CBS has been streaming its entire coverage of the JFK assassination

[thucythucy]

--four days of black and white TV reporting of the events as they happened--from the first reports of "shots fired at the president's motorcade in Dallas" to the services at Arlington Cemetery this afternoon. Thanks to "Brooklynite" for turning me on to this.

I've been watching off and on since Friday afternoon, and it's been a chilling, sad, sobering experience.

There's lots I could say about this, but one thing that strikes me immediately is how TV news reporting has declined these past five decades. The CBS coverage--warts and all--is on the whole sober, solemn, respectful to both the president and his family, and to the American people. Last night, for instance (which means the night of November 24, 1963), CBS broadcast Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic performing Mahler's Second Symphony (the "Resurrection Symphony&quot in its entirety--perhaps the most stunning and beautiful piece of network TV I have ever seen.

Imagine if the unthinkable were to happen today--imagine how the networks and cable TV would respond. Special logos--"America in Crisis!!!!!!"--special "theme music"--talking heads blathering on about whatever nonsense first comes to mind.

I simply can't imagine any network today--with the exception of C-Span and the possible exception of PBS--following the course of events without breaking in for a "round table" discussion featuring the inane comments of George Will, Ann Coulter, et. al. I can't imagine this kind of somber respect for history as it unfolds. Not that the coverage was perfect--first reports for instance had a Secret Service agent killed with the president--but on the whole what I've seen is head and shoulders above anything I've ever seen on network TV news. And it's not only Walter Cronkite. It's Dan Rather, Roger Mudd...the whole team was superlative.

I think every journalist and every journalism student in America should sit down and watch these four days of continuous TV.

How sad--not only the events themselves, of course--but to think also how TV news has been dumbed down as it has.

[duffyduff]

1. I totally agree

The concert footage was great. I didn't see that the first time around because my parents had the television off. They also had the television off during the roundtable discussions. Back then, we had academics like Mark Van Doren talk about the significance of the assassination.

Now it's just political operatives whose IQs are in the single digits pontificating and trying to tell us what to think.

The ONLY time there was clear journalist opinion in the original CBS coverage of the assassination was Harry Reasoner excoriating people who were upset their regular programs were preempted because of the coverage.

The assassination coverage has been called a time when "television came of age." I call it the high point in television history.

Everybody should see it, no matter how painful it is to watch.

[thucythucy]

9. I saw that too: Reasoner's reaction

to folks who missed their soap operas. Incredible.

There's a story--and I don't know if it's true or not--about Walter Cronkite during this period. The phone rang in the news room while he was on break--off the air--and he picked it up because everyone else was busy frantically trying to cover the story. It turned out to be a woman calling to say she hated "that awful communist, Walter Cronkite," and can't anybody do anything about getting rid of him? Cronkite supposedly answered, "Madam, this is Walter Cronkite, and you are an idiot!"

This IS painful to watch, but so incredibly important. I'm just thankful we have these recordings to go back to.

Best wishes.

[duffyduff]

11. That is great if true. It might be in his autobiography which I have but haven't read

yet.

It was pure chaos in those network newsrooms.

[avaistheone1]

2. I just found that CBS was doing this yesterday.

Everyone who appreciates history should be watching the coverage. There is so much culturally and historically offered. It is quite an experience to see these events in their entirety.

[duffyduff]

4. I am hoping someday CBS will put the entire 55 hours out on DVD

They may not, but it is so important to see the footage, even though the funeral especially is so sad and so depressing for those of us who remember it. To understand our country today, we have to look at the past.

The JFK assassination was a watershed in both American and television history.

[avaistheone1]

14. Possibly someday soon.

My understanding is that publishers plan to put out a range of books about JFK this year given the renewed in the man and his presidency. I hope CBS will be a part of this and put out the DVD you mentioned with complete coverage of these 4 days.

[Douglas Carpenter]

3. I've been watching that too - "brings back the time when I was eight or nine and I was watching my

mamma's TV."

[Douglas Carpenter]

5. here is the link to a video of the CBS News 4 day wrap up

http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/cbs-news-wraps-4-day-coverage-of-assassination/

I was in the third grade at the time and I do remember watching it almost nonstop for three or four days - no commercial - no cartoons on Saturday morning

[duffyduff]

6. I was in third grade, too. I remember this like it was yesterday.

I watched all of the significant parts of the coverage, but I didn't see the discussions, concerts, and documentaries of JFK and LBJ.

I really miss those journalists. The few who are still alive are way up there in years now, like Dan Rather, Roger Mudd, Marvin Kalb, and Richard C. Hottelet (who is 96!).

I have said before my favorite one of all was Charles Collingwood. He was wonderful. Supposedly he liked alcohol quite a bit, so he was more marginalized by the network until he retired in the early 1980s. He died in 1985 of cancer.

As an aside, his first wife was actress Louise Allbritton. She met him during WWII through her friend actress Carole Landis, who as many know was actively involved in the war effort. Allbritton died in 1979 and Collingwood remarried a couple of years later.

[thucythucy]

7. Thanks.

And here's the link to the full stream, which I should have included above. Thanks again to Brooklynite for sharing this.

http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/jfk-assassination/

Right now they're covering the funeral mass, and eulogy.

[MissMillie]

8. NPR aired the late Walter Cronkite's program on the 40th anniversary

complete w/ (at the time) never-been-heard communications from the sit-room and with the plane that was carrying half of The Cabinet to Japan.

http://www.npr.org/2013/11/22/246628793/walter-cronkite-on-the-assassination-of-john-f-kennedy

[thucythucy]

10. Thanks!

I'll check this out later.

[duffyduff]

12. Kick for visibility

The coverage is now of the funeral procession to Arlington National Cemetery.

[napkinz]

13. re "comments of George Will, Ann Coulter, et. al"

and Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Steve Doocy, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh

What would Walter Cronkite and David Brinkley think if they were still with us?

(Can you imagine Walter Cronkite turning to Sarah Palin for her "analysis"?)

[avaistheone1]

15. The Air Force Bagpipe Contingent playing

Anyone know that piece of music?

[napkinz]

16. 4pm

Dan Rather describes first look at Zapruder film

[FRED64]

17. JFK assassination CBS live stream

It never fails to astound me how much the world changed in a mere 8 seconds on a street
in Dallas, Texas.

I totally agree with your comments as to the "dumbing down" of TV journalism.

The recent opportunity to watch the original CBS News coverage of the assassination of President Kennedy was not only a "look back" at a shocking event from a half-century ago.
It was also to re-experience how an bygone era of higher journalistic standards reported that incredible tragedy, on live television, to millions of Americans.

Forgive the following question, but I'm sure you and your readers will understand:

Did anyone record this CBS live stream? I've read on the internet of failed attempts, but did anyone actually manage to record any or all of this?

Of the 56 hours JFK assassination and funeral CBS News broadcast between Nov.22 and 25, 1963, 42 hours were in collectors/trader's circles prior to the recent stream. That included all of the coverage from Friday and about 3-4 hours from Sunday. The Friday and Sunday footage is very good quality. However, the Saturday and Monday is grainy and quite second-rate.

So if anyone did record the stream, it that means that up to 14 hours of the previously "missing" coverage would now be available.
In addition, that would be a major upgrade of that grainy Saturday and Monday footage.

By the way, MS NBC live streamed NBC's coverage from Monday Nov.25,1963 on the 50th anniversary, as well. CSAN-3 rebroadcast 6 hours of the NBC's original coverage from Monday, Nov. 25, 1963.

Some may find this a morbid subject and in bad taste, but there's no denying that what happened 50 years ago was not not only a turning point in history, but in television news as well. These B&W TV tapes from those "four dark days" are an invaluable piece of American history in many respects.

They serve to provide further knowledge and insight into the life, death and legacy of our 35th president, John F. Kennedy, and the world we live in today.