Media

Vox Article Paints Kennedys As Victims Of Smear Campaign

Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff announced in an all-staff memo Wednesday that his company plans to terminate around 50 positions from the digital media company [Vox web page Screen shot]

Vox.com screenshot

Amber Athey Podcast Columnist
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A Vox article published Monday claimed the Kennedy family is being unfairly smeared by the media, pointing to the new movie “Chappaquiddick.”

“Chappaquiddick” portrays the tragic death of Mary Jo Kopechne, who died after Ted Kennedy drove his car into a pond and failed to report the crash for ten hours.

However, Vox writer Alissa Wilkinson is sure the the Kennedy family are the real victims in this scenario. In a tweet pushing her article, Vox wrote, “A new movie about the Ted Kennedy accident is part of a larger entertainment pattern deconstructing the iconic family.”

In the article, Wilkinson writes, “many adaptations of their story, especially of late, are more interested in dismantling that same mythology, or at least taking a peek behind the curtain.”

Wilkinson even takes issues with some of the main facts of the scandal, arguing that while it is true it took Kennedy ten hours to report the incident we don’t know why he didn’t do so. The article is obviously sympathetic to Kennedy’s version of events.

“But why Kennedy failed to report the accident for so long has never been firmly established,” she says. “He maintained that he suffered a concussion and was disoriented. But other theories flew, speculations that ranged from driving under the influence of alcohol (which he denied) to an extramarital affair.”

Twitter lit up Wilkinson for her article, accusing her of condoning Kennedy’s actions.

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