ABC TV INITIAL COVERAGE OF JFK ASSASINATION (NOT WFAA)

[bpatrick]

All in all, given ABC's limited resources in 1963, I think
they did an admirable job. By the way, no one has
mentioned Howard K. Smith and Edward P. Morgan,
who worked together here and on ABC's 1964 political
coverage. Smith made a memorable comment after
Oswald was shot to death: "Now we'll never hear this
man's story. There's something wrong and we don't
know what it is."

We remember Cronkite taking off his glasses and shedding
a tear; we remember NBC's Tom Pettit screaming, "He's been
shot! Lee Oswald has been shot!" We tend to forget that
Cochran, Smith, and Morgan did as good a job as they could,
given the fact that they worked for a network that was so
far behind the other two in news that, ten years later, they
couldn't even muster coverage of the "Saturday Night Massacre."

One personal thing: I first heard of WFAA that weekend in '63,
and when I moved to Dallas in '76 I had to check out their local
newscast. By then the best (IMHO) local front four I've ever seen
was in place: Tracy Rowlett, Iola Johnson, Troy Dungan, and Verne
Lundquist. I stuck with them for three years and have never found
a better news team.

 

[davalvideo]

While ABC did its best to catch up to the other networks in providing coverage of this national tragedy, they were certainly in better shape when it came to their Dallas coverage, due mostly to those at WFAA-TV. The problem with ABC's coverage was not technology or resources, but their personnel. Two of theirpeople did less than stellar work that weekend and the existing tapes show it in great detail. Reporter Paul Good was clearly and at times blatantly biased against Lee Harvey Oswald, and his disdain was evident whenever Oswald appeared in the corridor. Before Oswald was even shot, Good was concluding that Oswald was guilty of the crime. He also referred to Oswald's facial expression as a "sickly smile" and his tone of voice reflected disdain when Oswald said he'd been denied the right to take a shower...almost like he was thinking, "you have the audacity to want a shower after what you did." The other was Bob Clark. He simply didn't have his facts straight much of the time. Even as late as 2am the following morning, he was clueless as to why Oswald would even be in the Book Depository Building. Hello...he did work there. When reviewing film on the air that had already been aired several times, he was constantly making incorrect assumptions and falsely identifying people and events. Others, like Bill Lord and Roger Sharp, did excellent work and kept the story in perspective as they sorted through various reports and reported directly from Police Headquarters. Thank goodness the videotape and film from those dark days still exist and are being cared for.