The Press: Be Kind to Kennedys

As a Democrat, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was pleasantly surprised by how well the press—often scorned by critics as "the one-party press"—treated him during the campaign. The nation's newspapers followed his intricate Cabinet-picking maneuvering with interest and general approval. Last week the press's friendly attitude was meeting its severest test yet: the appointment of Brother Bobby, 35, as U.S. Attorney General.

$3 Word. Papers such as Jock Whitney's New York Herald Tribune warned Jack Kennedy beforehand not to do it. If Bobby wants to be a politician, said the Trib, let him run for office and earn his place. The San Francisco Chronicle enjoined the President-elect against even mentioning Bobby's name as a trial balloon: "The press and the public would be justified in shooting it down in flames."

But when he appointed Bobby anyway, the outcries that Jack Kennedy himself anticipated were less than violent. The charge of nepotism—defined by the New York Daily News as "a $3 word which means getting good jobs for one's relatives"—did not quite apply to a young millionaire who did not need the money. But was he qualified?

Political Pundit Walter Lippmann, 71, an unqualified admirer of the new President (and favored with a private home visit by Jack Kennedy after the election), thought it was all plain as can be: Bobby "was named because he had been the successful manager of the campaign. It would have been unprecedented if Robert Kennedy had been excluded from the Cabinet because he is the President's brother." The New York Times, while ponderously disapproving, scarcely mentioned the family connection: "Let us willingly grant that Robert Kennedy is tough, able, alert, hard-hitting and single-mindedly devoted to his older brother's interest. But these are qualities that entitle him to an important position in the White House as confidant or adviser of the President, not as chief legal officer of the U.S." The Detroit News challenged the choice "not because he is the President-elect's brother, but because he lacks either administrative or legal experience."

Dear Old Brother. Here and there were unreservedly hostile voices. The Tampa Tribune stiffly declared that "a President doesn't appoint a member of his family to the Cabinet," and the Chicago Tribune, in an editorial entitled "Dear Old Brother of Mine," pointedly quoted Woodrow Wilson's letter refusing to appoint his brother Joseph as postmaster in Nashville, Tenn. ("It would be a very serious mistake both for you and for me"). Bobby had defenders too ("There is no doubt," said the Denver Post, "of Robert Kennedy's competence or zeal to do his job"), and even conservative Columnist David Lawrence, swallowing hard, was not as outraged as expected: "Whether the appointment was wise politically . . . will be discussed pro and con for some time to come." Asked the Boston Record: "Why anticipate controversy? Bob Kennedy is not a controversy until and unless he botches his duties—an eventuality that would be most un-Kennedylike." The press might still have its misgivings about Kennedy family planning, but so far is plainly determined to give the President-elect the benefit of every doubt.