The Associated Press’ summarization of what happened 50 years ago at Chappaquiddick is just the latest example of why half of America doesn’t trust the mainstream media. (Hot Air)
50 years ago today, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy left a party on Chappaquiddick Island near Martha’s Vineyard with Mary Jo Kopechne, 28; some time later, Kennedy’s car went off a bridge into the water. Kennedy was able to escape, but Kopechne drowned. pic.twitter.com/X7jCFJcyJw
— AP Images (@AP_Images) July 18, 2019
Let’s start this in reverse, as it’s the best way to put this in perspective. It’s not true that Kopechne “drowned.” The coroner never autopsied the body, itself a curious omission when dealing with an unattended death of a healthy young woman. Eyewitness testimony by the person who recovered her body at the scene, as well as the position of the body, strongly suggests she suffocated after spending a significant amount of time exhausting the oxygen in the air bubble of the submerged car. Heavy covered this in the release of the film Chappaquiddick last year:
Reporting it as a drowning 50 years later is factually deficient, but that’s the least of the sins of this AP headline. Nowhere in this description is the fact that Kennedy was driving the car, and that he was speeding when he went off the bridge. Instead, the car mysteriously “went off a bridge” by itself, or perhaps with Kopechne at the wheel.
Also missing from this description is the fact that Kennedy took nine hours to report the accident to police. He used that time to concoct a ridiculous series of claims in an attempt to minimize or eliminate his culpability for leaving Kopechne behind. If Kopechne did suffocate, as the evidence strongly suggests, a timely report by Kennedy could have saved her life.
The national media ignored all of this during Kennedy’s life in order to protect his political career. The AP uses a ridiculous passive voice to ignore it after his death. Now they’re just protecting their own reputations, because to report this anniversary honestly would mean having to discuss — as the film Chappaquiddick did — the pernicious mythologizing of the Kennedys by the media and its costs to others.
AAN Staff
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