Jenya
11-21-2003, 12:24 PM
Remembering Kennedy
Networks Reflect on 40th Anniversary of JFK's Assassination
November 21, 2003
ASSOCIATED PRESS (http://www.ap.org/)
As the 40th anniversary approaches, dozens of specials, documentaries and retrospectives will air on U.S. and Canadian networks, each attempting to bring context and insight to one of the most iconic moments of the 20th century.
Now, four decades after the assassination, 80 per cent of Americans subscribe to some version of conspiracy; Lee Harvey Oswald, they believe, was not the lone gunman.
A new special, confidently titled The Kennedy Assassination: Beyond Conspiracy (ABC, 9 p.m. tonight), is an ambitious, peering gaze into what happened.
Or, maybe, what didn't happen.
The investigation, which took more than two years to complete, analyzed more than 500 photographs, 4 million documents, lab and autopsy reports, the famous Zapruder film, not to mention interviews with more than 70 experts and people connected to the event.
The centrepiece of the two-hour special is a computer-generated reconstruction of the Dealey Plaza assassination. Animator Dale Myers laboured over this for a decade using maps, blueprints and new imaging technologies that allow for multiple, three-dimensional angles of the shooting.
The findings mirror the Warren Commission — that is, Oswald acted alone. Over the last three decades, a half-dozen CBS specials have taken different routes to the same conclusion.
None of this, of course, will sway those who believe Oswald did not act alone and was merely a cog in larger, sinister wheel determined to run down a president.
The documentary Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald? (PBS, 8 p.m. tonight) is a comprehensive, three-hour biography of the man, examining him from the divergent perspectives of "lone gunman" and "scapegoat."
On Saturday, the 40th anniversary date, coverage will be heavy across all American networks, including CNN and MSNBC.
In Canada, History Television is airing "The Kennedy Weekend," a special block of programming that appropriately covers both fact and fiction, including PT 109; The Search For Kennedy's PT 109; Cuba: The Other Side of Armageddon; Nuclear Sharks: Cuban Missile Crisis; Jackie Kennedy: The Power of Style; Kennedy; and JFK, Oliver Stone's celluloid homage to the great conspiracy.
On that day in 1963, as the three U.S. networks switched to live coverage, television displayed a sort of immediacy that print, the dominant medium at the time, could never equal.
Television became a great unifier, a destination during crisis, a virtual meeting place in which images and messages reached millions of people simultaneously.
By midday, 90 per cent of all American homes with TV sets were watching the coverage.
Last night, PBS aired JFK: Breaking The News, a documentary about how journalists covered the story in those frantic moments. It also explored how television now connects viewers to flashbulb events, creating a shared experience.
Footage from the JFK assassination is so ingrained within popular culture that it has created a sort of false memory for those who weren't even alive in 1963.
The event has been deconstructed and put back together as a series of enduring snapshots: Walter Cronkite removing his glasses and choking back tears; the grainy image of the limousine seconds before and after the shooting; son John saluting his father during the funeral.
By contemporary standards, with our satellite links and 24-hour news cycles, television's attempt to corral the JFK story seems prehistoric. Cronkite has written that CBS cameras needed about 20 minutes to warm up, creating technical problems as the story broke.
And can you imagine a newsworthy event not being filmed today? Did you see the arsenal of reporters and cameras at yesterday's press conference announcing the arrest warrant for Michael Jackson? It's incredible to think that NBC was the only network to catch Jack Ruby shooting Oswald as a violent, live postscript to the JFK event.
The gunshots from that November day still echo across a medium that learned to run in the shadow of a story that won't go away.
http://www.thestar.com/images/thestar/img/031120_oswald_lee_harvey250.jpg
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO
Harvey Oswald, centre, 40 years after he shot
U.S. President John F. Kennedy.
Did he act alone? A number of TV specials
tonight probe the issue. Oswald, of course,
was shot himself before his case went to trial.
Networks Reflect on 40th Anniversary of JFK's Assassination
November 21, 2003
ASSOCIATED PRESS (http://www.ap.org/)
As the 40th anniversary approaches, dozens of specials, documentaries and retrospectives will air on U.S. and Canadian networks, each attempting to bring context and insight to one of the most iconic moments of the 20th century.
Now, four decades after the assassination, 80 per cent of Americans subscribe to some version of conspiracy; Lee Harvey Oswald, they believe, was not the lone gunman.
A new special, confidently titled The Kennedy Assassination: Beyond Conspiracy (ABC, 9 p.m. tonight), is an ambitious, peering gaze into what happened.
Or, maybe, what didn't happen.
The investigation, which took more than two years to complete, analyzed more than 500 photographs, 4 million documents, lab and autopsy reports, the famous Zapruder film, not to mention interviews with more than 70 experts and people connected to the event.
The centrepiece of the two-hour special is a computer-generated reconstruction of the Dealey Plaza assassination. Animator Dale Myers laboured over this for a decade using maps, blueprints and new imaging technologies that allow for multiple, three-dimensional angles of the shooting.
The findings mirror the Warren Commission — that is, Oswald acted alone. Over the last three decades, a half-dozen CBS specials have taken different routes to the same conclusion.
None of this, of course, will sway those who believe Oswald did not act alone and was merely a cog in larger, sinister wheel determined to run down a president.
The documentary Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald? (PBS, 8 p.m. tonight) is a comprehensive, three-hour biography of the man, examining him from the divergent perspectives of "lone gunman" and "scapegoat."
On Saturday, the 40th anniversary date, coverage will be heavy across all American networks, including CNN and MSNBC.
In Canada, History Television is airing "The Kennedy Weekend," a special block of programming that appropriately covers both fact and fiction, including PT 109; The Search For Kennedy's PT 109; Cuba: The Other Side of Armageddon; Nuclear Sharks: Cuban Missile Crisis; Jackie Kennedy: The Power of Style; Kennedy; and JFK, Oliver Stone's celluloid homage to the great conspiracy.
On that day in 1963, as the three U.S. networks switched to live coverage, television displayed a sort of immediacy that print, the dominant medium at the time, could never equal.
Television became a great unifier, a destination during crisis, a virtual meeting place in which images and messages reached millions of people simultaneously.
By midday, 90 per cent of all American homes with TV sets were watching the coverage.
Last night, PBS aired JFK: Breaking The News, a documentary about how journalists covered the story in those frantic moments. It also explored how television now connects viewers to flashbulb events, creating a shared experience.
Footage from the JFK assassination is so ingrained within popular culture that it has created a sort of false memory for those who weren't even alive in 1963.
The event has been deconstructed and put back together as a series of enduring snapshots: Walter Cronkite removing his glasses and choking back tears; the grainy image of the limousine seconds before and after the shooting; son John saluting his father during the funeral.
By contemporary standards, with our satellite links and 24-hour news cycles, television's attempt to corral the JFK story seems prehistoric. Cronkite has written that CBS cameras needed about 20 minutes to warm up, creating technical problems as the story broke.
And can you imagine a newsworthy event not being filmed today? Did you see the arsenal of reporters and cameras at yesterday's press conference announcing the arrest warrant for Michael Jackson? It's incredible to think that NBC was the only network to catch Jack Ruby shooting Oswald as a violent, live postscript to the JFK event.
The gunshots from that November day still echo across a medium that learned to run in the shadow of a story that won't go away.
http://www.thestar.com/images/thestar/img/031120_oswald_lee_harvey250.jpg
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO
Harvey Oswald, centre, 40 years after he shot
U.S. President John F. Kennedy.
Did he act alone? A number of TV specials
tonight probe the issue. Oswald, of course,
was shot himself before his case went to trial.