Four Awful Days

 

I recently finished watching a three-part documentary about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

It's called JFK: One Day in America and it's streaming on Disney+.

It documents the day of the assassination and some of the events that followed.

Of course, this Nov 22 -- next Wednesday -- marks 60 years since it all unfolded.

I've always felt a connection to it because Nov 22 happens to be my birthday, for the zero that is worth.

Still, I've never been quite able to comprehend it.

You're watching a soap opera (As the World Turns on CBS) or a sitcom repeat (Bachelor Father on WNBC-TV in New York) or a home show (on WFAA in Dallas).

You're listening to music or talk on the radio.

Then someone breaks in with a bulletin.

Literally, in a finger snap, everything has changed. 

Everything.

It's 1:40 p.m. EST when Walter Cronkite comes on, with only a CBS News slate and no picture. He reads the release that many read that day.

"Here is a bulletin from CBS News. In Dallas, Texas, three shots were fired at President Kennedy's motorcade in downtown Dallas. The first reports say that President Kennedy has been seriously wounded by this shooting..."

He does, after repeating the bulletin, add that United Press International said that the wounds might be fatal.

At that point, that's about it, at least for the rest of the country. In Dallas, of course, it is pure chaos. The fairly popular 35th president has been shot after having been in an open-top convertible. He has been very accessible, shaking hands with as many people as he and the first lady can. Kennedy, of course, was beginning to campaign for his reelection in 1964.

He wasn't quite as popular in Texas but the reaction to his visit is nothing short of a lovefest.

Then the shots rang out at 12:30 p.m. in Dallas (1:30 in New York).

I've taught about the coverage of the president many times in my segment on breaking news. For the U.S.  media, 11/22/63 was literally the dawn of modern television news. Of course, there was no internet so no social media (and no blogs).

It was radio, television, and newspapers.

And it was all happening so fast.

Cronkite would return to lead the CBS coverage, famously taking off his glasses at 2:38 p.m. EST and clearing his throat as he choked up when announcing the president's death.

On NBC, Chet Huntley is presenting when Bill Ryan -- literally pulled from the hallway to join the crew on TV -- reads the statement that JFK has died. Frank McGee then takes a phone call from reporter Robert MacNeil in Dallas to confirm the horrible news.

Initially, McGee has to repeat MacNeil's words because the audio isn't coming across. Eventually, you hear MacNeil followed by McGee's repeating him.

Chaos.

On WGBH radio in Boston, conductor Erich Leinsdorf is at the stand with the Boston Symphony Orchestra when he pauses to announce the news.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have a press report over the wires. We hope that it is unconfirmed, but we have to doubt it. The president of the United States has been the victim of an assassination. We will play the funeral march from Beethoven’s Third Symphony."

The crowd gasped and sobbed. The audio is incredibly shocking and compelling. Thankfully so many of the broadcasts of that day are preserved on YouTube and elsewhere.

I still recall one broadcast that tried to play music and didn't have it properly cued up, no doubt the person at the turntable was shaking, and understandably so.

But one thing is clear: the anchors and reporters on duty were fantastic. Many decry our current media and perhaps they did the same at that time. But their stoicism -- save for Cronkite's brief hesitation -- is admirable. I often wonder how I would handle it.

Sadly, we know there have been attempts and assassinations over the many years of the office of President. Obviously, getting close to the person -- whoever he (or she) is -- has thankfully become next to impossible.

Though I suppose that's a shame as well, given many simply just want to shake a hand.

The Secret Service agents on duty that day are still impacted greatly by what happened.

So are the news reporters and onlookers.

President Kennedy was only 46 and, love them or hate them, his family has certainly known a remarkable share of very public tragedies.

I can't imagine what that day was like but everyone says they know where they were when it happened. 

I know where I was. I didn't exist yet but I'd be born five years later to the day.

I suppose this post is a long-winded way of saying the documentary was very compelling.

From the early steps of that Friday through the murder of Officer J. D. Tippit to the swearing-in of President Johnson to Lee Harvey Oswald being arrested and charged to the public viewing of President Kennedy's casket to the murder of Oswald by Jack Ruby and, finally, to the funeral of JFK on Monday.

Four days in which TV literally screeched to a halt and went, essentially, wire to wire before resuming local programming.

A fascinating and, probably, scary time as well. For those of us who didn't experience it, perhaps the events of Sep 11, 2001, can possibly be compared in terms of impact.

I encourage you to watch the documentary as well as the myriad footage and audio clips that are available from that time.

Watch as innocence disappears and as how we cover news on TV changes in an instant.

And may we never know anything like it again.