Media Excess Continues on First Anniversary of JFK Jr.’s Death

Sunday marked the one-year anniversary of the plane crash near Martha’s Vineyard that took the lives of John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and his sister-in-law, Lauren Bessette. Many called coverage of the tragedy excessive, according to surveys. But given a choice between restraint on the anniversary of the deaths, or exploitation, the media world has chosen the latter.

Us Weekly, for example, fronts a sexy photo of a bare-chested Kennedy taken during his days at Brown University. It’s part of a series of photos taken by student Jane Drummond. The images also appear in the Star, a tabloid, which like the National Enquirer has a 30-page special section on Kennedy in its July 18 issue.

Drummond, in Us Weekly, says friends had earlier urged her to publish the photographs, but she kept them hidden while Kennedy was alive. She is quoted as saying that “he wouldn’t object to their publication now for the same reasons he sat for the photos. He was very self-confident and somewhat of an exhibitionist. He was clearly comfortable with his body, his beauty, his fame and his impact on people--especially women.”

There are plenty of tragedy-obsessed people out there who are demanding this kind of thing, and writers willing to supply it. A new book by Christopher Andersen (“The Day Diana Died,” “Bill and Hillary: The Marriage,” “Jackie After Jack”) was released Tuesday, and already “The Day John Died” is No. 7 on Amazon.com’s top-seller list, right behind Harry Potter and Jacques Barzun’s “From Dawn to Decadence--500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to Present.”

George, the magazine Kennedy launched Sept. 7, 1995, with the motto of “Not Just Politics as Usual,” is taking the high road. Billed by its publishers as “America’s largest political magazine,” George features Mel Gibson on the cover of its July issue, wearing colonial garb, a natural for Gibson considering his starring role in the current Revolutionary War flick “The Patriot.”

Just as they did a year ago, after the crash, George staffers are declining interviews on the anniversary. Although Kennedy’s name remains on the masthead as founding editor, there is no mention of him in editor-in-chief Frank Lalli’s letter to readers. Likewise, the event is commemorated in a low-key manner in the magazine, with a full-page photograph of JFK Jr. next to his quote, “Politics is too important to be left to the politicians.”

Clearly, George is tuned to a pop-culture sensibility, which is what Kennedy intended when he started it. This month features Pearl Jam’s take on the presidential election, and a gallery of “New Patriots,” who include punk priestess Patti Smith, writer-producer Aaron Sorkin of “The West Wing,” Erin Brockovich, hip-hopper Russell Simmons and radio host Don Imus.

The financial fortunes of George improved after Kennedy’s death. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, in 1997, two years after the magazine’s launch, its average paid circulation was 412,192. It reached its lowest documented point in the last half of 1998, when circulation dipped to 403,894. For the last half of 1999, average paid circulation was up to 558,549. More telling were figures for single-copy sales, which surged after the tragedy, then slipped. In July, the month Kennedy died, 185,500 copies were sold on newsstands, a record for the magazine. The August issue set another single-copy record, with 318,000. September, the last issue edited by Kennedy, sold 235,000 single copies. And in October, which was a commemorative issue, 395,000 copies were sold at newsstands. Single-copy sales dropped to 110,000 in the following two months.

Lalli replaced Kennedy in November 1999, after a search that turned up names such as Jonathan Alter and Michael Elliott, both of Newsweek. The heir apparent, executive editor Richard Blow, left the magazine when Lalli was hired away from Money magazine. Blow then peddled a book about Kennedy and George--this after he had fired two employees for talking to the media about JFK Jr. The book has not been published.

The hesitancy of George staffers to talk about their founding editor may be due, in part, to the wretched excess of news reports after Kennedy’s death. Indeed, publishers raced after Kennedy’s death to get his life story into print. Time, Life and People magazines, among others, produced commemorative issues, and several books were written, one published the very month he died.

Fox Television Pictures plans to air its two-hour movie about Kennedy early next year. So far, no word on casting. Like the magazines, books and Internet activities surrounding the anniversary of JFK Jr.’s death, there undoubtedly will be an audience for a movie version of his life, short and incomplete as it was.