History of TV News - Part 4

Culture

One of the memorable stories of the era was, of course, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. Several anchormen had a unique view of the story.

Author:

By Mark R. Gould

Robert MacNeil of the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour was on the scene in Dallas when President Kennedy was assassinated. After shots rang out in Dealey Plaza, MacNeil headed towards the nearest building and encountered a man leaving the Texas School Book Depository. He asked the man where the nearest telephone was and the man pointed and went on his way. MacNeil later learned the man he encountered at about 12:33 p.m. CST may have been Lee Harvey Oswald. According to historian William Manchester, it was Oswald. When Oswald was later interrogated by the Dallas Police, he thought MacNeil was a Secret Service agent because of his suit, blond crew cut, and press badge.

MacNeil says "it was possible, but I had no way of confirming that either of the young men I had spoken to was Oswald." On the phone, MacNeil relayed the first report of the shooting for NBC Radio. He then headed to Parkland Hospital where he arranged a phone connection with Frank McGee, who was anchoring the developments with Bill Ryan and Chet Huntley from NBC-TV in New York. At approximately 1:40 PM CST, MacNeil relayed to McGee that the White House acting press secretary made the official announcement that President Kennedy had died at 1:00 p.m. CST.

CBS Evening News anchor Bob Schieffer was a police reporter in Fort Worth, Texas that day and was upset he was not assigned to the President’s visit to Dallas. After the assassination took place, he went to his newspaper’s newsroom, and the phones were ringing off the hook. He picked one up.

‘So I just answered a phone and a woman said, "Is there anybody there who can give me a ride to Dallas?" And I said, "Lady, you know, the president has just been shot, and besides, we're not a taxi service." And she said, "Yes, I heard it on the radio." She said, "I think the person they've arrested is my son." And it was Lee Harvey Oswald's mother.’ Schieffer rode with Mrs. Oswald to Dallas and had the exclusive story. Read the extended interview with Bob Schieffer, "JFK: Breaking the News."

And, finally, here is the transcript from the first bulletin read on the air by Walter Cronkite regarding the attempt on President Kennedy’s life:

"Here is a bulletin from CBS News. Further details on an assassination attempt against President Kennedy in Dallas, Texas. President Kennedy was shot as he drove from Dallas Airport to downtown Dallas; Governor Connally of Texas, in the car with him, was also shot. It is reported that three bullets rang out. A Secret Service man has been...was heard to shout from the car, "He's dead." Whether he referred to President Kennedy or not is not yet known. The President, cradled in the arms of his wife Mrs. Kennedy, was carried to an ambulance and the car rushed to Parkland Hospital outside Dallas, the President was taken to an emergency room in the hospital. Other White House officials were in doubt in the corridors of the hospital as to the condition of President Kennedy. Repeating this bulletin: President Kennedy shot while driving in an open car from the airport in Dallas, Texas, to downtown Dallas."

Part 1 provided a background on the history of broadcast journalism. Part 2 examined how Walter Cronkite's coverage of Watergate and the Vietnam War impacted public perceptions. Part 3 of this article looked at the decline of network news.

Resources

Variety: Top ten highlights of Walter Cronkite’s career

Life Magazine: Remembering Walter Cronkite

The Atlantic: David Halberstam on Cronkite

A Reporter's Life
by Walter Cronkite

This Just In: What I Couldn't Tell You on TV
by Bob Schieffer

Good Night, Chet: A Biography of Chet Huntley
by Lyle Johnston

Anchors: Brokaw, Jennings, Rather and the Evening News
by Robert Goldberg and Gerald Jay Goldberg

Friendlyvision: Fred Friendly and the Rise and Fall of Television Journalism
By Ralph Engelman

Due to Circumstances Beyond Our Control
by Fred W. Friendly

The Murrow Boys: Pioneers on the Front Lines of Broadcast Journalism
by Lynne Olson and Stanley W. Cloud

With Heroic Truth: The Life of Edward R. Murrow
by Norman H. Finkelstein