A cynical ploy with media collusion

In 2004, when John Kerry was running for president, Democrats in Massachusetts were afraid that Republican Mitt Romney, then governor of Massachusetts, would get an opportunity to appoint Kerry's replacement. To avoid that, they passed a new succession law that required a special election be held 145 to 160 days after the vacancy.

That was then. This is now.

Through a letter, an ailing Ted Kennedy is now asking Massachusetts leaders to amend the law and have the governor appoint a temporary replacement. At least, that's one version of the story.
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Text of the letter released today.

The New York Times misreports the issue in the first paragraph.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, terminally ill with brain cancer, has asked state legislative leaders to change the law and let Gov. Deval Patrick appoint a temporary replacement upon his death.

Except that in the letter, Kennedy asked for the law change should he surrender his seat.

The Reuters story that appeared an hour earlier with the same headline doesn't mention surrender at all.

And neither does the New York Times-owned Boston Globe article. Kennedy, looking ahead, urges that Senate seat be filled quickly

The misinformation is deliberate because it allows the media to frame the story as a dying Kennedy selflessly seeking a successor for his seat, with the emphasis on the emotional prospect of his death. Most don't even mention the letter was written July 2. It's a significant omission.

While some stories claim that Democrat leaders in Massachusetts only received the letter in the last few days, a story in The Hill indicates that they've been considering amending the law all along.

Though Kennedy drafted the letter last month, [Kennedy spokesman Anthony] Coley said he delayed delivering it because he was dealing with family matters, such as the illness and death of his sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver.

“When word began to leak out about the quiet conversations that have been occurring about the law, he decided he needed to get the letter into the Governor and legislative leaders’ hands so that his position would be publicly known,” Coley said.

In other words, they released the letter because it leaked out and the news stories are meant as a public endorsement by a dying man to win support for a change of law to benefit his political party, a change they have already decided upon.

When he dies, they'll just be carrying out his wishes. How cynical.

The other omission? They don't mention either the indictments and resignations of the last three Speakers of the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
Charles Flaherty (Resigned 1996)
Thomas Fineran (Resigned 2004)
Salvatore DiMasi (Resigned 2009)

DiMas who resigned after his indictment was responsible for the Massachusetts Health Care Reform.