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CNN Live Saturday
Reporters Share Memories of JFK Assassination
Aired November 15, 2003 - 14:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDREA KOPPEL, ANCHOR: A week from today the nation marks the 40th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas.
"CNN PRESENTS" has a special program this Sunday at 8 p.m. Eastern, looking back at the events that shook America. Here's an excerpt of "PRESIDENT KENNEDY HAS BEEN SHOT."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody kept twisting around and saying, "Where's Jackie? Where's Jackie?" Well, Jackie was standing beside me in the kitchen door, and was smiling mischievously.
And the more they went on saying, "Where's Jackie," and were twisting around, she -- she sort of giggled and waited more.
And then she made her tactically delayed entrance, and to huge cheers, and she looked glowing, because she was wiring this pillbox hat and in pink, and her glossy hair. And the cameraman, Moe Levy (ph), we looked at each other and I said to Moe, "Well, if nothing else happens, we've got a story in Jackie."
JOHN F. KENNEDY, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Two years ago I said that, introduced myself in Paris by saying that I was the man who had accompanied Mrs. Kennedy to Paris. I'm getting somewhat that same sensation as I prattle around Texas.
Nobody wonders what Lyndon and I wear.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The whole trip to Texas was what was called a political (UNINTELLIGIBLE) trip. The governor, John Connolly, was rather conservative. There was a senator Ralph Yarbrough, who was very liberal. They didn't get along.
The vice president of course, Lyndon Johnson, was from Texas. And as Kennedy was already looking forward to the 1964 election, the presidential campaign. Certainly did not want to lose Texans as far as a rift between the state senior senator and the governor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now, Air Force Number One taxiing in. And the crowd below cheering.
TOM WICKER, REPORTER, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Adlai Stevenson had been attacked there just a few weeks before. And Dallas was known at that time, it known as the center of kind of right-wing violent political activity. And so there had been some talk about that. Would President Kennedy be safe?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KOPPEL: I'm joined here in Washington by the producer of "CNN PRESENTS: PRESIDENT KENNEDY HAS BEEN SHOT." Filmmaker Geri (ph) Wurzburg who won an Academy Award back in 1992 for her documentary "Educating Peter."
Thank you so much for joining us.
GERARDINE WURZBURG, PRODUCER, "PRESIDENT KENNEDY HAS BEEN SHOT": Good to see you.
KOPPEL: Good to see you. What makes this documentary, your documentary different from others that have been done in the past?
WURZBURG: What's unique about this is it take as look at the experience of the assassination from the point of view of the journalists who were there covering.
They'd gone to Texas for what was going to be just a routine political visit and routine coverage. Then it turned into the assassination.
So really it's from the point of view of them, of the journalists going through those four days in November 40 years ago.
KOPPEL: We saw Tom Wicker, there "The "New York Times." Who else did you go back and interview?
WURZBURG: Dan Rather, Bob Schieffer, Walter Cronkite, Bob barker. A wonderful group of people from Texas, who are still down in Texas, reporting from Texas.
KOPPEL: Did you hear anything? Did you hear a common theme? Or did they all have different memories of the day?
WURZBURG: I think what really stands out in my mind is that, for all of them, their ability to remember it so clearly and with such almost poetic vision.
And that -- that really is what struck me, was the language that they used, and that I don't hear as much today. But they also were in an unusual situation, where they were not used to being live. And suddenly they were put in a situation where they were starting to go live for the first time.
KOPPEL: Did that event have any impact on the development or the eventual development of 24-hour news?
WURZBURG: It certainly was. It was the event where they had to come up to the table and be ready to cover things live. They weren't.
When the event started to happen, it was over the wires. Everyone found out because a ticker tape told them that shots had been fired. Then, several days later, when Oswald was actually being transferred and was shot by Ruby, all of the networks were there. But only NBC was live. And CBS, Rather was there in Texas saying, "Come to us, come to us." And the shots are fired, and then they switched.
KOPPEL: So this was the first wall-to-wall live news coverage ever?
WURZBURG: It was the first wall-to-wall live coverage on television. And people went out -- Before that, we had gone to newspapers to get the news, and they would reprint the newspapers if something happened during the course ever the day.
But with this event, they actually then, people went out and started buying TV sets. They were doing 24-hour wall-to-wall coverage, and people were there, watching it all.
KOPPEL: And how did it seem? You went back and looked at a lot this footage. Did it feel very rough?
WURZBURG: In certain ways, yes, it did. The cameras, there's technology things that some people find -- the cameras, now we have zoom cameras. They still had fixed lens. So when Oswald was shot, you'll see the NBC camera quickly switching lenses, going from a close-up to a zoom lens. You actually kind of see that happening in front of you.
KOPPEL: How do you think television helped the American people to relate to the event that was happening on the ground, which was such an emotional experience? Everyone remembers where they were when they got the news.
WURZBURG: I think television was critical to our country going through the mourning process. It really helped us grieve, because it took us through a process of actually seeing the body lying in state, or at least the hearse, there casket there in state at the capitol rotunda. Everyone was there during the entire funeral.
So in a way it allowed us as a country to go through the mourning process, which I think was very important.
KOPPEL: I'm wondering, because at this point you would have had most people who were listening to this on radio. I wonder if it intensified the experience?
Because previously, you would have been sitting around listening, as opposed to watching the expression on Jackie O.'s face and seeing her son and her daughter and feeling as if you were right there in a much different way than if you were just listening?
WURZBURG: And I think that, also, what you see when you go. We actually went through all of this archival footage to get to this.
And what you see is that when they were on the air and they were going live, sometimes they were just trying to figure how to fill events when they didn't even know what the mood was. So there's a moment when Cronkite is sitting there, and Cronkite is reporting on things. And he is being -- you can hear, kind of off- camera stage whispers saying, "We have a report that he's dead." And yet they didn't know if he really was dead.
So they had to -- how do you say to the public, with limited information, it's still a dilemma now. I mean, how do you make sure that you're being responsible as journalists, giving the accurate information but not misstating something such as the president, is he really dead or not.
KOPPEL: We're going to have to tune in to watch.
WURZBURG: We will.
KOPPEL: Geri Wurzburg, thank you so much.
WURZBURG: Thank you.
KOPPEL: That sounds like a wonderful project. Can't wait to see it.
WURZBURG: Thank you very much.
KOPPEL: "CNN PRESENTS: PRESIDENT KENNEDY HAS BEEN SHOT." That's going to be at 8 p.m. Eastern tomorrow night, Sunday, right here on CNN.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired November 15, 2003 - 14:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDREA KOPPEL, ANCHOR: A week from today the nation marks the 40th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas.
"CNN PRESENTS" has a special program this Sunday at 8 p.m. Eastern, looking back at the events that shook America. Here's an excerpt of "PRESIDENT KENNEDY HAS BEEN SHOT."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody kept twisting around and saying, "Where's Jackie? Where's Jackie?" Well, Jackie was standing beside me in the kitchen door, and was smiling mischievously.
And the more they went on saying, "Where's Jackie," and were twisting around, she -- she sort of giggled and waited more.
And then she made her tactically delayed entrance, and to huge cheers, and she looked glowing, because she was wiring this pillbox hat and in pink, and her glossy hair. And the cameraman, Moe Levy (ph), we looked at each other and I said to Moe, "Well, if nothing else happens, we've got a story in Jackie."
JOHN F. KENNEDY, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Two years ago I said that, introduced myself in Paris by saying that I was the man who had accompanied Mrs. Kennedy to Paris. I'm getting somewhat that same sensation as I prattle around Texas.
Nobody wonders what Lyndon and I wear.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The whole trip to Texas was what was called a political (UNINTELLIGIBLE) trip. The governor, John Connolly, was rather conservative. There was a senator Ralph Yarbrough, who was very liberal. They didn't get along.
The vice president of course, Lyndon Johnson, was from Texas. And as Kennedy was already looking forward to the 1964 election, the presidential campaign. Certainly did not want to lose Texans as far as a rift between the state senior senator and the governor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now, Air Force Number One taxiing in. And the crowd below cheering.
TOM WICKER, REPORTER, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Adlai Stevenson had been attacked there just a few weeks before. And Dallas was known at that time, it known as the center of kind of right-wing violent political activity. And so there had been some talk about that. Would President Kennedy be safe?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KOPPEL: I'm joined here in Washington by the producer of "CNN PRESENTS: PRESIDENT KENNEDY HAS BEEN SHOT." Filmmaker Geri (ph) Wurzburg who won an Academy Award back in 1992 for her documentary "Educating Peter."
Thank you so much for joining us.
GERARDINE WURZBURG, PRODUCER, "PRESIDENT KENNEDY HAS BEEN SHOT": Good to see you.
KOPPEL: Good to see you. What makes this documentary, your documentary different from others that have been done in the past?
WURZBURG: What's unique about this is it take as look at the experience of the assassination from the point of view of the journalists who were there covering.
They'd gone to Texas for what was going to be just a routine political visit and routine coverage. Then it turned into the assassination.
So really it's from the point of view of them, of the journalists going through those four days in November 40 years ago.
KOPPEL: We saw Tom Wicker, there "The "New York Times." Who else did you go back and interview?
WURZBURG: Dan Rather, Bob Schieffer, Walter Cronkite, Bob barker. A wonderful group of people from Texas, who are still down in Texas, reporting from Texas.
KOPPEL: Did you hear anything? Did you hear a common theme? Or did they all have different memories of the day?
WURZBURG: I think what really stands out in my mind is that, for all of them, their ability to remember it so clearly and with such almost poetic vision.
And that -- that really is what struck me, was the language that they used, and that I don't hear as much today. But they also were in an unusual situation, where they were not used to being live. And suddenly they were put in a situation where they were starting to go live for the first time.
KOPPEL: Did that event have any impact on the development or the eventual development of 24-hour news?
WURZBURG: It certainly was. It was the event where they had to come up to the table and be ready to cover things live. They weren't.
When the event started to happen, it was over the wires. Everyone found out because a ticker tape told them that shots had been fired. Then, several days later, when Oswald was actually being transferred and was shot by Ruby, all of the networks were there. But only NBC was live. And CBS, Rather was there in Texas saying, "Come to us, come to us." And the shots are fired, and then they switched.
KOPPEL: So this was the first wall-to-wall live news coverage ever?
WURZBURG: It was the first wall-to-wall live coverage on television. And people went out -- Before that, we had gone to newspapers to get the news, and they would reprint the newspapers if something happened during the course ever the day.
But with this event, they actually then, people went out and started buying TV sets. They were doing 24-hour wall-to-wall coverage, and people were there, watching it all.
KOPPEL: And how did it seem? You went back and looked at a lot this footage. Did it feel very rough?
WURZBURG: In certain ways, yes, it did. The cameras, there's technology things that some people find -- the cameras, now we have zoom cameras. They still had fixed lens. So when Oswald was shot, you'll see the NBC camera quickly switching lenses, going from a close-up to a zoom lens. You actually kind of see that happening in front of you.
KOPPEL: How do you think television helped the American people to relate to the event that was happening on the ground, which was such an emotional experience? Everyone remembers where they were when they got the news.
WURZBURG: I think television was critical to our country going through the mourning process. It really helped us grieve, because it took us through a process of actually seeing the body lying in state, or at least the hearse, there casket there in state at the capitol rotunda. Everyone was there during the entire funeral.
So in a way it allowed us as a country to go through the mourning process, which I think was very important.
KOPPEL: I'm wondering, because at this point you would have had most people who were listening to this on radio. I wonder if it intensified the experience?
Because previously, you would have been sitting around listening, as opposed to watching the expression on Jackie O.'s face and seeing her son and her daughter and feeling as if you were right there in a much different way than if you were just listening?
WURZBURG: And I think that, also, what you see when you go. We actually went through all of this archival footage to get to this.
And what you see is that when they were on the air and they were going live, sometimes they were just trying to figure how to fill events when they didn't even know what the mood was. So there's a moment when Cronkite is sitting there, and Cronkite is reporting on things. And he is being -- you can hear, kind of off- camera stage whispers saying, "We have a report that he's dead." And yet they didn't know if he really was dead.
So they had to -- how do you say to the public, with limited information, it's still a dilemma now. I mean, how do you make sure that you're being responsible as journalists, giving the accurate information but not misstating something such as the president, is he really dead or not.
KOPPEL: We're going to have to tune in to watch.
WURZBURG: We will.
KOPPEL: Geri Wurzburg, thank you so much.
WURZBURG: Thank you.
KOPPEL: That sounds like a wonderful project. Can't wait to see it.
WURZBURG: Thank you very much.
KOPPEL: "CNN PRESENTS: PRESIDENT KENNEDY HAS BEEN SHOT." That's going to be at 8 p.m. Eastern tomorrow night, Sunday, right here on CNN.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
