In the News

The shootings in Tucson two weeks ago really took me aback. Another crazy person with a gun. I am not against gun ownership, I own one myself, but I feel that there needs to be some accountability. There was a time in this country when it was not unusual for a man or woman to be carrying a gun on a normal, daily basis. I wonder if there were more random acts against honest citizens back then.

But what I have been thinking about and would like to share is my thoughts on the way the “news” channels reported the events. We were getting almost instant reports from the scene. Most of the reports were either, there was a shooting at a community meeting being conducted by Congresswoman…. Or, Congresswoman is dead. Both CNN and FOX reported her death on their scrolling news banner. Then changed it to NPR reports that she had died, and finally from the hospital that she was out of surgery and in critical condition. Well, I am happy they finally got it right.

There was a time when I was growing up that newspeople checked their facts before reporting the news. I think that all changed in November, 1963. You can see a lot of that day on YouTube. I remember it well. At the time there were no Satellite communications, no cell phones, no cable TV, no internet, no color TV. News reporting was done by hard wired telephone, teletype, and processed film. Newspeople took more time to make sure that they had the story right. When you watch those reports on YouTube, you will see that the three networks were little prepared to deal with a fast breaking news story, but they made great efforts to get it right.

At the time, Americans did not expect instant reporting. All of that changed that week. The total emersion of Television in the Kennedy assassination and the days that followed changed our concepts of news reporting forever.