Pursuit of Vicki or Justice for All? Media Says Marriage Was Ted Kennedy's 'Best Decision'

Time magazine called Vicki "The Woman Who Saved Ted." Reporter Karen Tumulty said that "Ted Kennedy was redeemed in his third act, and that redemption couldn't have happened without Vicki...Giving his heart one more chance was probably the best decision Ted Kennedy ever made." A story in the New York Times was much the same. Here's that account of what happened soon after Ted met Vicki: "The next day Mr. Kennedy made what he -- and everyone who knew him -- would later view as the smartest move of his life. He called to ask Vicki out to dinner."

Remember, as if you didn't already know, or hadn't already heard it over and over again since the day Ted Kennedy died, that he was one of the most accomplished senators in American history:

"Kennedy left his mark on almost every major piece of social legislation in his 47 years in the Senate, from a 1965 immigration bill that opened U.S. borders to Asians and Latin Americans to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act this year that makes it easier for women and others to sue for wage discrimination.

Schoolteachers, gay-rights groups, unions, advocates for people with disabilities and others claimed him as the unrivaled champion of their causes.

'Ted Kennedy was not just a senator for Massachusetts,' AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said. 'He was our senator -- a senator for working people, for poor people, for the old and the vulnerable.'

Yet, not one of these pieces of legislation -- which would make a difference in the lives of millions of Americans during Ted Kennedy's lifetime, and will continue to do so for decades to come -- would be described as "the best decision" or "the smartest move" Kennedy ever made. No, in the reigning matrimaniacal accounts, the best and the brightest actions are not those that bend the arc toward justice for generations of Americans. Those encomiums are reserved for the decision of one (previously married) man to marry one (previously married) woman.

[Continue reading here for more on why Ted Kennedy's marriage to Vicki may have been great, but the coverage was matrimaniacal.]

My collection of essays, Single with Attitude, includes sections on other media misrepresentations, such as "Media Splashes - Don't Get Soaked." The paperback is available here or from Amazon; there is a Kindle version, too.

[To read other Living Single posts, click here.]

Comments

[devadasi]

It sounds like it is the best personal decision he ever made. It seem that he and Joan were not suited for each other, or the timing wasn't right.

Vicki is a class act. The timing and chemistry were all there. It took Ted Kennedy a while to come into his own and when he finally did he roared!

[propitiousmoment]

I'm single, determinedly so, but I am not offended by the statement. Getting married is a personal decision and it may actually have been the best (personal) decision he ever made. Saying so does not necessarily denigrate anything in his professional life.