CLINTON AND JFK-MEDIA MYTH R.I.P.
by Norman Solomon
Five years ago, everywhere you turned, journalists were comparing
Bill Clinton to John Kennedy. In the summer of 1992 - when the Democratic
National Convention showcased footage of a teenage Bill shaking hands with
President Kennedy-many news outlets proclaimed that manifest destiny was
in the political air.
The media hype escalated as soon as Clinton won the presidency a few months
later. Newsweek was euphoric about "a film clip that made its way into
a widely seen campaign ad: a beaming, 16-year-old Bill Clinton on a sun-drenched
White House lawn, shaking the hand of his and his generation's idol, John
F. Kennedy."
With Clinton's victory, Newsweek declared, "the footage rises from
mere advertising to the realm of prophetic history. For it documents JFK
reaching across the years to a boy he did not know-and to whom the torch
of leadership now passes in an emphatic statement of America's desire for
change."
Camelot II became a media obsession. "Now the torch is being passed
to the generation that was touched and inspired by Kennedy," Time magazine
reported in mid-November 1992. "Indeed, the most memorable moment in
the convention video about the man from Hope was the scene of the eager
student being inspired by Kennedy's anointing touch."
It's a sad commentary that so many journalists mouthed such bunkum with
straight faces-and that Americans didn't quickly laugh this grandiloquence
out of the court of public opinion. Clinton and his top aides kept encouraging
the JFK comparisons. And a lot of the press seemed happy to oblige.
When the former Arkansas governor took his first extended holiday since
moving into the White House, he went to the stretch of New England coastline
made famous by John Kennedy. The vacation at Martha's Vineyard included
several hours on a much-publicized luncheon cruise with a yacht-load of
Kennedys.
The New York Times coverage was typical on Aug. 25, 1993: "Thirty years
ago, Bill Clinton the boy stood staring at John F. Kennedy, his hero, in
the White House Rose Garden. Today, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and other
members of the family welcomed Bill Clinton the president to the seas off
the Massachusetts coast that his murdered predecessor loved so well."
But analogies between Clinton and Kennedy faded from news media during the
mid-1990s. President Clinton did not live up to the courageous JFK image.
Ironically, neither did John Kennedy.
The real President Clinton bears quite a resemblance to the real President
Kennedy-beholden to economic elites, unwilling to cross big business or
challenge the Pentagon.
After eight years in the White House, President Dwight Eisenhower delivered
his farewell address on Jan. 17, 1961. The ex-general warned of "an
immense military establishment and a large arms industry." He added
that "we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence,
whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex." Like
his hero JFK, Clinton shrugged off such concerns-preferring to remain firmly
in the pocket of the military-industrial complex. In that regard, as in
many others, Clinton's presidency has been no profile in courage.
These days, few journalists are comparing Bill Clinton to John Kennedy.
That particular canard has worn out its welcome. But in medialand, the focus
remains on personal styles and inside-the-Beltway maneuvers. Newer glib
notions replace the cliches that have gone out of fashion.
Of course, everyone knows that politicians try to feed contrived images
to the media. But many journalists act as though it's their job to swallow
the hype- and prompt the public to do the same.
Americans have long been skeptical-even scathing-about elected officials
in Washington. "Fleas can be taught nearly anything that a congressman
can," Mark Twain commented. In 1897, he wrote: "It could probably
be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American
criminal class except Congress."
But rather than just condemning politicians as a group-or praising one of
them as the bearer of a heroic torch-we would do much better to scrutinize
exactly whose interests they are serving. That way, we'll be far less likely
to fall for the next media myths.
Norman Solomon is a syndicated columnist. His weekly column appears in about
20 daily newspapers. If you like what you see, please lobby your own local
paper to carry it.
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