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Tuesday, 17 May 2011 22:09

Journalists and JFK, Introduction: How to Succeed in the News Media

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A look at the journalists on the ground in Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963.


Part 1
Part 2
Part 3


How about we start our article with a fascinating question. What is the single most fascinating aspect of the Kennedy mystery to you? Not necessarily a smoking gun or a case solver, just something about the case that causes you to stop for a moment of wonder and fascination. Mine, hands down, would be the fact that George de Mohrenschildt, who of course was Oswald's closest friend in Dallas, was known to the child Jackie Kennedy as Uncle George. She had a beautiful French name, Jacqueline Bouvier. She actually sat on his lap at the age of 5 while Uncle George dated and almost wed Jackie's aunt.... on top of that, sly George D went out with her mother as well! Is that bizarre or what?

Second on my fascination list and the subject of this particular article are the newsmen who were in Dealey Plaza November 22nd, 1963 or involved very closely thereafter. The Earth has orbited the sun 47 times and most are still parroting the lone nut, single bullet theory. Growing fascination seems to be limitless in this case... Interest has proven only to be directly proportional with the passage of time with no end in sight. The fight against good and evil has only intensified as the 50th anniversary boiling point looms near panic levels. It seems the generational propaganda war has largely been fought through illusionary cheap trick disinformation campaigns over the years. Reminiscent of Russia quietly installing missiles in Cuba, it seems Hollywood is where rockets of disinfo are on the drawing board in preparation for the half-century milestone onslaught. How unlikely after nearly fifty years that the establishments newest warriors would be actors? Actors like Forest Gump, I mean Tom Hanks??? And Leonardo DiCaprio (getting that sinking feeling?) Are they witting? Unwitting? It's hard to tell. Why not try actors? It's obvious the newsmen weren't that successful.

Lets take a closer look at the

The Newsmen in Dallas Texas 11/22/1963

Of course, the most widely known is Dan Rather, whose job it was that day to wait at the end of the motorcade, snatch up the news reels and hustle them back to the developing room. Thanks to the amateur moviemaker, Abraham Zapruder, word quickly spread that the assassination had been caught on his Bell & Howell Zoomatic. As expected an outcry for access to the home made 8mm Kodachrome film followed. I would like to know who's bright idea it was to allow a single newsman to view the most valuable piece of evidence in the entire case and describe it's contents to the world. Of all the people on the face of the earth, Daniel Irving Rather was the one chosen to view it. Almost like an NFL referee going under the curtain to review a play, then trots back on the field to tell us what happened. I'm not sure if the film was tampered with, or if he sold his soul then and there, but Dan described it to fit the lone nut, shot from the rear hoax by saying the president’s head was thrown violently forward! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXi0usMq30E&feature=related)

If Dan’s soul was not purchased by the devil in 1963, it sure was purchased by 1967. And so was Walter Cronkite’s. Because in 1967, the dynamic duo cooperated on a four night special entitled A CBS News Inquiry: The Warren Report. (Click here to view this fiasco) This pitiful program provided a template to be followed by irresponsible journalists for years to come. And Mr. Rather went on to make 4 more documentaries essentially saying the same thing! Yet, in a careless financial decision, CBS could have saved a lot of time and money by simply running the same one over and over. I wonder now, in the twilight of his life, when sitting alone, if Rather feels it was worth it. Especially after being unceremoniously kicked to the curb by CBS management over a document questioning George W. Bush's military service. Dan Rather succeeded Walter Cronkite as the top anchor for the CBS Evening News, News Director for CBS, and chief bottle carrier for the Warren Commission. We can all agree that Dan Rather rode as high as he could carrying water, and then when he stopped carrying it, he fell like a roller coaster in 2005.

Though widely known to most people, but not often associated with the Kennedy assassination, is Bob Schieffer. Schieffer was in a rather low post at the Fort Worth Star newspaper at the time. His assignment that day was to be told to stay back and answer the phones while 16 other staff reporters covered the biggest local news event of the century. While faithfully manning the phones a woman called in asking for a ride into Dallas. He responded by telling her "Lady, the President has been shot and besides, we are not a taxi service." Sensing the scoop a lifetime'after discovering she was the mother of the accused assassin'the underdog reporter suddenly found the nearest phone booth, transformed himself into a taxi cab driver, and flew downtown at the speed of sound to the Dallas Police Station. He keenly kept the enemy reporters at bay by masquerading as a detective, marching right past the entourage like a super spy wearing a detective style brim hat as camouflage (Follow this link and see it for yourself) Bob later admitted to selling the "Extra! Extra! Read all about it!" copies of the assassination in Dealey Plaza for a dime apiece. That's a long rise to the top from being the first peddler of JFK info in Dealey Plaza to Chief Washington correspondent for CBS. Bob can be seen to this very day, 47 years after the assassination, hosting Face the Nation. Bob was also the host of the McCain/Obama Presidential debates.

I feel sorry for Bob though. He seems like an above-board human being as well as newsman. It's hard to watch him parrot the lone nut story when we all know better. You can tell he doesn't want to lie.... but for the betterment of himself, his family and friends, alas he must....

Next we have Peter Jennings, the first Canadian reporter on the ground in Dallas, Texas 11/22/63. It's hard to believe Peter Jennings was rubbing elbows at the station with folks like Lee Harvey Oswald, Marina Oswald, Jack Ruby, Will Fritz, Jessie Curry, Roger Craig, Henry Wade, (Remember the landmark abortion case Roe vs Wade? Well, that is Henry.) Peter Jennings, our 10th grade dropout, clearly rose to the highest levels in news broadcasting. And unlike Bob Schieffer, it wasn't enough to just stay quiet and keep a low profile about JFK. Peter is guilty of narrating in my opinion, one of the worst TV specials ever on the JFK case, Beyond Conspiracy. This documentary was actually organized by Gus Russo, whose name was taken off the piece when ABC was alerted to the fact that Russo misrepresented his mythological ‘Pulitzer Prize nomination’. It featured such witnesses and experts as Nicholas Katzenbach. Gerald Posner, Robert Dallek, Hugh Aynesworth, Priscilla Johnson, Ed Butler, Dale Myers, and Ruth Paine among others. The computer-generated recreation of the assassination by Dale Myers must rank near the top of the most pathetic pseudo-scientific attempts of grasping at straws to hold together the Warren Commission Report in history. Jennings, of course, held the top anchor job for ABC until his death from cancer in 2005. Looks like 2005 was a bad year for Dan and Peter. (Click here for CTKA’s methodical demolition of this sorry program.)

Believe it or not the hosts of the MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour, now in its 41st year, were in such close proximity as to actually hear the gunshots that stunned the world.

Robert MacNeil supposedly bumped into Oswald right in front of the Texas School Book Depository. He can be seen in a picture up on the Grassy Knoll looking for the gunman. Hmm, I wonder why he didn't run towards the sixth floor sniper's nest? However, I must credit Robert MacNeil. As far as I know, he always maintained the possibility of conspiracy. Jim Lehrer, however, has appeared in a few ‘Oswald did it’ shows. As soon as I hear a journalist utter the term "lone nut", I know all I need to know. Jim Lehrer is guilty of that offense. MacNeil has passed on, but his colleague still works for PBS with the Jim Lehrer News Hour.


Get ready now for the infamous Hugh Aynesworth. Hugh was the most peculiar of the newsmen in Dallas. He was a science and technology reporter who had no assignment that day. By his own recollections, Hugh is the Superman reporter of the case. He was literally everywhere. Hugh says he was 1.) A witness to the assassination being present in Dealey Plaza 2.) At the arrest of Lee Oswald at the Texas Theater 3.) First reporter on the seen of the Tippit murder and 4.) Johnny-on-the-spot at the execution of Lee Harvey Oswald in the basement of Dallas police station. On top of all that he was the first print reporter to interview Marina Oswald. Wow, better have some kryptonite around to fight this guy off.

Now, Rather, Jennings, Schieffer and Lehrer, when called upon, certainly did their duty to prop up the official lie. Aynesworth, however, literally made a career out of the assassination. In Dallas, he made it his job to criticize early books attacking the Krazy Kid Oswald view of the case. He was in on the heist of the alleged “Oswald Diary” from the Dallas Police property room. He then managed to get a job with the Life magazine team investigating the Kennedy case in 1966.

And, of course, he was one of the major players in sabotaging Jim Garrison’s attempts at uncovering part of the conspiracy in New Orleans. There is evidence of him feeding information directly to the FBI and LBJ, keeping them abreast of Jim Garrison's investigation. And much more recently, in 2008, he appeared in Robert Stone’s one-sided documentary on the JFK case, Oswald’s Ghost. (See here)

So from day one, Hugh Aynesworth has squealed"‘Oswald did it!"’ And he has not deviated one millimeter from that in the earth’s 47 trips around the sun since then. Maybe that has something to so with his application for a CIA position in 1963, just six weeks before Kennedy’s murder. (The Assassinations, edited by James DiEugenio and Lisa Pease, p. 25). It seems he was eventually accepted by the Agency. Why? Because at the time of the Garrison investigation, he was bribing the Clinton witnesses with positions in the CIA. He tried to buy off Sheriff John Manchester with the following: “You could have a job as a CIA handler in Mexico for $38,000 a year.” Hugh added that all John would have to do is leave the state and not testify at the Clay Shaw trial. I liked Manchester’s rather pithy and earthy reply: “I advise you to leave the area. Otherwise I’ll cut you in a new asshole.” Aynseworth was and is a scoundrel. But not a stupid one. He left. (Joan Mellen, A Farewell to Justice, p. 235.) For more on just how bad Aynseworth was and is, click here.

Now, just where does a reporter who is so eager to fall in line and parrot a nonsensical deception seek employment? Well, how is this for starters: Newsweek, Life Magazine, US News and World Report, and CBS. Or an application for White House correspondent might be a good place to start. Hey, it worked for a guy nicknamed "the Wicker Man". Every researcher I have spoken to simply detests this man.

Tom Wicker can be seen in an old school reporters’ huddle outside of Parkland Hospital with pad and pencil, scribbling down the world-altering events of that fateful day. Tom rose to highest levels at the New York Times. An otherwise serious newsman, Tom seems a bit goofy today by attempting to discredit our hero's investigation in light of what we know today. Today, most hardcore researchers I have spoken to look upon the mighty 6 foot, 6 inch Jim Garrison'aka the Jolly Green Giant'as something of a personal hero. The list of heroes in this sorry saga is quite short indeed. (How many heroes can you name who investigated the JFK case? That is, people who lost something significant as part of an official inquiry.) Here is a direct quote from Tom Wicker concerning the trial of Clay Shaw, taken from Oliver Stone’s DVD director’s cut bonus material:

"That was a frivolous prosecution of Clay Shaw. It was dismissed almost immediately. No one other than Jim Garrison has ever tried to revive it., No one has said, other than Jim Garrison, this is what happened. It is a thoroughly discredited investigation.”

Thanks Tom. Apparently you have not kept up with the JFK case one bit. You never picked up books by people like Joe Biles, Jim DiEugenio, Bill Davy, and Joan Mellen. You again look like a typically biased, self-serving shill in the face of each and every declassified document.

It's hard to measure how much these men helped their careers by being in Dallas on 11/22/63. However, it is easy to prove that if they planned on keeping their six and seven figure dream jobs and their high profile status, it was mandatory to learn to back the Krazy Kid Oswald myth. With well over 900 books written about this case, tireless private investigation, and 26 volumes known as the Warren Commission Report, it seems that as far as the MSM goes, all can be explained with three magic words: Oswald did it.

Last modified on Sunday, 23 October 2016 15:35
Gary King

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