JFK, the History Channel, and what really matters

Interesting piece over at the New York Times documenting the efforts of Robert Greenwald (Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism) to get the History Channel to put the kibosh on a planned miniseries from 24 creator Joel Surnow:

“It was political character assassination,” the filmmaker, Robert Greenwald, said of the screenplays in a telephone interview. “It was sexist titillation and pandering, and it was turning everything into a cheap soap opera of the worst kind.” Mr. Greenwald said he is hoping that his 13-minute video and an accompanying petition, atstopkennedysmears.com, will take on lives of their own on the Web. A title card at the film’s conclusion reads: “Tell the History Channel I refuse to watch right-wing character assassination masquerading as ‘history.’ ”

The Times piece mentions some factual quibbles — events being pulled together for concision, conversations that never occurred in real life but were created to demonstrate what was happening at the time, etc. — but those are easily dismissed as the price one pays for creating a compelling docudrama. What is obvious is that Greenwald is upset not by the factual problems but by the way the documentary portrays President John F. Kennedy and his brother, Robert:

In another scene cited, a Secret Service agent approaches the president while he is having sex in a pool with a young woman who is not his wife; in yet another, the president asks his brother Robert, “What do you do when you’re horny?” and tells him that if he doesn’t have sex with unfamiliar women “every couple of days I get migraines.”

In short, “The Kennedys” “does everything in its power to demean and make them quite disgusting figures,” Mr. Greenwald said. “No network or cable channel has ever done anything anywhere close to this, in the way in treats a president.”

Point of order: Weren’t the Kennedy brothers actually “disgusting figures” in their personal lives? I mean, let’s leave aside JFK’s accomplishments (or lack thereof) during his brief tenure as president. If there’s anything we’ve learned about the Kennedy clan in the proceeding years is that they were disloyal to their wives — can you imagine the Cheaters episode…nay, season!…that could have crafted around those two? — and general cads?

I for one am glad to see the myth of the Kennedy clan finally being punctured to the point that we no longer feel the need to sanctify and whitewash their behavior long after their death. It’s about time.