Pile of National Media Stars Turn Up for Ted Kennedy's D.C. Birthday Tribute

Many liberal media outlets have reported the Kennedy Center birthday party Sunday night for Sen. Ted Kennedy. Few have mentioned the media turnout. Al Hunt of Bloomberg News, the former Executive Washington Editor of the Wall Street Journal, joined Caroline Kennedy in awarding Sen. Kennedy the Kennedy Library’s "Profile in Courage" Award. Frank Mankiewicz, the former president of National Public Radio and Robert F. Kennedy's former press secretary, declared Ted Kennedy was "the best senator of the last century and already the best senator of this century."

The Politico reported "A favorite to many was a short video of Kennedy's life, narrated by [PBS host] Gwen Ifill, which got especially rousing applause in an applause heavy night, with some six standing ovations." That matches the Ted Kennedy tribute film at last year’s Democratic convention, made by PBS star filmmaker Ken Burns.

The list of journalists present included ABC’s Cokie Roberts, CBS’s Rita Braver, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, New York Times reporter Mark Leibovich, PBS NewsHour analyst Mark Shields, Steve Scully of C-SPAN, and three CNN personnel: anchor Wolf Blitzer, analyst Gloria Borger, and reporter Ed Henry.

The Politico also reported that Denyce Graves sang "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" and Broadway producer Hal Prince took the stage and said "perhaps its stating the obvious -- that song is how everyone in this room feels about Ted Kennedy." Is that the message all the journalists in the room  meant to send?