The Kennedys as beach rapists, and exploiters of teen girls, the New York Times fights to protect the Kennedys

NY Times Book Reviewer Janet Maslin Protects JFK, Slams Mistress Mimi Alford As a Strange Liar
Tim Graham, newsbusters

Excerpt-The New York Times deeply loves the Kennedy family. Media critics of a certain age recall how the Times sent a reporter in 1991 to peek in the windows of a woman accusing William Kennedy Smith of raping her. Fox Butterfield demeaned the accuser for having “a little wild streak” and reported she had poor high-school grades and 17 traffic tickets.

It was in that defend-the-reckless-Kennedy spirit that Times book critic Janet Maslin slammed Mimi Alford’s new memoir on Thursday. The 19-year-old with a wild streak had dared to write about it 50 years later. Don’t buy this book, Maslin insists, there’s no news in it, and besides, Alford looks like a complete sleaze in it:

There is much to tsk-tsk about in Ms. Alford’s account of her wide-eyed innocence and the president’s particular brand of cruelty toward her. But there’s not a lot of news, so the fuss should soon die down. When it does, “Once Upon a Secret” can be better appreciated for what it really is: the strangest memoir about secrets and lies since “The Politician,” by Andrew Young, exposed the delusional arrogance behind John Edwards’s presidential campaign. Like Mr. Young, Ms. Alford seems to have little idea how badly her stories reflect on herself.

It’s certainly fair to question Alford’s lack of morality when she was 19, cavorting with a married man, especially a president. It’s as unthinking as Monica Lewinsky’s affair with Bill Cliton. But to Maslin, Alford is the most dreadful of liars and cheaters. This is a verdict she doesn’t pass on to JFK – or his large crowd of media enablers and myth-makers over the decades: article here