A Bittersweet holiday....
(From the 11/22/2007 edition of the Las Vegas Penny Press - www.pennypresslv.com )
It was a day I'll never forget.
November 22nd, 1963. 43 years ago today.
I was in the second grade. For some reason my mother and a friend had picked me up at school and took me to the truck stop in Emporia for lunch. You could do that in the old days.
On the way back to school we were talking and listening to the radio. I wasn't paying much attention, but all at once both my mom and her friend became frantic, dialing around the radio looking for something. We were at my school, so they dropped, me off. I remember all the adults were different, shocked, stunned, crying. Vulnerable in a way that I had never seen them.
We went into the auditorium, more for the teachers benefit than our own, and watched the news as it came in on the schools 24 inch black and white TV. By today's standards, the reporting was slow, sketchy, and inefficient. This was, after all, before Electronic News Gathering, portable video cameras, wireless microphones and all the niceties that make instant news possible today.
Yet, it was a day -- four days, actually -- that broadcast media shone.
I purchased through a "gray market" source a VHS tape of the first four hours of NBC's coverage. I still drag it out every so often to remind me how real journalists work.
News was reported as news. Speculation, when mentioned, was always attributed to the source directly, not "a well-placed source" who was kept anonymous. While waiting for details, recaps were snappy, facts about previous assassination attempts cited not from notes passed by an intern but from memory. Say what you will about Chet Huntley, David Brinkley, and the rest of the crew, they truly knew their stuff! (Moreso than the "pretty boys" of what passes for journalism today!)
I also purchased - about three years ago - an LP record of United Press International's coverage of that weekend. It includes what we now know are recreations of the coverage that UPI picked up from KBOX radio in Dallas. It seems that a significant chunk of the news department was fired from KBOX for feeding the story to UPI. The news service told them not to worry, they were on their payroll as of the minute they were terminated.
The coverage was compelling not only from KBOX - the recreations, I am told, were as authentic as possible - but KLIF who went live and stayed cautionary until the final word came down that the President had died, announced by the old Scotsman himself, Gordon McLendon.
A fair number of CONELRAD (the predecessor to the Emergency Broadcast and Emergency Alert Systems) receivers were retuned to the Mighty 1090 that day across the south, while stations across the nation were calling anyone they could find in Dallas to have them place their phone next to their radio and tune it to KLIF or KBOX so they could rebroadcast it.
Broadcasters can be creative.
I'm not going to go into the loss of "Camelot" or of our innocence, damaged by the JFK/RFK/MLK assassinations and torn apart. by the Nixon administration's Watergate disaster. Suffice it to say that the events 44 years ago today changed the course of history. We'll never know what impact the changing of the guard may have had on not only the legacy of the Kennedy administration but on the path the nation took when it came to Vietnam. Could JFK have made the unwinnable war more palatable to the American people, or would it have taken him down the "W" path?
We'll never know. Amazing how 4 ounces of lead can change the course of history.
This is also Thanksgiving day. On this day we recap what we are thankful for.
I am thankful that I have been given a second chance at living because of a friend who is no longer with us. Don Lemmon showed me how to be a healthier person and literally saved my life. For that I will be forever grateful. That he was taken from this land at such a young age and left so many behind is a tragedy. He leaves a void that no one will be able to fill.
I am thankful for my Bubba Brown, who has given me such joy that many days I forget that he is my Stepson. And for Liam Edward, who gives me hope for the future before he arrives. One year ago I would not be writing this, but I am thankful for my wife, who I believe finally understands what it takes to be married to someone in the media.
I am extremely thankful for the publisher of this newspaper, who has shown the faith in my abilities by inviting me to grace these pages each week.
And I am grateful to you for reading. Some weeks this column is based on news, some weeks commentary, sometimes this column is a catharsis. I appreciate it that you read and comment. So far, no one has shown up with pitchforks at my door, so you must enjoy it as well.
Or you're just ignoring me. Which is your right.
For now, I'll just take the Sally Field path and assume that you like me. You really really like me...
Wyatt Cox hates self-congratulatory puff pieces. Unless he's on deadline and can't think of anything else to write. Write him at rant.wyattcox.net
It was a day I'll never forget.
November 22nd, 1963. 43 years ago today.
I was in the second grade. For some reason my mother and a friend had picked me up at school and took me to the truck stop in Emporia for lunch. You could do that in the old days.
On the way back to school we were talking and listening to the radio. I wasn't paying much attention, but all at once both my mom and her friend became frantic, dialing around the radio looking for something. We were at my school, so they dropped, me off. I remember all the adults were different, shocked, stunned, crying. Vulnerable in a way that I had never seen them.
We went into the auditorium, more for the teachers benefit than our own, and watched the news as it came in on the schools 24 inch black and white TV. By today's standards, the reporting was slow, sketchy, and inefficient. This was, after all, before Electronic News Gathering, portable video cameras, wireless microphones and all the niceties that make instant news possible today.
Yet, it was a day -- four days, actually -- that broadcast media shone.
I purchased through a "gray market" source a VHS tape of the first four hours of NBC's coverage. I still drag it out every so often to remind me how real journalists work.
News was reported as news. Speculation, when mentioned, was always attributed to the source directly, not "a well-placed source" who was kept anonymous. While waiting for details, recaps were snappy, facts about previous assassination attempts cited not from notes passed by an intern but from memory. Say what you will about Chet Huntley, David Brinkley, and the rest of the crew, they truly knew their stuff! (Moreso than the "pretty boys" of what passes for journalism today!)
I also purchased - about three years ago - an LP record of United Press International's coverage of that weekend. It includes what we now know are recreations of the coverage that UPI picked up from KBOX radio in Dallas. It seems that a significant chunk of the news department was fired from KBOX for feeding the story to UPI. The news service told them not to worry, they were on their payroll as of the minute they were terminated.
The coverage was compelling not only from KBOX - the recreations, I am told, were as authentic as possible - but KLIF who went live and stayed cautionary until the final word came down that the President had died, announced by the old Scotsman himself, Gordon McLendon.
A fair number of CONELRAD (the predecessor to the Emergency Broadcast and Emergency Alert Systems) receivers were retuned to the Mighty 1090 that day across the south, while stations across the nation were calling anyone they could find in Dallas to have them place their phone next to their radio and tune it to KLIF or KBOX so they could rebroadcast it.
Broadcasters can be creative.
I'm not going to go into the loss of "Camelot" or of our innocence, damaged by the JFK/RFK/MLK assassinations and torn apart. by the Nixon administration's Watergate disaster. Suffice it to say that the events 44 years ago today changed the course of history. We'll never know what impact the changing of the guard may have had on not only the legacy of the Kennedy administration but on the path the nation took when it came to Vietnam. Could JFK have made the unwinnable war more palatable to the American people, or would it have taken him down the "W" path?
We'll never know. Amazing how 4 ounces of lead can change the course of history.
This is also Thanksgiving day. On this day we recap what we are thankful for.
I am thankful that I have been given a second chance at living because of a friend who is no longer with us. Don Lemmon showed me how to be a healthier person and literally saved my life. For that I will be forever grateful. That he was taken from this land at such a young age and left so many behind is a tragedy. He leaves a void that no one will be able to fill.
I am thankful for my Bubba Brown, who has given me such joy that many days I forget that he is my Stepson. And for Liam Edward, who gives me hope for the future before he arrives. One year ago I would not be writing this, but I am thankful for my wife, who I believe finally understands what it takes to be married to someone in the media.
I am extremely thankful for the publisher of this newspaper, who has shown the faith in my abilities by inviting me to grace these pages each week.
And I am grateful to you for reading. Some weeks this column is based on news, some weeks commentary, sometimes this column is a catharsis. I appreciate it that you read and comment. So far, no one has shown up with pitchforks at my door, so you must enjoy it as well.
Or you're just ignoring me. Which is your right.
For now, I'll just take the Sally Field path and assume that you like me. You really really like me...
Wyatt Cox hates self-congratulatory puff pieces. Unless he's on deadline and can't think of anything else to write. Write him at rant.wyattcox.net
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