Beyond creating, promoting emotionally provocative narratives, the MSM also specializes in the popularization of myths. Typically, such classically inspired tales – of both heroism and tragedy – acquire Shakesperean dimensions.
The media-generated tragedy of Chappaquiddick, which forever dashed the seemingly bright political future of one Ted Edward Kennedy, at once transforming a shining presidential hopeful into a pathetic Hamlet-like figure with no hope of redemption, still echoes into posterity.
As the decade of the 1960’s waned, plunged into a war’s quagmire far abroad, dangerously atomized with chaotic civil strife at home, the subsequent effect of Chappaquiddick’s sorrowful narrative seemed poised to further demoralize an already downtrodden America.
Nevertheless, with the help of a rabid MSM eager to capitalize on the tragedy for the sake of skyrocketed television ratings, sensational front-page headlines, Chappaquiddick unfolded into a compelling drama, a thrilling distraction served up to a nation deeply mired in despondency.
In Chappaquiddick’s morbid wake, the death of Mary Jo Kopechne and the deferred political dreams of the last-living Kennedy brother were subsequently spun into epic drama, a made-for-television spectacle through which a gaping mob of American spectators could vicariously live.
Turns out though, upon further investigation, there’s more truth in the latter characterization than perhaps many could ever possibly conceive.