Jackie Kennedy Tapes Not as Controversial as Reported?
Has the media hyped up the upcoming release of never-before-heard Jackie Kennedy tapes?
Reports are coming out now arguing that the tapes are in fact not nearly as controversial as was reported by several news sources earlier in the week.
The tapes are derived from a conversation that Mrs. Kennedy had with historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
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The tapes total eight hours of conversation that took place only months after Mrs. Kennedy was widowed in the November 1964 Dallas shooting that took her husband, the 35th U.S. President, to his grave at the age of 46.
Mrs. Kennedy recorded the tapes in the hope to have them released upon the 50th anniversary of her husband’s death and resolve questions about life with him and his time in the oval office.
The tapes instead will come out on the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy becoming President of the United States.
Various stories about the tapes have been circulating since ABC, the news corporation in possession of the tapes, announced that it would be releasing a special Diane Sawyer 20/20 episode this September in which the tapes would be heard by the American public for the first time.
Some sources argue that the tapes include controversial information about Mr. Kennedy and his time in office including an affair he had with a 19-year-old White House intern.
They also argue that the tapes will disclose provocative information on Mrs. Kennedy including her belief that Vice President Lyndon Johnson was behind her husband’s murder, and details about Mrs. Kennedy’s own extramarital affairs with actor William Holden and Fiat founder Gianni Agnelli.
ABC is dismissing the reports calling them “totally erroneous.”
Those that have heard the tapes have said nothing tangible about the content of the talks making the controversial reports difficult to verify.
A spokesperson for ABC said in a statement, “ABC News isn’t releasing any content from those tapes until mid-September, at which point it will be clear how off base these reports are.”
The exact date that the network plans on airing the special episode has yet to be released.
The 20/20 episode release will coincide with the release of the new book, “Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy,” published by Hyperion Books.
Hyperion has said the new book would serve as “perhaps the most informed, genuine, and immediate portrait of John Fitzgerald Kennedy we shall ever have.”
