Should The History Channel have scrapped 'The Kennedys'?

The Kennedy clan helped scuttle the project, which reportedly portrays JFK unfavorably. Should the network have let viewers judge for themselves?

Katie Holmes played Jackie Kennedy in The History Channel's now-canceled eight-part miniseries "The Kennedys"
(Image credit: Corbis)

The History Channel has decided not to air "The Kennedys," a much-anticipated eight-episode miniseries starring Greg Kinnear and Katie Holmes as John F. and Jackie Kennedy. The cable channel says that, although the "dramatic interpretation" of the early days of the Kennedy administration is well-executed, such "historical fiction" isn't a good "fit" for the History brand. It wasn't that simple, however: The network was also under pressure from the Kennedy clan, and from historians who said the script portrayed the late president in an unfair and unflattering light. Should the channel have let viewers decide for themselves? (Watch a trailer for "The Kennedys")

The History Channel should not have caved: Network executives aren't admitting it, says Thomas Lifson in The American Thinker, but their main motive here is avoiding the wrath of the Kennedy clan, which "retains powerful showbiz and political clout that could make life very uncomfortable for those damaging the Camelot myths." But if the miniseries tells "the truth about JFK (and RFK) and their many trysts with gangster molls, movies stars, and random attractive women," the public deserves to see it.

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