much of subtance. This is not a serious piece about the RS article, but it's not a hatchet piece either.

[DaveT]

17. No, the hatchet never falls on a royal skull

Not on the Times Fashion page anyway.

The hatchet is reserved for raggedy assed bloggers.

[NastyDiaper]

21. Articles like these are why I get NYT..

..even though I'm out of state.

There was a pic of the Rolling stone cover not online. DU's a tough crowd.

[Warren Stupidity]

22. In the STYLE section? How insulting.

Also featured in the editorial section was a vile personal attack on KOS' Markos by none other than David Brooks. I would provide a link but of course the NYT has a wall up to non-subscribers.

Of course the salon hit piece on RFKjr was quoted. But in the end, it don't matter - it was front and center in a major section of the Sunday NYT and it covered election fraud and it is clear that the submissive media can't reconcile RFKjr and Election Fraud. It makes their editorial wee head explode.