Local opinion writer Jack Lessenberry hopes for a media blackout on mentions of a certain ex-mayor after coverage of his federal court sentencing Thursday morning.
In a Michigan Radio commentary headlined "Farewell to Kwame," Lessenberry writes that "the media have never been able to get enough of Kwame" Kilpatrick and soon should try to virtually ignore him.
The worst punishment for this charming sociopath will probably be the one that starts after the sentencing is over. I intend to help administer this punishment, and hope my colleagues in the media will too. I intend, insofar as possible, to ignore Kwame Kilpatrick. If the rest of the media does the same, that may torment him worse than anything else. , , ,
My guess is that he will always think he got a raw deal. My guess is that whenever he gets out of jail, he will almost immediately get in trouble again. But I no longer care.
The veteran journalist recalls an earlier defendant who fell from front pages to a historic footnote:
Fourteen years ago, the day Jack Kevorkian was sentenced to prison, the prosecutor told me: “Pisoners don’t get to hold televised press conferences.”
Within a few months Dr. Death had been almost totally forgotten. For the sake of all of us, especially the poor battered city of Detroit, let’s hope Kilpatrick’s fate is the same.
