Salon.com > John F. Kennedy

We don’t need truth vigilantes

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 16:55:00 +0000

New York Times public editor Arthur Brisbane got a lot of grief last month for a blog post in which he asked readers whether the Times ought to be "a truth vigilante." I didn't join the pile-on, because truth be told, I kind of understood what he was getting at. Sure, "truth vigilante" is a shrill, easily mocked term: It doesn't take "vigilantism" to get at the truth, only good reporting. But there can be questions for editors and reporters about how far is too far – what's good reporting, and what's hectoring? What's debunking, and what's partisan water-carrying? (Also, I don't like the practice of mocking people for asking questions, even when we think the answer should be obvious. Better that Brisbane ask than to ignore the issue entirely.) I can understand why some cases aren't clear.

Santorum’s JFK story makes me want to throw up

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 22:00:00 +0000

"We establish no religion in this country, we command no worship, we mandate no belief, nor will we ever. Church and state are, and must remain, separate. All are free to believe or not believe, all are free to practice a faith or not, and those who believe are free, and should be free, to speak of and act on their belief."

Rick Santorum teed off on a venerated former president Sunday morning for telling America that the separation of church and state was "absolute.." Was it the guy responsible for the above quote? No, that was Ronald Reagan, running for reelection in 1984 (h/t BB).

It's Democrat John F. Kennedy who made Santorum "throw up," the GOP presidential contender told ABC's George Stephanopoulos, with his famous 1960 speech to Baptist ministers trying to assuage widespread fears about his Catholicism in order to become our first, and still our only, Catholic president. Santorum claims that JFK said that "people of faith have no role in the public square," and urged ABC's viewers to go read the speech for themselves and see.

New book shows another side to Jackie Kennedy

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:31:00 +0000

It's a side of Jacqueline Kennedy only friends and family knew.

Funny and inquisitive, canny and cutting. In "Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy," the former first lady was not yet the jet setting celebrity of the late 1960s or the literary editor of the 1970s and '80s. But she was also nothing like the soft-spoken fashion icon of the three previous years. She was in her mid-30s, recently widowed, but dry-eyed and determined to set down her thoughts for history.

Kennedy met with historian and former White House aide Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. in her 18th century Washington house in the spring and early summer of 1964. At home and at ease, as if receiving a guest for afternoon tea, she chatted about her husband and their time in the White House. The young Kennedy children, Caroline and John Jr., occasionally pop in. On the accompanying audio discs, you can hear the shake of ice inside a drinking glass. The tapes were to be sealed for decades and were among the last documents of her private thoughts. She never wrote a memoir and became a legend in part because of what we didn't know.

A brief history of controversial presidential vacations

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 18:10:00 +0000

Barack Obama is catching a lot of flak for planning a summer vacation. The president will spend 11 days in Martha's Vineyard, and critics say that's a bad idea when markets are skittish and millions of Americans are out of work or struggling to get by. Of course, Republicans criticizing Obama are just mirroring what Democrats said about President George W. Bush, who, at this point in his presidency, had taken 180 "days off" to Obama's 61.

Partisan wrangling over presidential vacation time is as old as the Republic itself. The Salon.com War Room Historical Fun Fact Team did some research, and found out what sort of grief past presidents got when they wanted to recharge their batteries:

The coverup continues: The Kennedys in Hollywood

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 14:01:00 +0000

Although it lasted a mere 1,000 days, the Kennedy presidency has been entombed under 1,000 layers of junk history. Now -- with the 50th anniversary of JFK's brief reign upon us, and the half-century mark coming up on his 1963 assassination -- we will soon be neck deep in Kennedy sludge. A flurry of Kennedy projects are in various stages of production in Hollywood, which has long been dazzled by the family's glamour. But none of them promises to go beneath the surface and capture the deeper essence of their tragic story. When it comes to the Kennedys, Hollywood still can't handle the truth.

The first Camelot drama out of the chute is "The Kennedys," the controversial miniseries that was canceled by the History Channel under pressure from Carolyn Kennedy and historians, who argued that the channel should at least make some effort to root the story in, well, history. This was a quaint argument, since the History Channel abandoned history long ago in favor of ice-road truckers, gator wrestlers and other reality sideshows. But the network owners were sufficiently embarrassed by the ruckus to dump the series. "The Kennedys" then took a long, downward trip through television's alimentary canal, ending up in some dark cavity called the Reelz Channel. The six-episode series begins plopping out on Sunday.

New video provides rare glimpse into John F. Kennedy’s final hours

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 22:23:00 +0000

The Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas recently released a video of John F. Kennedy filmed on Nov. 21, 1963 -- the night before he was assassinated. The images were recorded at the Rice Hotel in Houston, where the President appeared at an event with local Hispanic leaders. The sadly audio-free clip shows an animated Kennedy with his wife, Jacqueline, as he approaches a podium to deliver remarks.

The Zapruder film, this is not. (Thankfully.) Rather, it's a fascinating and melancholy look at an American icon during his last hours.

Why do we admire a president who did so little?

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 12:30:00 +0000

Every year since 1990, the Gallup poll has asked Americans to assess all the presidents since John F. Kennedy. And every year, Kennedy comes out on top. In the most recent survey measuring the popularity of the nine presidents since JFK, 85 percent said they approved of Kennedy’s leadership; Ronald Reagan was second with a 74 percent rating. Predictably, Richard Nixon came last with only 29 percent; even George W. Bush, who rivaled Nixon for the dubious distinction of least popular, commanded 47 percent approval. And poor Lyndon Johnson, who did more to change the country for the better with his civil rights, Medicare and aid to education laws than any president since Franklin Roosevelt but who remains burdened by Vietnam, stood just ahead of Bush with 49 percent.

Sargent Shriver dead at 95

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 21:19:00 +0000

Father of Maria Shriver and brother-in-law to President John F. Kennedy has died in Maryland, AP reports. Shriver was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2003.

He served as the director of the Peace Corps and was George McGovern's running mate in the 1972 presidential elections.

USA Today has published an obituary of Shriver's life, highlighting his record of public service despite never winning an election to political office.

JFK ambulance up for auction in Arizona

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 16:17:00 +0000

Bidders at an Arizona car auction will have a chance to buy the ambulance that carried the body of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, after it arrived in the Washington area from Dallas.

The Barrett-Jackson Auction Co. in Scottsdale says the 1963 Pontiac Bonneville Naval Ambulance transported Kennedy's casket from Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base to Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland.

The same ambulance was used to move Kennedy's casket, along with the late president's wife and brother Robert, to the U.S. Capitol Building.

Many watching grainy black and white images that November day saw Jackie Kennedy, with her blood stained clothing, enter the ambulance.

The auction runs Jan. 17-23.

------

Online:

http://bit.ly/dOHqOy