buy unique gifts at Zazzle

May

29

Mark Madden, Smizik, Kopechne, and Kennedy

May 29, 2008 |

“I’m very disappointed to hear that Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts is near death because of a brain tumor.  I always hoped Sen. Kennedy would live long enough to be assassinated. I wonder if he got a card from the Kopechnes.” - Mark Madden

Well, it looks as if local sports media personality, Mark Madden, finally did himself in, as many of us figured he eventually would.

No doubt, Madden has been an Ass and his own worst enemy, choosing WWF-stylized, low-brow methods of gathering listeners: berating his callers, for years using sex — porn, strippers and the like — to mis-associate sports with the sex trade,  and then insulting local sports icons at an other at a level that was just plain tasteless.

So, yes. Madden had it coming, and it was no surprise.

But…. And there is a big But here (pun accidental!)…  Let’s give Madden some credit for being more than just a shock-jock, and let’s also assign the blame for his success on the old-media mentality that is struggling to stay afloat with the field-leveling technology of the internet and blogging software.

And, let’s not come down too hard on his comments about Kennedy.  While they were tasteless, let’s not give Kennedy any free passes either:  He’s deserving of dramatically less respect than he gets.  After all, Madden can’t be accused of drunkenly causing the death of anyone, or getting of very lightly for manslaughter.  Fleeing an accident and failing to notify authorities (while seeking council from his attorneys and political consultants!) very likely contributed to the death.

So… let’s get started.

Madden was a decent enough sports analyst.  Its unfortunate that he cluttered up his very valid criticism with his shock-jock methods, since his show very likely would have sustained a strong following without the stupidity.    Let’s face it. Madden was an ass on the air. But at the same time, for the first time in Pittsburgh, someone in the sports media was actually willing to more aggressively criticize the less attractive features of the hallowed local sports franchises.  Among his valid points that made him enemies:

  1. The Pirates were hiding behind the salary cap issue, while absolutely mismanaging the franchise, knowing fully well that the fan base was content enough to fork over cash in a Faustian bargain that substituted bobble heads, pirogi races, and lots of fireworks, for a MLB team.   Madden called this minor league product what it was: crap.  It could not have been said enough, and those in the local media who glossed it over, and the fans who supported it, deserved to hear about their stupidity in selling out.   Both deserved every bit of disdain Madden heaped upon them.
  2. The Steelers get very little criticism, and the local sports media generally kisses the Teams buttocks when covering them.   Granted, one expects the local media to support the fan base, and it should come as no surprise that the Post Gazette is going with what sells the most papers — outright kowtowing to the fans obsession with the team.  Madden didn’t, and he pointed out the fluff dominating the local sports media — thus his ongoing feud with the highly mediocre Bob Smizik.
  3. Steelers fans generally are a lot less knowledgeable about the game than they think.  Madden pointed out only what’s true:  Far too many fans are simple homers, and half the fans at Heinz Field, and Three Rivers Stadium before it, are too drunk to remember half the game afterwords.  As such, they have a long history of accepting heaps of mediocrity the Franchise would feed them.  Madden pointed this out, and criticized both deluded fan and medicore player alike.
  4. The Rooney’s practically run Pittsburgh, and while they are the owners of our beloved Steelers Franchise, they milk this city very effectively on that reputation, a task made easy with quasi-lobbyist law firm bearing the Rooney name.   Just look at all the tax dollars and incentives going to develop the North Side area on top of the handouts for building the Stadium.  All of it is candy lining the pockets of the Rooney’s.  Madden pointed out the ugly side of the Rooney fiefdom for what it was, making it clear that these guys are in business to make money.
  5. Some popular players are simply not as good as their vaunted status among fans and local sports media.  On his list were many popular players who deserved to be on there. Granted, these points were watered down by his choice of laying into some better players with low-brow comments, but the baby does not go out with the bathwater here.  Madden offered valid criticism few, if any other, in the sports media bothered to hit on.

And that’s a half-assed summary of years of very valid commentary.  So, yes… Madden had his warts you had to accept because nobody offered his perspective.

Shifting gears…  I don’t really think his brutal honesty cost him his job.  It was his tagging an ICON of political power.  What strikes me as ironic in this whole case is that the comments made about Ted Kennedy were the ones that did Madden in.

Certainly the timing was stupid on his part, but let’s call it for what it is.  Kennedy, for many Americans, represents the complete opposite of what his sycophant worshipers in the mainstream write about him time and again.  I’m far from wishing the guy dead, and I empathize with a man who must now come to terms knowing he can count the months he has left on two hands. But get in line, Teddy. You’re no better than the other 1000 people who got the same diagnosis last week. In fact, you’re a comparative a low-life.

Now, I’m also not going to be a hypocrite: I’ve always disliked the guy, and I’m glad he’s finally going to be out of politics.    I no more want his ilk in Congress than I want any other quasi Marxist,  hypocritical, philandering jerk.  No, he does not deserve to die for it, but that’s not the point. Kennedy (following in the footsteps of his brothers) has always been a spoiled-rotten, privileged kid, and ’s he got a free-pass that nobody without his brother’s assassinations, his family and political connections, or his particular political philosophy, would have ever received.  The family has been treated like royalty at the expense of both taxpayers and common sense. (Consider how the U.S. Navy was commandeered to assist with John John’s unfortunate plane crash.  I thought in the USA all citizens were equals.  Teddy was given a freaking war ship for Kennedy family business.)

And let’s get to the quick of Teddy Kennedy.  At the top of my list  (and Mark Madden’s) of warts for my absolute lack of respect for Teddy is the glossed over death of Mary Jo Kopechne, a former top secretary of Bobby Kennedy’s presidential campaign at the time of his assassination.  Below I’ve bullted just a few highlights of this incident many want you to believe was just an unfortunate tragedy.  Its hardly — the list gives you just a taste of the details in one of the biggest cover-ups in U.S. political history:

  • Senator Ted Kennedy’s indiscretion resulted in the death of a campaign worker from Bobby’s campaign, Miss Kopechne, a 28-year-old wman was driving around after boozing it up all day following a regatta race on the islands of the rich and famous, Chappaquiddick, just off Martha’s Vineyard, and the Vinyard itself.   Drinks were flowing on the boat, and then well into the night, with the police seeing parts of his group drunk into the wee hours. This, while Teddy’s wife was home and pregnant back at the family compound in Hyannisport.
  • Kennedy, then already a U.S. Senator, testified that he was taking Kopechne to the last Ferry from Chappaquiddick to Edgartown on the Vineyard at midnight, leaving the party with Kopechne at 11:15 p.m., but made a wrong turn, leading to the accident soon thereafter.  Yet a police officer spotted a couple racing around on Chappaquiddick in his car at 12:40 a.m., long after the last ferry.  In fact, it appeared that Kennedy saw that he’d been spotted by a Sheriff’s deputy and decided to flee at speed in the direction of a more secluded beach area his group had partied at earlier in the day.  At the bottome of a hill in that directin is where he then managed to lose control of his vehicle, crashign it off a small bridge and into a tidal pond, resulting in Kopechne’s death in an overturned car.  Apart from the discrepancy in times, Kennedy claimed he got lost, made wrong turns going to the ferry, but it was well known that he had driven the same roads several times earlier in the day without incident.
  • Kennedy literally ditched the accident scene, and rather than contacting the authorities / calling them from homes along the road he had just traveled, he hiked past them for some 20 minutes back to the site of the party some distance away. He then quietly had two closest buddies come out (not notifying any of the guests) and they returned for an attempted a rescue. One was his Cousin, Joe Gargan, a lawyer, and the other, U.S. Attorney Paul Markham.
  • Mind you, the party was attended by a bunch of single, female (former Bobby Kennedy) campaign workers — and a handful of Kennedy’s male friends who were all married, but all “on Island” without their wives.   Neither Kennedy, Gargan, or Markman bothered to notify the police that there had been an accident until the following morning, some ten hours later, and well after the car and Kophechne’s body hadalready been discovered.   Quite literally, Kennedy had been back and forth to his hotel room and the island, and was standing around contemplating his call to report the accident to the police at the Chappequiddick ferry area as the tow truck assigned to retrieve his car was coming across from The Vineyard on the ferry.
  • Gargan and Markman later explained that Kennedy’s actions that night and the following morning were focused almost exclusively on providing Kennedy with the most politically viable outcome, which included floating the idea that Kopechne dropped him off and was driving alone, right up until the time until an officer of the law asked him if he knew a dead woman was found in the car, to which he initially claimed no knowledge.   In fact, both Gargan and Markman stated Kennedy watched Kennedy swim the 150 yards back to the Vineyard at 2:00 a.m. which he claimed was doing to notify the policy, and that they should go back to the party house and keep the guests there.  Kennedy was then spotted early the following a.m. around the Vineyard hotel in which he and  many of the feamale guests were registered nicely dressed and shaven, socially interracting with many other guests as if nothing happened.
  • And here’s the real kicker: those at the scene who retrieved Kopechne’s body from the car were certain that Kopechne was alive for some time after the car came to rest underwater, upside down. She was found in a position that suggested she was breathing an air pocket in the wheel wells of the back seat for well over an hour, and it was believed she’d run out of air and not drowned.  First responders suggested (and remained convinced) that, had the accident been reported at the time it happened, Kopechne would have probably been rescued alive.

That’s just the rough summary of what transpired that night.   You can read all the sordid details here. The story is quite amazing — a classic cover up attempt. Kennedy worried about his own reputation rather than someone’s life, and this probably caused Kopechne’s death.  Not only that, after the incident it appears as if the sytem was rigged to keep the good Senator out of serious trouble.

That, dear readers, is a story most Americans do not know.  It is one of cowardice, political opportunism, power, and privilege.  It is one many political defenders of Kennedy don’t want you to know. It is one that many in the Media don’t want to dabble with given Kennedy’s popularity and political clout.

Yet half of those who found Madden’s comments tasteless (if not cryptic) would not have winced half so much upon reading Madden’s comments were thehy intimately familiar with the story that motivated Madden.

Kennedy should have ended up in jail for manslaughter, among many other charges, including fleeing the scene, failure to report, obstructing justice, drunk driving, expired license, etc.  Instead, unlike Mary Jo, he’s continued a life of Senatorial Privilege, living on the gravy train provided by gullibel taxpayers.

Although he may have cancer, that does not change the fact that he is a despicable louse who never once accepted full responsibility for his actions.

Smizik’s Crusade and the Demise of the Old Media Cartel

Finally, I found it pathetic and petty that Bob Smizik took the pleasure of writing Mark Madden’s ESPN Radio Obit given the feud he and Mark have had over the years. It strikes one of pathetic gloating from one who has dedicated many a “sports column” to rapping on Mark’s foibles.

I also find it ironic, too.  Madden has been correct in criticizing writers like Smizik for being lightweight reporters covering fluff and kissing the local franchises’ buttocks.

Mind you, Smizik is not off the mark for criticizing Madden’s flaws, but he should look in the mirror, for it is Smizik’s own, self-imposed mediocrity (gotta keep your credentials and access, you know!) that paved the way for a large part of Madden’s audience.  I, for one, didn’t care for Madden’s rude garbage, but I endured it because he at least had the gusto to tell it like it is.  Smizik, by comparison, is a joke.  Moreover, given his dedicated effort to cost Madden his job, accepting the task of obit writer is nothing short of spiteful, possibly at a level worse than Madden’s own ratings-grabbing, low-brow tactics that Smizik worked to discredit.  At least Madden’s stupidity was an act.

Such self-censorship and deliberate editorial sanitization (about Kopechne) is also exactly why Smizik’s rag, the Post Gazette, and ones much larger and more fabled than it, are bleeding money at an ever increasing pace.  Readership is down in all newsprint media, and with it, ad revenue.  Blogs, meanwhile, continue to tell it like it is, and readership grows as the short-stop editors at the “official media” are left in the dust.

What do I mean?  Consider this single post:  rather than glossing over Madden’s comments in politically-correct fashion — like Smizik — to appeal to the masses and advertisers, our blog explains the story behind the comments.   They don’t leave you with the impression that Kopechnek’s death was some unfortunate accident for Ted Kennedy, a man suffering under many family misfortunes, a burden this unfortunate accident merely compounded.  Ghads — and now Cancer, too boot!  How awfull, poor Senator and Evil Madden.

Nope.  A blog like ours won’t leave you with a flat-out wrong impression that the Chappaquiddick incident was just a blameless, terrible accident that was tastelessly brought up by Madden when the good Senator was diagnosed with fatal cancer.   In fact, most news articles from “reputable sources” don’t bother to post the full quote, leaving off the Kopechne reference.  I’m sure half do so deliberately, and the other half simply don’t know the story since it has been so well sanitized from public scrutiny.

We won’t blow sunshine and pretend Senator Kennedy is some upstanding individual just because he’s an old senator with a fatal illness.

No. Blogs are here to cry Bullshit when we see it.   Cancer or no Cancer, Kennedy was a cretin, and his decades of low-life behavior after Chappaquiddick (well documented elsewhere) only reinforce that diagnosis. His political prowess and success at handing out goodies to his constituencies should be horribly tainted given what injustices voters have sanctioned, both in ignorance and willful indifference to his crass, political opportunism on one night that would have landed any one of us in jail for years.

Kennedy did not deserve the fate of his assassinated brothers. No, but he most certainly did not deserve to become one of the longest sitting senators in this nation’s history, and an esteemed one, at that. He’s respected by a great many hoodwinked American citizens and politically compromised (we’ll take anyone who is on our side) type democrat apologists. Period.

And, so, with Madden’s situation, we have cried “Bullshit!”.  Madden, no doubt, had it coming for a variety of other reasons we agree with. But just the same, we all know Madden’s point was not to suggest he really hoped Ted Kennedy died like his brothers. It was to make the very blunt, if not essential, point Ted Kennedy is, and has for a long time been, a louse deserving of our disdain, not our votes and hero worship.

Likewise, if the Pittsburgh Sports media would stop sniffing jocks by offering better critical analysis, certain writers wouldn’t have to lament that some other station will likely pick Madden’s act up because it pays so well. There’s an audience ready and waiting.

Eat that. No hypocrisy here. We’ll leave that for other outlets.


Comments

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

Speak your mind

FireStats iconPowered by FireStats