The Press: It Was Crazy

The Associated Press last week filed a party story that raised eyebrows from Washington, D.C. to Washington State. Under a Greenwich. Conn, dateline, A.P. reported: “Dave Beck Sr. and Dave Beck Jr., labor leaders under fire of the Senate labor rackets committee, were guests at a party which also was attended by Robert F. Kennedy, chief counsel for the rackets committee, it was confirmed here today.” The A.P. went on to identify “Mrs. Dave Beck Jr.” as one of the guests at the party, which was given by Mr. and Mrs. George Skakel Jr. “in honor of Mrs. Kennedy, who is Skakel’s sister.” Growing curiouser and curiouser by the sentence, the story quoted Dave Beck Jr. as saying of Bob Kennedy: “Although our policies differ, socially we get along famously.”

When the story reached A.P.’s Seattle bureau, a wire-service man quickly knocked it down by establishing that 1) Dave Sr. had spent the weekend in Seattle, 2) Dave Jr. is still unmarried. In Washington, Bob Kennedy said he had not been at the Skakels’. In Manhattan, an A.P. man checked a picture taken at the party and realized that the man identified as Dave Jr. was not the Teamster boss’s son. But Connecticut’s Stamford Advocate (circ. 24,674), which originated the story, insisted that George Skakel had “solemnly confirmed” that the Becks had been at his home. Instead of killing the story, the A.P. rewrote the lead: “The Stamford Advocate said today . . .”

Two nights after the party Mrs. George Skakel penitently informed the Advocate that the whole story was a “gag.” Bob Kennedy’s wife admitted that she was in on the fun, and sighed, “It was crazy.”

Since the socially impeccable Mrs. Skakel had told the Advocate about the Becks, invited the paper to take pictures, and had helped the Advocate’s free-lance photographer set up the shot of the guest she introduced as Dave Jr. (father had supposedly left), the Advocate cut loose with an acid apology on Page One. In an open letter to the Becks, Managing Editor E. R. McCullough explained: “Frankly, we believed the Skakels on Saturday night and Monday morning, and we suppose we’ve got to go along with their latest story . . . If you have any thoughts on adult delinquency, I wish you’d drop me a note.”