The Kennedy family - this huge political elite group is considered to have never left the American political arena. Although no Kennedy family members are currently serving in the US federal government, this family is still manipulating the media in various forms, trying to delete it. All the negative news about them.
Who wouldn't love Kennedy?
At the beginning of 2011, Congressman Patrick Kennedy from Rhode Island left the House of Representatives. This small resignation almost caused cheers from foreign media, because his departure will make the list of federal government officials no longer. Kennedy this surname, this is the first time in 63 years.
However, there have always been rumors that the current US President Barack Obama was discovered and promoted by a friend of the Kennedy family. Obama was indeed supported by the Kennedy family in the middle of the election. With the family's important influence in the Democratic Party, this black young man was able to Replacing Hillary as the presidential candidate.
Everything shows that although the Kennedy family no longer appears, their influence on American politics has always existed. In order to maintain the family's face, they did not hesitate to use various means to shape their image and delete bad information, but they did not always success.
President's father looks like Hitler?
On September 19 this year, actor Barry Biber won the Emmy for Best Actor for his performance in the TV series "The Kennedys." The $25 million, eight-episode historical drama is also a twist and turns, because it was almost "stillborn."
The producer of this film is Joe Surno, who has produced classic American dramas such as "24 Hours" and "Nikita". It was originally planned to be broadcast on the History Channel (a joint venture of NBC Universal, Hearst, and Disney). But just before it aired, an adviser to President Kennedy (John F. Kennedy) came forward and said the script was "malicious, vengeful" against Kennedy and his family.
Because the script portrays President Kennedy's father, Joseph Kennedy Sr., as a bad-tempered "tyrant" who is ambitious, bohemian, corrupt, and even Hitler's sympathizer. He has a lot of classic lines such as telling his son that "your reputation doesn't depend on who you are, it depends on how people think of you", "money allows you to do whatever you want", and he put his arms around his two sons and said : "Now, this country is our Kennedy's."
And President John F. Kennedy's image on the show isn't good either: he needs to read urgent national security secrets sent by intelligence agents, but he's not in the swimming pool. Make love in a hurry. He even felt that he could not stand monogamy: "If I don't meet a strange ass in a few days, I'll have a migraine."
Before the show was scheduled to air, The New York Times almost used a Years have long published bad reviews about this TV series. Scholars who study Kennedy felt that the History Channel should have aired a script that was historically factual, and that the script that portrayed Kennedy as a "sex addict" was not historical.
The producer Surno has always been close to the Republicans, and this has also become a target of attack. Some people think that the show is a right-wing Hollywood figure who has a lot of influence in the Democratic Party. The Kennedy family Vicious attack.
Ultimately, the History Channel was forced to issue a statement saying the show was "too dramatic to be aired on the History Channel". But the History Channel spent 25 million dollars to create this show. Wouldn't it be worthless if it was hidden due to criticism? Had to reluctantly gave up and sold the historical drama to ReelzChannel, a non-mainstream cable network in the United States. When the channel aired the show in May this year, the average viewership reached 1.9 million, hitting the highest point since the channel was founded, and Americans' "Kennedy family complex" was awakened again.
This time, the Kennedy family's action to prevent the "negative image" seems to be unsuccessful, but the small-scale coverage of non-mainstream channels has minimized its influence. This is also one of the few "misses" of the Kennedy family.
'Family trouble' over murder
In the list of "Top Ten American Families" listed by Time magazine, the Democratic Kennedy family and the Republican Bush family are the most conspicuous. However, compared with the prosperous Bush family, the Kennedy family has suffered many misfortunes. Except for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the death of family members has almost become a "curse", which has also triggered popular culture for this Various speculations about the former "first family".
On November 22, 1963, the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, was assassinated. The huge problem brought about by this misfortune is: curiosity about this murder has made people want to dig the inside story of the Kennedy family, and some negative The news also came to light. From then on, the Kennedy family had to frequently use various means to maintain the family image.
In 1964, Kennedy's widow, Jacqueline, and her younger brother, Robert, approached the historian William Manchester and asked him to write the story before and after Kennedy's assassination, and recorded the interview. But when she saw the finished manuscript, Jacqueline felt that many of the content was private and asked Manchester to delete it. In fact, the so-called "privacy" is nothing but something innocuous. For example, Manchester disclosed that Jacqueline smoked, but in that year, she felt that it was wrong for the "daughter of famous family" to smoke.
Manchester is a historian after all, and since what he wrote was not fabricated out of thin air, he refused to submit. Jacqueline threatened angrily: "Everyone who opposes me will end up like dead mice." But Manchester still refused to obey, Jacqueline simply said: "I'm going to destroy you!" She threatened to ban The book is published.
The lawsuit was finally settled out of court, and the publisher made a few changes before it was published. The book was a sensation and was considered to be "the best book about the Kennedy assassination", but the Kennedy family still refused to forgive, because the family The agreement with the publisher prevented the book from being reprinted, and curious readers had to go to the Internet to find second-hand books to read.
In 1975, Ben Bradley, the executive editor of The Washington Post, wrote a book called The Kennedy Conversations. He used to be a friend of the Kennedys, so before publishing, he showed Jacqueline the manuscript. The old friend also turned his face. She thought Bradley wrote too much about himself and too little about Kennedy. And Bradley wrote about Kennedy's profanity, and the words "bastard, son of a bitch, idiot" were often used in the mouth of the well-educated Kennedy. Bradley also disagreed with the revisions because Kennedy had said in conversations with Bradley that he could make those conversations five years after he left the White House.
After this incident, the old friends became strangers. The most exaggerated thing is that once Bradley and Jacqueline were only nearly 2 meters away, she still pretended not to know him.
Some people must be wondering
why the History Channel did not withstand the pressure of the historians and broadcast "The Kennedys"? Some pressures are hard to withstand.
At the beginning of 2010, a director named Robert Greenwald stood up. He was also a staunch "Kennedy family supporter". He established a website called "Stop Touching Kennedy" and said to every user who logged on to the website. : Go and tell the History Channel that it was a right-wing political attack, not history. President Kennedy's personal adviser Ted Sorensen said on the website: "The (Kennedy) family and the people who witnessed it are still in the world. Broadcasting such a thing will be condemned by God." It is said that there are more than 50,000 people. Sign this website to show support. The New York Times also covered it on the front page, and Greenwald felt they had a big win.
The ending is as mentioned above. The History Channel sold it and dared not broadcast it.
Sometimes, in addition to containing all kinds of negative news, it is also necessary to establish a good positive image. There are always people in the Kennedy family who are trying to make the family image a fashionable and healthy cultural symbol.
Not everyone in the Kennedy family is a black-faced figure. The president's son, Kennedy Jr., is a fun guy. On the cover of the fashion and lifestyle magazine "George" he founded, he openly asked actors to imitate Marilyn Monroe for a photo shoot, blatantly ignoring the rumor that Monroe was his father Kennedy's lover. This move is to tell people: don't be too really. But he died in a private jet crash in 1999.
After his death, Richard Bradley, the editor of George Magazine who had worked with him for many years, tried to write a book about JFK Jr., but he was rumored to be a gay man who had coveted JFK Jr. for a long time. Before the book, "America's Son: A Biography of Kennedy Jr.," was written, the book's publisher was warned by a phone call from Caroline Kennedy, a two A follower. Almost all of the George magazine editors signed an agreement with JFK Jr.'s attorney, Gary Ginsburg, when they left. The content was simple: Don't write about JFK Jr. But can JFK Jr. be able to write after his death? The agreement does not explicitly say, and no one knows yet.
Kennedy's sister Caroline advocated the use of "soft power" to maintain the family's image. She is always good at discovering the kind, tender and poetic stories of this ambitious political family, such as "Christmas of the Famous", "Best Stories of Inspiration", "Jacqueline Kennedy's Favorite Poem" Wait. And almost every one of the books she has completed has been listed on the New York Times bestseller list. Among them, "Jacqueline Kennedy's Favorite Poems" sold 500,000 copies in its first year of publication. Caroline's operation has even been called the "Caroline phenomenon" by the publishing industry. Some commentators joked that these days, it is not a poet who can be held by publishers in the United States to publish poetry collections, and only the women of the Kennedy family can do it.
The Kennedys also had their own publishing company, focusing on children's and youth books, such as the "JFK Jr. American Heroes" series. It is worth mentioning that Schwarzenegger's ex-wife Katherine is also a member of the Kennedy family, and she is in charge of the publishing company's affairs.
Kennedy and Murdoch's "quid pro quo"
With the advent of the era of the media empire, the Kennedy family also discovered that as long as a few media giants were persuaded, there would be no more negative news about the Kennedy family in the media. "How could they not take the shortcut?
Attorney Gary Ginsburg, a friend of Kennedy Jr. at Brown University, helped the Kennedy family persuade Murdoch to let his tabloid, the New York Post, not publish negative news about Caroline Kennedy's daughter's rude behavior. He also got a job at the Kennedy Library. Murdoch did not help in vain. Caroline Kennedy wrote a letter of recommendation to Brillley Private Girls' School, a prestigious aristocratic school in Manhattan, New York, so that Murdoch's daughter Grace could attend the school smoothly.
When Caroline ran for Congress in 2008, Murdoch's "New York Post" backed her again, and she was moved. In return, she arranged a phone call for Murdoch to meet then-presidential candidate Barack Obama. . Rumors that the Kennedy family has an unusual relationship with Obama have once again been confirmed.
So, someone summed up the rules of the Kennedy family's game: the rich and powerful serve the Kennedy family, and in return, they will become good friends of the famous Kennedy family. It may be the largest social network of upper-class people in American history. "Kennedy Family Friends" is like a medal of honor, which many people admire, and they keep joining the army that helps the Kennedy family maintain its image.
The Kennedys are also good at using the media.
In May 2000, Kennedy Jr.'s "America's Son" was still in the works because the publishers didn't want to publish the book. "They just killed my book," says author Richard Bradley. He hung up his agent, and 15 minutes later received a call from a reporter from Murdoch's tabloid, The New York Post, asking, "How do you feel about your book being taken down?"
Brad Ray felt sick for a while, and wanted to go out to get some air, only to find reporters and cameras waiting at his door. In the New York Post the next morning, the news of the takedown of "America's Son" was published, and the publishers poured out the paper that they were not pressured by the Kennedy family to give up, but that they had learned about Bradley. There was a non-disclosure agreement with the Kennedy family first, so I didn't want to be the defendant, so I gave up. The Kennedys were once again innocent, and the Bradleys were "liars" who hid nondisclosure agreements from publishers.
Not only did it prevent the book from being published, but it also made the author a "liar", which is not something ordinary people have. The publisher later said: "I keep getting calls from New Yorkers saying don't get the book out, and although every New Yorker knows they're good friends of the Kennedy family, no one says 'It's Kennedy who asked me to make this call. ', they just said they wanted to call me." The
Kennedys were always in the dark.
Later, Bradley's agent went to several publishers who had expressed interest in the book, but the answer was unanimous: no, thank you. No way, Bradley, who was unemployed at home, had no choice but to finish the book that no one wanted.
The previous publisher had promised to spend 600,000 to buy the book, but after "everyone shouted", only a small publishing house promised to pay 300,000, and Bradley had to "sell it down". The book was on the "New York Times" bestseller list.
In January 2011, "The Kennedys" was about to air, and the History Channel received another roaring call from members of the Kennedys. Then, Maria Schweier, an old friend of the Kennedy family and former NBC host, went directly to the CEO of NBC Universal, another shareholder of the History Channel, to express dissatisfaction.
The most fatal blow was the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's inauguration as President of the United States in 2011. Caroline Kennedy threatened that if the History Channel broadcasts "The Kennedys," Disney ABC, the major shareholder of the History Channel, is the enemy of the Kennedy family, and she will not help ABC get her mother's conversation tapes or her father's President Kennedy. any information.
Many people think that the power of the Kennedy family is gradually weakening. What is certain is that when you open the family tree of the Kennedy family, you will find that there are many family members born in the 90s. They are just in their early 20s. Whether this family will be so arrogant in the future depends on how they behave. .
(magazine manuscript, do not transfer)
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