FROM RIC WILLIAMS, Austin, Texas:

Well, I was surprised there wasn't some mention. Undeserved or not, the man had mucho cultural cachet. He was a classic wealthy liberal. He lived up to the myth his family built--almost effortlessly. The power of a family myth has rarely been so displayed on such a grand scale. But humor? Best to avoid it as a humor issue though who would you vote for--a dead John John or a breathing Bush? Is there a difference? Both sons of the privileged, M. Ali only considered one his friend and that says plenty to me. Bush is a lazy opportunist; John John was a low key human rights activist. Which myth do you advocate? He died giv[ing] a sister-in law a lift. One can't imagine a Bush lifting a finger to help anyone if there isn't money to be made. Tra la.
Ric

FROM Carma S., California:

Rod, what else could you say about the death of JFK, Jr? The media was tripping over itself trying to get the latest word. So much of the reporting was either wrong or confusing.

Is someone questioning your loyalty to the Democratic Party, what is the problem?

The only thing I could recommend would be a nice eulogy to the three that died.
Carma

FROM Ron Diener, Raliegh, North Carolina:

RODster:

The death of JFK, Jr.:
Like so many other events of the day, his passing constituted a personal and family tragedy that could not be and should not be "shared" in the nation at large. We all and each need to take care of those near to us. Isn't it passing strange that folks who never visit their own parents or children were dripping with tears? I simply cannot afford to expend tears and grief on any and every celebrity who dies. In a moment of reflection, I might be thankful for that person's life - but even at that, what about JFK, Jr.'s life is there to be thankful about? that he "entertained" us with a salute at a moment of great sorrow? Come on, really!

The Republican tax bill, which is going to pick the pockets of the poor - once again - and enrich the already rich - once again: now that's news. Here in North Carolina, the Legislature adjourned without any major effort to solve the problem of pigshit lakes, to the lessened quality of life of tens of thousands of people: now that's news.

The effects of the continuing drought and heat wave in the Southeast, the increases already in food prices, the devastation being caused to farmers, the results of the "freedom to farm" legislation of a few years ago ("freedom to go broke," as one old-timer said): now that's news. The bribing of Republican legislators to pass the toothless HMO reform act that does not reform and does not act: now that's news. George W. Bush, now collecting on the next four year's worth of bribes and favored treatments for the richest and largest companies in the world to the tune of $35,000,000 (and growing): now that's news. The inability of the U.S. Government to tell the American Indian tribes how much money and assets are being held in trust for them and the inability of the U.S. Government to account for this money and other assets: now that's news.

On the other hand,
The continuing improvement in water quality in hundreds of rivers and streams in the United States, despite attempts by businesses to buy their way out of compliance with political bribes: now that's news. The improved financial status of so many state governments and the ability of the state governments to get to work on deferred maintenance and capital programs: now that's news.

The improvements in the interstate highway system as a result of last year's legislation to spend from the trust funds, together with the improved highway safety records where improvements have been made: now that's news. The full fruition of the highway beautification programs in North Carolina - speeding along highways with wildflower plantings, acres of lillies and sunflowers and daisies, startling reds and blues and yellows and oranges along interstate and state highways: now that's news.

Keep up the good work. We know news when we see it. And we see too much non-news masquerading as news.

Ron Diener
Raleigh, North Carolina

FROM Peg Thomas, St. Paul, MN.:

Even progressives need to keep an eye on what the mainstream press is doing, if only to know how to plan the next step. Most of your readers can probably remember exactly what they were doing when JFK died. For me, his death was two years after my own father's death, and, at 11 years old, I got it. Suddenly his death started a cycle of understanding, and I grieved for weeks openly, months silently and years in reflection. While the Kennedy hype has no appeal to me (I've only just seen pictures of John didn't even know he was editor of George), this stirs a profound existential yearing for clarity, community and meaning in life. It strikes me that those topics would hold interest. Being flung back to feeling like I did when I was 11 for several days this week, (and acting as such) has been a bit unnerving. How this translates into news is a challenge. (Did we all become kids this week--for even a moment?)
Peg Thomas

FROM Bob Purvis, Westminster, MD:

Rod:

I thought there were 2 salient points in the JFK, Jr. media binge worth noting, but only one would be appropriate for a site like G21.

1. Point not worth covering on G21: The self-absorbed gasbags who covered the Kennedy administration & assassination, and for whom "Camelot" and the Kennedy "Legacy" were real because they felt a part of it. These folks -- e.g. the Lehrer NewsHour "regulars" -- simply assumed that the entire nation was absorbed in the latest tragedy because they were. (One of them even said that "every American" has seen Ruby shoot Oswald "at least 50 times." This is evidence of just how limited is their knowledge & experience of the larger world.) These gasbags are pretty representative of the middle-aged white guys who serve almost universally as the "gatekeepers" of the news -- whose perceptions and attitudes determine what is news, what's important about the news, how issues are framed, and so on.

2. Point worth noting on G21: The JFK, Jr. coverage is an egregious example of the ongoing transformation of the news business, driven by the twin forces of evolving communications technologies and a shift in the norms of news organizations to a dominant preoccupation with what sells: Something is "news" if it can deliver an audience to advertisers, and its relative importance is determined almost entirely by the combination of the size and duration of that audience. Example: 8 days after Kennedy's plane went down, CNN is promoting a primetime show called "Remembering John F. Kennedy, Jr." Query: What did John F, Kennedy, Jr. do during his life that a national audience of Americans should be prompted to "remember" -- and that is important enough to push aside the almost infinite other issues that could have been covered during that airtime? An anti-celebrity in life, JFK, Jr. becomes the ultimate celebrity in death.

As the networks and cable news channels fight for audience, their preferred technique for now is to transform an event into a media spectacle, in which the coverage itself becomes part of the story and shapes it, in the process grossly distorting the worldviews of the public who "consume" it. Example: Judging by media coverage, the OJ trial was the biggest criminal justice story during the year it dragged on; if there was an example of problems in the criminal justice system, that was it. Yet during that same year there was an unprecedented number of reports documenting systematic criminal activity within major police departments across the country including New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Miami, and Chicago, among others. At the moment that rightwing pundit John Podhoritz opined in the Weekly Standard that the OJ acquittal made him "ashamed to be an American" for the first time in his life, there had been documented and reported more than 40 cases in Philadelphia alone of police framing innocent citizens -- most of them Black -- for crimes that were never committed. Six officers had by then confessed, and tens of thousands of other convictions were being re-opened.

More recently there was the Columbine massacre which, once the media fixated on it, crowded out a whole slew of other stories of mass killings & shootings that would've complicated the simple narrative of Columbine and the national "soul-searching" we were fed -- and in which we then participated -- in response. Only in the context of that distorted spectacle could Congress not become a national laughingstock for passing its measure calling for the posting of the Ten Commandments in schools. ("Take 2 tablets and call me in the morning....")

I could go on, but I won't. Only this: What I think is worth covering about the JFK, Jr. tragedy-as-media spectacle would be better done once the whole thing has died down, and it can be examined in all of its almost-comic excess.

--Bob

FROM Jean-Paul Armagnac, Paris, France:

This is just another exam[ple], I think, of how you [Americans] believe the whole world is focused on your lives, your cinema, your television, your celebrity. Did you notice that other news was going on in the world last week?

I think not!

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FROM Matt Stowell, San Francisco, CA:

I couldn't care less about one more Dead Kennedy. Or a Live Kennedy, for that matter. Although that Ted guy seems to be a pretty proficient boozer...gotta give credit for that, I suppose...

FROM R.L. Olson, [No City Provided], USA:

I think you should have crucified them for their wretched excess!!! The story was over mid-week with the recovery of the bodies, and coverage should have ceased......

FROM Cath Junge, (Detroit, we think):

Thank you for NOT running the JFK, Jr story. I had my fill with the TV and portals.

FROM Jules Siegel, Cancun, Mexico:

There was too much coverage as it was. Talking about it was superfluous, although I can also see how it would be relevant now that it's settling down.

There was an extensive discussion of this on SPJ-L [Society of Professional Journalist - Listserv. --- Ed.], the General Journalism Discussion List. Although there was some strong disagreement, the consensus seemed to be that the media hysterics were all out of proportion to what people really felt, that it was mostly media hype rather than an accurate response to public interest.

If you'd like to commission an article on the subject, I'll put something together.

I didn't particpate in the discussion because I was not all that interested, plus I'm in the middle of writing an important book outline. I feel that the hysteria was exaggerated, but that this is an example of what I call the human robot syndrome. People are programmed to respond to authority figures like children obeying adults. The charismatic quality of the authority figures is enhanced by artificially created mythical attributes -- references to Camelot, for example.

When someone with these charismatic attributes dies, we transfer to them the feelings normally reserved for our own parents and loved ones. They have become such important presences in our psychic existence through the constant repetition of their images in the communications media that we feel that we know them. I identified very strongly with Princess Di (whose myth was global rather than merely British) and was moved by her death, but my identification with her was essentially political rather than psychological. I didn't identify with JFK Jr, who was not a very large figure in Mexican and international media, so I wasn't strongly moved by his death.

These factors are basic to the way in which populations are controlled, but it takes some explanation to get the point through the very strong unconscious resistance that serves to maintain the feeling of security generated by the attachment to these artificially created parental images.

Let me know if you want more on this.

FROM Barbara Atwell, Berkeley, CA:

Yes, you made the right decision. The media abuse was enough elsewhere. It may be worthwhile to bring it up as ammunition in an article about media opportunism and sensationalism...

See you,
Barb

FROM Wolf DeVoon, Boulder, CO:

Rod,

I'm glad you ignored JFK, Jr and the media circus.

G21 has a continuing opportunity to focus on important subjects that the mass media ignore. I don't consider the Kennedys important enough to waste G21 bandwidth.

Wolf

FROM Darryl Cox, Hershey, PA:

I'm glad that you did not run a story about his death. I mean even if you had taken a position contrary to the mainstream media you would have still been mired in the tawdry, sentimental muck that is so attendant to celebrity these days. Sometimes we have to keep a proper distance from events in order to have an appreciation of their significance. Television lures us to the edge of other people's tragedies and makes us stand too close; far, far too close. This is what makes us think that the loss was ours as well.

FROM Jeff Winbush, Columbus, OH:

Rush Limbaugh (yes, i do check into what is going on at the enemy camp from time to time) asked a question yesterday which to me proves the theory that even a broken clock is right twice a day.

Limbaugh asked, "Does anyone know the names of the two American soldiers who were killed in Kosovo this week?"

Yes, G21 should have at least mentioned the death of JFK jr. There are such things as stories that have a universal appeal and a high level of recognition. JFK jr. was one of the few whose face is instantly recongizable and whose history many people have some familarity with.

G21 runs the risk of engaging in journalism elitism when it totally ignores what occurs in the world around it. There are many ways to approach such a story. (a) The Kennedy "curse" (b) The media overkill (c) What such a death says about how good looks, classy breeding and a famous lineage overcomes all else

The best quote i read was in a Washington Postwire story where a 16-yr-old was asked what she thought about Kennedy's death and she replied, "I'm sorry about his death, but I never saw him in my neighborhood. He didn't DO anything."

He wasn't a politician. He wasn't a actor. He wasn't a great thinker, healer or philospher. He never caught a rabbit and he ain't no friend of mine. He was a Kennedy and in this celebrity starved society that trumps everything else.

So, yeah---G21 could have scribbled something/anything about the guy. And i would have if i wasn't absolutely up to my nose in things to do-yesterday.

no justice
no peace
jw

FROM Diamond D, Higganum, CT:

I was happy to see no reference to jfk2 in your publication, in fact I am disgusted by the media still providing coverage and asking those questions like "Why?"

DUH

I hate american media crap!!! They are now experts at destroying anything that comes into their light...

-d

FROM Ethan Casey, London, UK:

Dear Rod,

Sure, you made the right decision -- a rather bold one, I might add admiringly. I think it's always best to avoid such binges, to the extent possible, or at least to give them short shrift.

That said, may I note that you just made reference to it, actually, sort of, by polling your mailing list ... :-)

Jules Siegel cc'ed me on his response to your poll. I was one of the people in that extensive discussion on the SPJ-L list, rather vociferously arguing that it was needlessly and offensively hogging air time and newsprint that journalists ought to be investing elsewhere. I had a very sharp (and unpleasant) exchange with a woman who was very condescending and spiteful (so I thought, at least), and who moaned on about how JFK Jr. was "a symbol", his death was "the end of an era", crap like that. She got under my skin so I expressed myself back at her ...

I agree with Jules's assessment about "human robot syndrome" -- this is largely what his Joyce Maynard essay is about too, don't you agree? Blue Ear is planning to publish something else by Jules on the human robot theme fairly soon, and maybe G21 would like to be involved again in a similar way as with your interview that resulted from and helpfully added to the Joyce essay.

Regards,
Ethan B L U E E A R
Global Writing Worth Reading
http://www.BlueEar.com

FROM Jerry Forgey, [No City Available], USA:

Personally I think the reporting was over hyped. Yes it was another tragedy in the Kennedy family but far too much media attention was given and too many tax dollars spent on this personal affair. There are many things going on in the world that are more important.

Regards,
Jerry

FROM Melissa Yerger, (No City Designated), Pennsylvania:

I think you guys did the right thing because the media likes to blow things way out of proportion just think how many peoples have died in private plane crashes in the past year alone and we never even heard one little mention of them but a few famous people die and we have to hear about it for months, its good you guys didnt get sucked into the temptation of the media frenzy.

Melissa

FROM Raoul Tesla, San Francisco, CA:

The appearance, of yet another Kennedy being the royalty we have lost is very British, and frankly annoying. If the US press is so frank, how should they, through creation of immatatory images of Britain's suffering's, accept to be held as realistic journalism by the US public? The reporting on this event I witnessed was droll to say the least. The only excitement would be the newsgroups foundering for conspiracy-ies.

As per the usual, Sir, you did tha right thing. Shall I water tha horzez?

Raoul

FROM Steve Leon, Los Angeles, CA:

Well out here on the left coast the Beltway pundits look like a waste of good hot air. I'm learning to read what did happen as opposed to what might if we lean this way or that. On the other hand, the kid did seem to be in the process of becoming something. If the world is paying attention to its appointed prince, who's polishing the chair and adjusting the lights? G21.


ROD PIPE'S IN: Firstly, thanks to everyone who contributed to this Reader Forum.

Yes, I would have liked to publish ALL your e-mails, but how long would you have been willing to scroll down this page?

This was a great experiment for us, letting you tell the story of the JFK, Jr. coverage rather than having me (or one the writers here) pontificate about the media, their excesses and inaccuracies, and how it makes us feel.

I read these special "letters" of yours with a great deal of interest, as they will help me determine how best to shape this Web magazine in the future. I am sure that we will "talk" again as stories unfold. I hope this gave you a chance to get a sense of the other people who come here, and why, and that you'll be prepared to engage them in conversation again.

Let me end with a question: Outside of the expected conspiracy theories which circulated during this whole "event," did anyone else besides Yours Unruly notice how much the Mouthpiece Media needed to go to People-On-The-Street and how "America Grieves"?

Let's admit that there was NO NEWS here.

We decided not to use you as "filler" (between high-priced and blow-dried looks of concern from over-paid puppets,) but rather the main event.