News coverage in the age of social media: Ferguson and the Kennedy Assassination.
What if Kennedy had been shot in the age of Twitter and smart phones?
By Nate Thayer
August 21, 2014
At 12:29 pm Central Standard Time on November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy’s presidential limousine entered Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas.
Seconds before 12:30 pm CST, shots were fired and the President was mortally wounded.
At least two dozen amateur and professional still and film photographers were present when the President was killed.
I was thinking of how Kennedy’s death–perhaps the biggest single news story since world war two–was reported as I am trying to absorb the coverage out of Ferguson, Missouri in recent days, driven by the new mores of social media.
The manipulated versions by interested parties in how the news is spun; the random accounts by alleged eyewitnesses with cell phone cameras leading international news headlines; The constant barrage of anyone with a Twitter account who can hide behind aliases and be considered of equal credibility as any journalist, regardless of even any veneer of corroboration; The breathless scramble to Tweet and post, and then hide behind ‘updates’ which are in fact not just corrections but repudiation of the same media outlets earlier reporting.
Of course, as a news consumer, everything reported in this tsunami of quests for page hits and re-tweets, is met with a jaundiced eye, its credibility fundamentally preemptively dismissed.
It used to be, not long ago, that at least two corroborating sources was the standard of reliability for publishing quality and trusted news stories in the responsible and respected sector of professional journalism.
No more. Anyone can publish most anything and call it journalism. And the dirty little secret is that includes the formerly so-called respectable press, who have been using their Brand credibility to live off the fumes of their rapidly evaporating reputations.
Here is the nut of the issue, it could be argued: Quality, reliable journalism is very expensive.
But, Ferguson, Missouri being only the most recent example, the price we all pay for its absence is, also, very obvious and very steep.
In the hasty scrum for any gossip, rumor, and uncorroborated ‘facts’ in the promiscuous pursuit of website visitors that drives what is now published as journalism in the age of social media, one consequence and casualty is that very few people believe what they read anymore.
For good reason.
There is a reason there once were strict internal standards of attribution, fact checking and an often time-consuming editing process that played an inviolable, uncompromising interference between when information was received and when it was published. But it is expensive to ensure quality control.
The price of free news is that believable news as an institution is in critical condition.
Here is a very rough timeline of the news reporting of the Kennedy assassination. And, both relevant and important, in full disclosure, largely lifted from the extraordinary resources available from the same digital age of that same social media ,(a considerable chunk of it from Wikipedia) that is driving Ferguson and the rest of news in 2014.
In the motorcade when Kennedy was shot as he arrived in Dealey Plaza in Dallas, four cars behind him, was the lead national press pool car with Merriman Smith of UPI; Robert Baskin of the Dallas Morning News; Jack Bell of the AP; and Bob Clark of ABC.
Presidential limousine and press corp in Dallas
Behind that vehicle were three more cars filled with journalists.
A Camera car with John Hofan of NBC; Dave Wiegman of NBC; and Thomas Craven of CBS.
This was followed by another camera car with Clint Grant of the Dallas Morning News; Frank Cancellare, UPI; Arthur B. Rickerby, Life Magazine; and Henry Burroughs of the AP.
Behind car number two was a third camera car with Jim Underwood of KRLD; Tom Dillard of the Dallas Morning News; James Darnell, WBAP-TV; Malcolm Couch, WFAA-TV; and Bob Jackson of the Dallas Times Herald.
Walter Cronkite pauses as he announces the death of the President
A couple of vehicles back were two additional entire press buses and a local press car.
There were no shortage of journalists on the scene of the shooting.
By 12:38–less than eight minutes after the shooting, the President had arrived at Parkland hospital. By 1:00 PM he had been pronounced dead.
Although pronounced dead at 1:00 pm, the official announcement was not made for another thirty-three minutes.
At 1:33 pm Dallas time, acting White House spokesman Malcolm Kilduff told a room at the hospital filled with press reporters:
“President John F. Kennedy died at approximately 1:00 CST today, here in Dallas. He died of a gunshot wound to the brain. I have no other details regarding the assassination of the president.”
But of course, with scores of radio, television, and print journalists with Kennedy when the biggest news story of its era occurred, along with numerous amateur photographers and the then equivalent of video cameramen, the story of the shooting of the president did not wait for the White House to confirm it. But this is how it was reported:
From Dallas, local radio KLIF made the first announcement at 12:38 pm CST: “This KLIF Bulletin. From Dallas: Three shots reportedly were fired at the motorcade of President Kennedy today near the downtown section. KLIF News is checking out the report, we will have further reports, stay tuned.”
Local CBS radio affiliate Dallas KRLD, and NBC’s WBAP aired similarly worded bulletins soon after.
At 12:45 pm, ABC television affiliate WFAA reported: “Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. You’ll excuse the fact that I am out of breath, but about 10 or 15 minutes ago a tragic thing from all indications at this point has happened in the city of Dallas. Let me quote to you this and I’ll… you’ll excuse me if I am out of breath. A bulletin, this is from the United Press from Dallas”, and he then read from a UPI wire report: “President Kennedy and Governor John Connally have been cut down by assassins’ bullets in downtown Dallas.”
The first news national outlet to announcement the president had been shot was made by ABC radio at 12:36 pm CST:
“We interrupt this program to bring you a special bulletin from ABC Radio. Here is a special bulletin from Dallas, Texas.” They then the UPI wire bulletin: “THREE SHOTS WERE FIRED AT PRESIDENT KENNEDY’S MOTORCADE TODAY IN DOWNTOWN DALLAS, TEXAS. This is ABC Radio. To repeat: In Dallas Texas, three shots were fired at President Kennedy’s motorcade today, the president now making a two-day speaking tour of Texas. We’re going to stand by for more details on the incident in Dallas, stay tuned to your ABC station for further details. Now we return you to your regular program.”
CBS News iconic journalist Walter Cronkite waited until 12:40 Central Standard Time to report the shooting of the President, its first announcement on national television, four minutes following ABC’s radio bulletin.
CBS interrupted a daytime soap opera broadcast with an audio only CBS News Bulletin:
“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. More details just arrived. These details about the same as previously: President Kennedy shot today just as his motorcade left downtown Dallas. Mrs. Kennedy jumped up and grabbed Mr. Kennedy, she called ‘Oh, no!’ The motorcade sped on. United Press says that the wounds for President Kennedy perhaps could be fatal. Repeating, a bulletin from CBS News, President Kennedy has been shot by a would-be assassin in Dallas, Texas. Stay tuned to CBS News for further details.”
There was no speculation of whether Kennedy was , in fact, dead, for more than 45 minutes, despite hard information from well-placed sources.
In the 15 to 20 minutes before the official White announcement of Kennedy’s death, rumors of the President’s death were reported.
At 2:11 pm EST, CBS’s Dan Rather was told by a priest: “Yes, he’s been shot and he is dead.” Rather called CBS News executives in New York and said: “I think he’s dead.”
At 2:27 pm EST, Walter Cronkite read a qualified version of Rather’s report over CBS television:
to the nation:
“We just have a report from our correspondent Dan Rather in Dallas that he has confirmed that President Kennedy is dead. There is still no official confirmation of this. However, it’s a report from our correspondent, Dan Rather, in Dallas, Texas.”
Meanwhile, a Parkland hospital doctor whispered to CBS radio Dallas reporter Eddie Barker: “Eddie, he is dead… I called the emergency room and he is DOA.”
Barker gave this report to the CBS headquarters in New York, where Walter Cronkite was in charge, effectively, of what was put out as news: “As you can imagine, there are many stories that are coming in now as to the actual condition of the President. One is that he is dead; this cannot be confirmed. Another is that Governor Connally is in the operating room; this we have not confirmed.” Barker qualified the report, saying quaintly “the source would normally be a good one.”
Then at 2:32 pm EST, Cronkite received more news from the priest who had administered last rights to Kennedy via CBS Dallas correspondents.
He went on the air:
“The priest… who were with Kennedy… the two priests who were with Kennedy say that he is dead of his bullet wounds. That seems to be about as close to official as we can get at this time.”
At 1:33 pm Dallas time, acting White House spokesman Malcolm Kilduff told a room at the hospital filled with press reporters:
“President John F. Kennedy died at approximately 1:00 CST today, here in Dallas. He died of a gunshot wound to the brain. I have no other details regarding the assassination of the president.”
At 2:35, ABC News was reporting they had “official” confirmation Kennedy was dead.
But Cronkite refused to go on air with the conclusion without corroboration from CBS’s own correspondents. Instead, he quoted “sources from Washington” adding “Those are government sources, (but) still not an official announcement.”
At 2:38 pm EST, the AP wires reported the official announcement from the Parkland hospital and Cronkite announced the news to a nation that trusted him and how and what he reported as news.
He read on national television:
“From Dallas, Texas, the flash, apparently official” and read from the AP wire ticker piece of paper he held in front of him.
“‘PRESIDENT KENNEDY DIED AT 1 P.M. (CST), 2:00 Eastern Standard Time, some thirty-eight minutes ago.”
Cronkite then stopped and looked at the clock in the CBS News room to check that he was precise, and continued:
“Vice President Johnson…” Cronkite was emotional enough that he paused again. “…has left the hospital in Dallas, but we do not know to where he has proceeded. Presumably, he will be taking the oath of office shortly and become the thirty-sixth president of the United States.”
Immediately a rapid fire series of bulletins were announced as new facts emerged.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States is dead. John F. Kennedy has died of the wounds he received in an assassination in Dallas less than an hour ago. We repeat, it has just been announced that President Kennedy is dead.”
And then:
“John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President Of The United States, is dead at the age of 46. Shot by an assassin as he drove through the streets of Dallas, Texas less than an hour ago. Repeating this, the President is dead, killed in Dallas, Texas by a gunshot wound. We repeat our announcement that the President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, is dead in Dallas, Texas, of an assassin’s bullets. He was shot, and governor Tom Connally of the state of Texas was shot, as they rode in a motorcade through the streets of Dallas less than an hour ago. Governor Connally is in serious condition, President John Kennedy is dead. The 35th president of the United States, he was 46 years old. According to the constitution Vice President Lyndon Johnson will now succeed Mr. Kennedy in office. Mr. Johnson will become the 36th president of the United States, very probably within a few hours upon taking the oath of office.”
I was thinking of how Kennedy’s death–perhaps the biggest single news story since world war two–was reported as I am trying to absorb the coverage out of Ferguson, Missouri in recent days, driven by the new mores of social media.
The manipulated versions by interested parties in how the news is spun; the random accounts by alleged eyewitnesses with cell phone cameras leading international news headlines; The constant barrage of anyone with a Twitter account who can hide behind aliases and be considered of equal credibility as any journalist, regardless of even any veneer of corroboration; The breathless scramble to Tweet and post, and then hide behind ‘updates’ which are in fact not just corrections but repudiations of the same media outlets earlier reporting.
Of course, as a news consumer, everything reported in this tsunami of quests for page hits and re-tweets, is met with a jaundiced eye, its credibility fundamentally preemptively dismissed.
It used to be, not long ago, that at least two corroborating sources was the standard of reliability for publishing quality and trusted news stories in the responsible and respected sector of professional journalism.
No more. Anyone can publish most anything and call it journalism. And the dirty little secret is that includes the formerly so-called respectable press, who have been using their Brand credibility to live off the fumes of their rapidly evaporating reputations.
Here is the nut of the issue, it could be argued: Quality, reliable journalism is very expensive.
But, Ferguson, Missouri being only the most recent example, the price we all pay for its absence is, also, very obvious and very steep.
In the hasty scrum for any gossip, rumor, and uncorroborated ‘facts’ in the promiscuous pursuit of website visitors that drives what is now published as journalism in the age of social media, one consequence and casualty is that very few people believe what they read anymore.
For good reason.
There is a reason there once were strict internal standards of attribution, fact checking and an often time-consuming editing process that played an inviolable, uncompromising interference between when information was received and when it was published. But it is expensive to ensure quality control.
The price of free news is that believable news as an institution is in critical condition.
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