John F. Kennedy

Tonight with his interview of former South Carolina Republican Congressman Bob Inglis, MSNBC's Hardball host Chris Matthews worked a trifecta of Matthewsian tropes into one segment: adulation of all things Kennedy, bashing the GOP as "anti-science," and praising a renegade Republican for taking a liberal position on a policy issue, in this case a so-called carbon tax.

Rush Limbaugh, as is frequently the case, was right. The other day, after a media kerfuffle surrounding Senator Rand Paul’s announcement and a rash of stories about the Senator’s televised go-rounds with NBC’s Today host Savannah Guthrie and an earlier one with CNBC’s Kelly Evans, Rush pointed out the obvious. Guthrie treated Paul as an oddball, practically an alien.

In the latest example of NBC's unhealthy obsession with the Kennedys, Monday's Today devoted a three-minute segment to promoting 54-year-old photos of JFK and Jackie vacationing on Cape Cod in 1961, with correspondent Sheinelle Jones proclaiming: "...what's so striking about these images is that they depict the first couple in a way many of us aren't accustomed to seeing – away from the confines…

The November 17 edition of People magazine includes a promotional article for Timothy Shriver’s new book Fully Alive, focusing on “The Forgotten Kennedy,” the lobotomized Rosemary Kennedy, sister to Jack, Bobby and Teddy. "Why are we hiding from this story?" he asked himself, according to People’s Liz O’Neil. "There's nothing to fear here. It's a human story. It's a heroic story.” Heroically…

While ignoring any mention of the pivotal midterm election less than a month away that could decide control of the United States Senate, on Tuesday, NBC's Today instead devoted a full two-minute segment in its first hour to newly discovered photos of John and Jackie Kennedy's wedding – from 61 years ago. Co-host Matt Lauer introduced the segment by announcing "a stunning series of never-before-…

Readers of the New York Times know it as the "Weddings/Celebrations" section, which appears in every Sunday paper. Cynics have taken to labeling it the Women's Sports Page. It made for delightful reading this past weekend. Those browsing through the most recent installment weren't likely to miss the prominent placement of a story about attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and actress Cheryl Hines…

In a historically illiterate Salon piece, writer Heather Digby Parton argued that “right-wing hatred” of John F. Kennedy ultimately led to his death, and that a climate of hate is once again growing because of the right’s reaction to President Obama. Of course, the entire premise of Parton’s piece is false because JFK was not assassinated by any crazy ‘gun nut’ right-winger, as she might have…

It's pointless to pay attention to foreign policy when a Democrat is president, unless you enjoy having your stomach in a knot. As long as a Democrat sits in the White House, America will be repeatedly humiliated, the world will become a much more dangerous place -- and there's absolutely nothing anybody can do about it. (Though this information might come in handy when voting for president,…

On the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, you would have thought people would have been clamoring for the liberal views espoused by CNN and MSNBC. Such wasn't the case, for last Friday, Fox News clobbered its competition from the moment the sun rose till the time most people went to bed.

In the weeks leading up to the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination, media members across the fruited plain have largely gushed and fawned over the former president's legacy and grandeur. New York Times columnist David Brooks offered a rather unique take on PBS's News Hour Friday saying that Kennedy's utopian vision of what a president can do, along with his subsequent…

Is it possible for Americans to commemorate the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s death without the media taking potshots at the Right? Consider former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw who while on MSNBC’s The Cycle Friday recounting where he was when Kennedy was shot decided he needed to make the case that people in conservative states wanted the president killed (video follows with…

President John F. Kennedy was assassinated 50 years ago by a Communist sympathizer, yet Friday’s Morning Joe on MSNBC ran a package that emphasized right-wing hate in Dallas while failing to mention Lee Harvey Oswald or his ideological leanings. The package, narrated by Brian Shactman, focused on the “unspoken speech” that President Kennedy was planning to give on the day he was shot.…

My parents voted for Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential election. I had not yet developed a political worldview, but as a freshman at American University in Washington, D.C., I stayed up late to watch the election returns slowly trickle in before going to bed at 2 a.m. with the outcome still undecided. The following year I was hired as a copyboy at NBC News, delivering wire service "copy…

As media predictably gush and fawn over John F. Kennedy on the 50th anniversary of his assassination, it seems a metaphysical certitude precious few will take an honest look at his actual accomplishments as president. Fox News Sunday did exactly that this week with Brit Hume saying, "[H]e has been the subject of the most successful public relations campaign in political history" (video…