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Bozell Column: Sweet on Caroline
NewsBusters ^ | December 30, 2008 | Brent Bozell

Posted on 01/01/2009 3:49:33 AM PST by Zakeet

One sign the liberal news media live in a plastic Manhattan bubble is their undying ardor for the Kennedy Myth, best known by that public-relations construct "Camelot." Instead of a president and First Lady, they believe, we had the King and Queen of Glamour. Never mind if their marriage was a joke and his list of presidential accomplishments was short. Never mind if the Republican half of the country feels sickened by the obsession. The media preferred the myth – and they still do to this day. It is why they are promoting the anointment of unaccomplished Caroline Kennedy for the U.S. Senate in New York.

The very same media which spent months dismissing former mayor and Gov. Sarah Palin as too inexperienced for national office is now championing a woman whose primary qualification – her only qualification -- is her last name. The very same media which still mock Palin’s folksy "you betcha" or her interview with Katie Couric don’t seem to notice when John Fund reports that in one 30-minute interview on the cable news channel New York One, Caroline Kennedy used the slang "you know" a total of 168 times.

How will Caroline Kennedy be expected to cast votes in the Senate when she’s cared so little about voting as a citizen? Faced with reports that she had missed voting in several New York elections, including the 1994 re-election effort of Sen. Daniel Moynihan (the Senate seat she now expects to be handed like royalty), Kennedy told the Associated Press "I was really surprised and dismayed by my voting record. I'm glad it's been brought to my attention."

What?

There’s a long line of New York politicians who are more qualified and more deserving of a Senate seat than this dippy heiress – even liberal ones. Yet they have to watch this wannabe sound like one of her limo drivers just handed her the dismaying news of her own voting history? You know?

But the Kennedy-worshiping media elite just can’t stop scratching their Camelot itch, showing those ridiculously over-broadcasted home movies of the Kennedy kids, and marveling over Caroline Kennedy’s life story. From "Nightline," here’s ABC high-fructose syrup specialist John Donvan: "She would be the fourth Kennedy to be called senator. Surely a new dynastic record. And her return to Washington would close a circle after nearly half a century. For this is where, when her dad was the president, we first came to know the little girl, riding his shoulders, saddled up on ponies."

Riding ponies in your playground years somehow qualifies you for federal office, at least if your last name is Kennedy.

Donvan set the bar of qualifications incredibly low, for Caroline Kennedy had no drug arrests or overdoses, and no rape trials, unlike her cousins: "Other Kennedys of her generation ran afoul of the law, but Caroline Kennedy raised her kids and did work for charity and did the family name proud." Never mind that she admitted doing drugs in the 1970s "like a typical member of that generation."

Caroline is also allegedly qualified because she had no Chappaquiddick: "Consider this, Ted Kennedy, same name, but it took him years to figure out how to become the Lion of the Senate, with multiple missteps along the way, not always doing the name proud....At least she has kept it the way it was remembered, as part of a story that so many wanted to believe in."

Back in August, this same network treated John McCain’s choice of Palin with nothing less than contempt. They "looked a little like father and daughter out for an ice cream," said ABC’s David Wright. This is the same David Wright who swooned when Caroline Kennedy endorsed Obama last January. Obama became the "adopted son of Camelot...blessed not just by the Lion of the Senate, but by JFK’s daughter."

McCain aide Mike DuHaime attempted to tout Palin’s "incredible life story" when she was first picked, but ABC anchor Bill Weir told him that in the "brutality of a national campaign," Palin was neglecting her duties as a mother: "She has an infant with special needs. Will that affect her campaigning?" This is the same Bill Weir who found the first whispers of Caroline Kennedy for Senate "exciting to talk about."

Reporters are incredibly transparent in their biases these days. Experience is a huge issue – unless a Kennedy is running. Motherhood isn’t a qualification for office – unless a Kennedy is running. Smarts are important – unless a Kennedy is running.

In short, the media have a slight possibility of being fair – unless a Kennedy is running. You know?


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: New York
KEYWORDS: bozell; carolinekennedy; kennedy; mediabias; msm; senate
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MSM Idiot: Caroline Kennedy is qualified to be a US Senator because she had no drug arrests or overdoses, and no rape trials, unlike her cousins, and no Chappaquiddick!

1 posted on 01/01/2009 3:49:34 AM PST by Zakeet
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To: Zakeet

Combine “Let’s Make a Deal”, “American Idol”, “Deal or No Deal” and “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader” and you have American politics now. No honor, no honesty. It’s a game to them.


2 posted on 01/01/2009 4:10:46 AM PST by raybbr (It's going to get a lot worse now that the anchor babies are voting!)
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To: Zakeet
You know, you might be onto something, you know.

She'll probably have to register to vote, you know, one day, you know.

3 posted on 01/01/2009 4:18:19 AM PST by TexasCajun
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To: Zakeet

When you see the stories they printed and made up about Sarah Palin and her family; especially her little boy and how they let a rapist off like Bill Clinton choosing instead to harrass the poor victim; the only thing you can say about the MSM is they are sick and depraved.

I don’t watch or listen to them anymore.


4 posted on 01/01/2009 4:21:51 AM PST by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote.)
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To: freekitty

“...the only thing you can say about the MSM is they are sick and depraved”

I think the more accurate observation is...Satan talking....


5 posted on 01/01/2009 4:23:55 AM PST by mo
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To: Zakeet
Caroline Kennedy:

"I was really surprised and dismayed by my voting record. I'm glad it's been brought to my attention."

Not to be outdone, her uncle Ted Kennedy chimed in:

"I was really surprised and dismayed by my drunk-driving record. I'm glad it's been brought to my attention."

Regards,

6 posted on 01/01/2009 4:29:56 AM PST by alexander_busek
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To: mo

It looks like the choices boil down to Caroline or Bubba Clinton.

Makes ya kinda, you know, feel like barfing doesnt it?


7 posted on 01/01/2009 4:30:33 AM PST by Venturer
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To: Zakeet
Geeze, Senator Bubba? Hmmmm.. What would keep the Toon from flapping his yap, " If I was president.. or When I was president..."

Two Clintons flapping their yaps all the time?

I'm not sure 0Bomba would approve.

8 posted on 01/01/2009 4:36:06 AM PST by csvset
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To: Zakeet

It is actually frightening - the media are the propagandists for the ruling class and about half of the country would love to be “ruled” by a corrupt, incompetent dynasty, as long as the dynasty delivers the promised bread and circuses. Add to that the fact that the new administration will do everything it can to censor independent news sources. The American republic is just a faded memory.


9 posted on 01/01/2009 4:41:38 AM PST by Wilhelm Tell (True or False? This is not a tag line.)
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To: Venturer

Bubba’d be more fun to watch...higher popcorn quotient...


10 posted on 01/01/2009 4:42:53 AM PST by mo
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To: Zakeet

I thought that even the MSM, which opposed both President Bush and Hillary (at least partly) on the grounds that the American people don’t need any more political dynasties, would run away from a Senator-select Schlossberg. The last Kennedy who wasn’t totally compromised was John-John, and now he’s gone. The dynasty should have ended then and there. I guess this clears the decks for Senator Jeb Bush.


11 posted on 01/01/2009 4:51:15 AM PST by pawdoggie
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To: pawdoggie

I hope not. Conservatives, IMO, are in no mood for more of the same - GOP or RAT versions.


12 posted on 01/01/2009 5:00:58 AM PST by WorkingClassFilth (Leftist kids say the darndest things!)
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To: Zakeet

Sarah Palin is a qualified, competent woman, who would have made a fine President if needed. Caroline Kennedy is a befuddled, cloistered and spoon–fed trust fund baby with no business near real decisions.

The MSM is in never-never land these days. What a rude awakening is in store...


13 posted on 01/01/2009 5:17:38 AM PST by PreciousLiberty
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To: Zakeet

Man, I hope the NYT goes under. I’m afraid someone is going to prop them up.


14 posted on 01/01/2009 5:22:02 AM PST by dr_who
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To: Wilhelm Tell

“The American republic is just a faded memory.”

And it’s time we resurrected it.


15 posted on 01/01/2009 5:24:13 AM PST by ought-six ( Multiculturalism is national suicide, and political correctness is the cyanide capsule.)
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To: dr_who

“Man, I hope the NYT goes under. I’m afraid someone is going to prop them up.”

Well, guess what? The bailer-outer may turn out to be the taxpayer. There’s been more mention in the media in the last 48 hrs about bailing out failing newspapers. So, a paper like the NYT that has fully driven itself into the ground selling a bad product with false stories and a hard left bias in their news reporting could turn out getting your and my money. Happy New Year. That’s enough to start the rumblings in the ranks of the fed up.


16 posted on 01/01/2009 5:30:47 AM PST by AlphaOneAlpha
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To: Zakeet
Never mind if the Republican half of the country feels sickened by the obsession.

this is not true. JFK is the second most popular President (behind Reagan) on FR, if you take the # of positive comments : negative comments, with some threshold above background noise. Freepers older than 45, like Bozell, he's probably right.

17 posted on 01/01/2009 5:39:38 AM PST by gusopol3
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To: Zakeet

She looks 30 years older than she actually is and sounds like a valley girl.


18 posted on 01/01/2009 5:52:34 AM PST by wendy1946
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To: Zakeet

Sad to say, Caroline Kennedy is probably just as qualified to be a US Senator as the woman she hopes to replace, Hillary Clinton, was, when Hillary took that job.


19 posted on 01/01/2009 5:59:27 AM PST by Bernard (If you always tell the truth, you never have to remember exactly what you said.)
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To: Zakeet

If Caroline is not trading on the Kennedy name, why doesn’t she use her married name?


20 posted on 01/01/2009 6:12:48 AM PST by CPOSharky (Coming up: Four years of Jimmuh Cartah on crack.)
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