Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
History turns on the flash of a camera, of the captured moving moments in time which changes the world forever. It seems nothing now that is significant, noteworthy or even seemingly inconsequential is not captured by a reporter, a journalist or even the feed of any social network, it is all secured for future posterity. History was changed on November 22nd, for America and for the news organisations that came of age on that fateful day in Dallas as President Kennedy was assassinated.
In J.F.K.: News Of A Shooting, that moment, forever frozen in time and the subsequent days after were highlighted as George Clooney narrated the instant when the world of respected news anchor man Walter Cronkite and the youngest President of The United States of America collided.
It is only to be expected that television programmes across the station divide would devote so much time and energy to such a pivotal moment in human history. Whether through the eyes of those who lined the parade route, the witnesses who saw the President assassinated on Dealey Plaza, those who saw the aftermath at Parkland Hospital, everyone has a story to tell of where they were and what they saw.
For those though that had to put their emotions on hold to deliver the news, to find out whether President Kennedy and Governor Connally were still alive or had indeed passed on under the hail of bullets from an assassin’s rifle, the day took on extra importance. In the days before 24 hour wall to wall news coverage, the responsibility of handling and imparting the news to an awaiting nation had to be taken with care, consideration and absolute honour. There was no room for conjecture in the world of Walter Cronkite, the truth had to be imparted properly.
The astounding nature in which journalists such as Dan Rather and Albert Merriman Smith covered the breaking news, the integrity in which Walter Cronkite demanded was covered in this very special programme, the like of which might not be seen again. The now iconic scene in which for just the briefest of moments in which Walter Cronkite confirmed that President Kennedy had passed on and remarkably kept his composure whilst on the air for C.B.S News is something that justified for a time the television media being as respected as it was.
The man who cut his teeth as a Second World War correspondent, who had interviewed the President in happier times only weeks before in Cape Cod, showed exactly the right sense of dignity in turmoil needed by a journalist.
J.F.K.: News Of A Shooting may have been just one of many programmes dedicated to the 50th Anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy but it was perhaps arguably one of the most fascinating and important documentaries of its kind. In a world in which social media has made everyone a reporter of some kind, the words of the United Press take on even more resonance, “Get it first but first, get it right.” It is the principle in which Walter Cronkite lived with and never more so on November 22nd 1963.
Ian D. Hall