Coverage of the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy

The Assassination of John F. Kennedy

By Michelle Balagia, Joshua Clasberry and Lauren Welch

Above: Taken from the AP Images library

Blog Summary

by Michelle Balagia

These are summaries of front page publications that we found to be the most useful for The New York Times to use in their 50th anniversary coverage. We used front pages containing original coverage of the assassination. The front pages we used are from The Dallas Morning News, The University Star and the Chattanooga News-Free Press. We hope these summaries will be of some use in The New York Times anniversary publication.

University Star Coverage

By Joshua Clasberry
After you read the headline of one of the only stories I was able to find in the University Star about the assassination of JFK, you can tell what angle they’re going for. “Assassin Makes SWT Ex President of United States.” Edmond Komandosky who served as Managing Editor wrote the story. The story itself is pretty long, but it mostly talks about President Johnson, which I guess makes sense since he was, at the time, the second president to come from Texas, and is still the only president to have graduated from a Texas Institution. Next to the story about Johnson, there’s another, smaller story about the service held in honor of John F Kennedy, and it was written by Mike Parten.

John F. Kennedy Timeline

By Lauren Welch

May 29, 1917: Birth

June 1940: Graduates from Harvard

1946: Elected to Congress

1952: Elected to US Senate

1953: Marries wife Jackie

November 8, 1960: Kennedy defeats Nixon, becoming the 35th President

1963: Goes on tour

1963: Arrives in Texas

November 22, 1963: Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas

John F. Kennedy Photo Collage

By Lauren Welch

(All photos courtesy of AP Images)

President Kennedy with Vice President Johnson

President Kennedy with his family.

Moments before Kennedy was shot.

Kennedy’s Secret Service agent Clinton Hill standing on the back of the car right after Kennedy was shot. They were on their way to the hospital in this photo. Mrs. Kennedy is leaning over her husband who is slumped down in the back seat.

A moment in time that captivated the entire country

By Michelle Balagia

Media Examined: Chattanooga News- Free Press

Nov. 22, 1963

By Merriman Smith

Above: “President John F. Kennedy, followed by VP Lyndon Johnson, walks through downtown Fort Worth, November 22, 1963. He was assassinated later that day in Dallas. (AP Photo/Houston Chronicle)”

Above: Front page of Chattanooga News- Free. Nov. 22, 1963.

On Nov. 22, 1963, the news world had more than enough on their plates. Most newspapers and TV news shows carried news about the moment of President John F.Kennedy’s death. The news coverage I reviewed is from the Chattanooga News-Free Press, a newspaper based in Tennessee. The newspaper caught their audience’s attention with a large, all caps, bold-faced headline, and also by using the word “murdered.” The word alone evokes an emotion within people, especially when it is about their beloved president.

            Merriman Smith, a reporter for the Chattanooga News-Free Press, wrote the main article on the front page that explained the events that took place after President Kennedy was shot.

“President Kennedy was assassinated today in a burst of gunfire in downtown Dallas. Texas Gov. John Connally was shot down with him,” was the lead in Smith’s article.

I thought that the immediate identification lead he used was appropriate here. He got straight to the facts of what happened and whom it happened to. It is captivating and attention grabbing right away.

He included the graphic second line of, “The President, cradled in his wife’s arms, had been rushed in his blood-splattered limousine to Parkland Hospital and taken to an emergency room. An urgent call went out for neurosurgeons and blood.” The way he flawlessly worded that line made me feel as if I was witnessing the tragic event first hand. This was a good line to follow his lead because of the visual it creates for the readers who were not at the event. It also plants an emotion and brings the severity of the situation to life.

I liked that they included that the shooter had been arrested in their “bulletins” section. They were keeping their readers informed with the most up-to-date information possible.

   Above:  “President John F. Kennedy, first lady Jacqueline Kennedy and Texas Gov.

  John Connally are shown as their limousine heads for Air Force One at Brooks

  Air Force Base in San Antonio, Nov. 21, 1963.

  The president and his entourage were heading to Houston. (AP Photo)”

Another aspect of this front page that I enjoyed was the fact that they included the speech that President Kennedy was going to give before he was murdered. In a way, it’s his “last words” to the country, and provides some closure for saddened American citizens.

 Although this publication does a great job of covering the facts and informing the public, I didn’t agree with the way they decided to layout the page. I feel like the main story should be about what happened to President Kennedy at the time of the incident. The layout of the page makes it seem as if the speech that the president was going to give is the main news of the day. Most of us look at a newspaper from left to right, so when readers first glance at the paper, their attention is focused on the speech, and not the murder.

            One last section of the paper I didn’t quite understand was the amount and content of their photographs. The paper probably had to rush this front page because this was not an expected event, but overall it looks cluttered. The photograph of the American flag in the bottom left corner looks like it was only put there as a space filler. I also don't understand why they put a picture of the president underneath the headline "Bullet hits Connally." It is a little confusing at first glance.

The 50^th Anniversary of the Assassination of JFK

By Lauren Welch

Above: Image taken from Texas State library archive.

On Friday November 22, 1963 at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated. To commemorate the 50^th anniversary of his passing, I’ve searched the Texas State Library's archival coverage of the event.

The coverage was spread out across many newspapers, but the one I wanted to focus on was a local newspaper. The Dallas Morning News fit the bill, having coverage of the event as well as being based in the city Kennedy was assassinated. I thought it would make my research more compelling to read coverage from a paper in Dallas, where the event took place.

What I found in the microfilm archives was a film strip containing the actual cover of the newspaper that had gone to print November 23, 1963 with the headline, Kennedy Slain on Dallas Street. The rest of the article was continued a few pages on. The headline certainly grabbed my attention, which was one of the main reasons I stuck to this publication. The film strip I analyzed had archived a few of the optional covers the Dallas Morning News could’ve picked if they hadn’t stuck with this one. You could tell that this cover was extremely important if the drafts of possible covers were also kept in the archives.

Above: Image taken from Texas State
University library archive.

The language in the first few paragraphs is still quite relevant to how we would cover the story today. The lead read, “In a solemn and sorrowful hour with a nation mourning its dead President, Lyndon B. Johnson Friday took the oath of office as the 36^th chief executive of the United States.”

The images are what give away the time frame. The archived images are aged and gritty, but you can still clearly see the late Presidents and the late Mrs. Kennedy on the second page. It’s also obvious how much the times have changed by the outfit Mrs. Kennedy is wearing in the photograph.

I also checked the archives for the University Star’s coverage of the event. The most prominent coverage I found seemed to single out President Johnson’s inauguration, however, seeing as he is an honored alumnus to the school.
Another article I analyzed was on the front page of the Dallas Morning News one day prior. It went to print in the morning, right before President Kennedy’s assassination.

This article included a large photograph of President Kennedy and his wife. Kennedy visited San Antonio as well as Dallas on his tour. The photograph is of the President and his wife in San Antonio. The caption reads, “President Kennedy at San Antonio’s Aerospace Medical Center is followed by Mrs. Kennedy, Vice President and Mrs. Johnson.”

Above: Image taken from Texas State library archive.

This article was about the preparation for Kennedy’s arrival to the city. The headline is a bit misleading, however, reading Storm of Political Controversy Swirls Around Kennedy on Visit. The majority of the article is about the preparations in the city leading up to his arrival, not the political rivalry between Nixon and Kennedy, which is only mentioned briefly and shouldn’t have been mentioned in the headline in my opinion. The mention of Nixon is in the seventh paragraph, obviously showing that it wasn’t a main aspect of the article. The sub-head was what directed the actual article, making the whole thing a bit contradictory.

Both articles, however, were very informative to look at side by side. I also read through articles from both days (same publication) and it was fascinating to see the buildup to Kennedy’s arrival compared to the day after when the coverage was focused on the assassination. From the November 22 publication, you get the idea that the next day’s coverage will be a play-by-play of Kennedy’s visit, but you’re hit with the realization that it all changed to a breaking news story.

50 Years after JFK’s assassination, questions remain unanswered

An examination of The Dallas Morning News and New York times on November 23, 1969

By Joshua Clasberry

President John F Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline

ride on the limousine on Main Street. Photo by AP Images. 

“KENNEDY SLAIN ON DALLAS STREET; JOHNSON BEOMES PRESIDENT.” This is the way that The Dallas Morning News reported the assassination of our 35^th president followed by a story written by Robert E Baskin. It was difficult to find a headline or story what wasn’t directed towards Johnson becoming the succeeding president. This is perhaps due to the fact that after the death of a president, people might’ve not known who would succeed them, or what would happen, so newspapers wanted to let their audience know immediately what would happen. This was only the fourth successful assassination of a US president, and the last one to date.  

Still, placing the focus on Johnson rather than on Kennedy, his wife or the suspected killer seems odd to me. Current media seem to focus on what happened, who did it, and what that means. This seems to bypass the assassination, and move onto the new president. 

Image taken from AP Images.

The New York Times from November 23 even adds “JOHNSON SWORN IN ON PLANE” to the headline right after, and in the same size font as “KENNEDY IS KILLED BY SNIPER AS HE RIDES IN CAR IN DALLAS.”  This could mean they place equal importance on both events. This newspaper does include a subhead where they reveal that Jackie Kennedy was safe.

Another interesting note about the Times from the day after Kennedy’s assassination is they say, “He died of a wound in the brain caused by a rifle bullet that was fired at him,” written by Tom Wicker. This seems like a strange way to phrase that. Particularly the wound in the brain, when head or skull would seem more appropriate, but I’m not sureabout that.

An interesting thing to make note of is the fact that a lot of different newspapers liked using the word “slain” to describe what happened to Kennedy. I saw a lot of sources that used that word in lieu of other words. This is a term that is still somewhat popular today, which I think is interesting. It’s been nearly 50 years and we are still using similar terms when it comes to reporting the murder or assassination of someone.

Two policemen guard at the Dallas Homicide and Robbery Bureau,

where Lee Harvey Oswald, accused murderer of President John F Kennedy.

Photo by AP Images.

One thing is for sure; there is not a shortage of articles, headlines, and pictures from the event. However, that’s where the abundances end. Although it’s been half a century since it happened, the information that we know publically hasn’t improved as much as you would expect. This of course, has led to an increasing number of “conspiracytheories” about what has reported as the truth and the actual truth.  The National Archives website has a lot of information as wells as links and email addresses for people looking for additional information, however, several times in my exploration of the website, I encountered information that was “NOT AVAILABLE ONLINE.” In addition to that block, I saw that some of the information was noted in a restricted field. Although, in the FAQs it says that “It is a common misconception that the records relating to the assassination of President Kennedy are in some way sealed.” This is something that the New York Times will definitely have to investigate.