Exaggeration, misinformation and myth have always infected politics – even before social media took it to the extreme.

NEW YORK Jean Kennedy Smith, who was the last surviving sibling of President John F. Kennedy and who as a U.S. ambassador played a key role in the peace process in Northern Ireland, has died, relatives said Thursday. Sen. Edward Kennedy, the youngest of the Kennedy siblings, died of brain cancer in August 2009, the same month their sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver died. Patrick Kennedy highlighted her role in the Irish peace process as the crux of her enormous legacy." She knew it was crucial to bring everybody in in order for there to be lasting peace, Patrick Kennedy told the AP. Her son, Dr. William Kennedy Smith, made headlines in 1991, when he was charged with rape at the Kennedy estate in Palm Beach, Florida.