Walter Cronkite:… “Here is a bulletin from CBS News. In Dallas, Texas, three shots were fired at President Kennedy’s motorcade in downtown Dallas.”
1:11P.M.CST…
Eddie Barker, news director Dallas, KRLD-TV and Radio --- A doctor that I knew came up to me tapped me on the shoulder and whispered in my ear, “Eddie he is dead.” I said, “How do you know?” He said, “I called the emergency room and he is DOA.”
Dan Rather, New Orleans bureau chief, CBS News ---
The hospital was, I don’t want to say panicked, but you could hear in the background tense voices, and the woman on the switchboard was, she was courteous, she was Texas courteous. I was urging her to --- was there somebody I could talk to, somebody who knew what was going on? She said something along the lines of, “All the doctors are busy.” She said it in a way, like, “Don’t you understand what’s going on here?” Then she told me there were two Catholic fathers there, and I asked her if I could speak to one. He said, “What can I help you with?” I told him, “I’m Dan Rather with CBS News” and told him what I was trying to do, that I was trying to confirm the president had been shot. I wasn’t prepared for his answer, which was, “Yes, he’s been shot and he is dead.”
Eddie Barker:… “As you can imagine, there are many stories that are coming in now as to the actual condition of the president. One is that he is dead. This cannot be confirmed .”
1:16 P.M.CST…
Walter Cronkite:… “KRLD is reporting they’ve been told by somebody at the hospital the president is dead. Only a rumor, but they’ve been told that. KRLD is saying… Well, that’s a repeat of something that you heard reported to you directly a moment ago from KRLD Television in Dallas, and that is the rumor that has reached them … that the president is dead, totally unconfirmed apparently as yet. However, let’s go back to KRLD in Dallas.”
Eddie Barker:… “We do not know what his condition is, but the report is that the president is dead …. This is something that the word just came to us a minute ago. The word we have is that President Kennedy is dead. This we do not know for a fact. Word we have is that he is dead, that he was shot by an assassin at the intersection of Elm and Houston Streets just as he was going into the underpass. The word we have is from a doctor on the staff of Parkland Hospital who says that it is true. He was in tears when he told me just a moment ago. This is still not officially confirmed, but, as I say, the source would normally be a good one.”
1:27 P.M. CST …
Walter Cronkite: … “We just have a report from our correspondence, Dan Rather, in Dallas, that he has confirmed that President Kennedy is dead. There is still no official confirmation of this, however.”
1:32 P.M. CST …
Walter Cronkite: … “This is the bulletin that just cleared from Dallas, that the two priests who were in the emergency room, where President Kennedy lay after being taken from the Dallas street corner where he was shot, say that he was dead. Our man, Dan Rather, in Dallas reported that about ten minutes ago, too.”
1:38 P.M. CST …
Walter Cronkite -- I had to report that the president was dead. At that moment it happened, I choked up… “From Dallas, Texas, the flash, apparently official: President Kennedy died at 1:00 P.M., Central Standard Time, two o’clock, Eastern Standard Time --- some thirty - eight minutes ago.” I don’t recall crying at all but I did wipe my eyes, so I guess I must have felt a tear or two. That was a very momentary thing. I did show emotion quite clearly, but I think I managed to swallow that problem pretty quickly and got on with the broadcast. I’m proud of that and I’m not ashamed of choking up for the moment at all.
2:10 P.M. CST …
Walter Cronkite: … The messages are beginning to come in from around the world and from the cities of the United States where a nation is --- in almost --- I say it advisedly --- almost uncontrollable shock, it seems. They’re weeping on the streets. Schools have to be dismissed. My own school is dismissed because the children were weeping so much they couldn’t stay in class. Quite a tragic day --- as we all obviously know.”
November 22, 1963...
The Undelivered Speech, Dallas Texas
“…We in this country, in this generation, are -- by destiny rather than choice --the watchmen on the walls of world freedom. We ask, therefore, that we may exercise our strength with wisdom and restraint --- and that we may achieve in our time and for all time the ancient vision of “peace on earth, good will toward men.” That must always be our goal --- and the righteousness of our cause must underlie our strength. For as written long ago : “Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain….”
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Source: Onemansviews
