Stay classy, Boston Herald readers

[ellid]

I just checked the Boston newspapers for their coverage of Senator Kennedy's death. The contrast is horrifying:

- The guest book over at the Globe is full of respectful tributes, condolences to his widow and children, and so on. It's a typical funeral posting, complete with the obligatory link to a place where one can purchase funeral flowers (not very tasteful IMHO, but probably useful in many cases). There are over 55 pages of entries.

- The Herald has a comment link with 192 entries. Seven of the first nine were removed from inappropriate content, and several of the next batch were along the lines of "Great, he's gone, now we can get a REAL Senator!" or "We'll be better off without him" or "CHAPPAQUIDICK!!!! CHAPPAQUIDICK!!!!"

As I said before, Ted Kennedy was far from perfect. But this?

Comments

[musikologie.livejournal.com]

Ugh, that's horrible. Why is it that hard to be respectful?

[samantha-vimes.livejournal.com]

I know. A couple months ago, my dad was being kind of gleeful over his illness, because he's never forgiven the guy for Chappaquidick. My mom reproached him because it just wasn't an appropriate reaction.

My feeling is that he was a damn good Senator, and while it's horrible that he left the girl in the car, no one can be sure they wouldn't panic under the circumstances. He spent decades of working hard for the benefit of the people, and if anything can make up for a death, selfless service would be it.

[kamion.livejournal.com]

He may have far from perfect, he may not have carried out the Kennedy charisma and legend like his brothers, but always have been in their shadow his contribution to US politic by far outreached theirs.
Someone once called JFK the most overrated president of the USA, think we can say Teddy was the most underrated Kennedy of the USA.