50 Years Since JFK Assassination Retrospective: CBS and Dan Rather's Reporting Historically

A 1990 book by Monte Evans, entitled The Rather Narrative: Is Dan Rather The JFK Conspiracy San Andreas Fault?, apparently "accused [former CBS Evening News Anchor] Rather of aiding the conspiracy through his `long history of inaccurate reporting of the circumstances of [the] assassination,'" according to Covering The Body: The Kennedy Assassination, The Media, and The Shaping of Collective Memory by Temple University Professor Barbie Zelizer. Covering The Body also observed that former CBS Evening News Anchor Rather, coincidentally, "invested considerable efforts in addressing JFK and Oliver Stone" and "In February of 1992 Rather devoted a special program of `48 Hours' to an investigation of Kennedy's death, where he paid special attention to the controversy surrounding Stone's movie."

On Rather's anti-JFK program, JFK Director Stone responded to the former CBS Evening News Anchor's hostile questions by stating the following:

"Dan, when the House Report came out implying that there was a probable conspiracy in the murder of both Kennedy and King, why weren't you running around trying to dig into the case again? I didn't see you, you know, rush out there and look at some of these three dozen discrepancies that we present in our movie."

According to Covering The Body, in February 1992 "an NBC poll reported that a full 51 percent of the American public believed...that the CIA was responsible for Kennedy's death" and "only 6 percent believed the Warren Commission." Yet as Coup D'Etat! November 22, 1963 by Stanley Marks asserted: "The responsibility for the `success' of the Warren Commission and its `Report' must rest solely upon the mass communications media which went out of its way to protect the duplicity, deceit, and deception practiced by the Commission upon the American Citizen..."

(Downtown 10/27/93)

50 Years Since JFK Assassination Retrospective: Where Was Dan Rather At Moment of JFK Assassination?

In his 1977 book, The Camera Never Blinks, former CBS Evening News Anchor Dan Rather claimed that he was in Dallas "on the other side of the railroad tracks, beyond the triple underpass 30 yards from a grassy knoll," at the very moment JFK was eliminated. Yet, according to Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy by Jim Marrs, "...discovered film footage of the west side of the underpass has now become public" [in the early 1990s] and "the film plus some still photographs show the Kennedy limousine speeding through the underpass and on to Stemmons Freeway--but no sign of Dan Rather."

The same book also stated:

"The major news media have been content to let sleeping assassination conspiracies lie, compounding this timidity by characterizing anyone who dared look hard at the case as a `buff,' `fantasist,' `paranoid,' or `sensationalist'...

"Who done it?--A consensus of powerful men in the leadership of U.S. military, banking, government, intelligence and organized crime circles ordered their faithful agents to manipulate Mafia-Cuban-Agency pawns to kill the chief..."

(Downtown 9/29/93)

50 Years Since JFK Assassination Retrospective: Dan Rather And JFK Assassination Coverage

In his 1977 book, The Camera Never Blinks, former CBS Evening News Anchor Dan Rather claimed that--around three weeks before JFK was ambushed--he was told by then-CBS News Editor Ralph Paskman to set up extensive coverage of JFK's November 22, 1963 motorcade through Dallas.

Yet in his 1978 book, Air Time: The Inside Story Of CBS News, former CBS News writer Gary Gates indicated that--rather than being told by Paskman to set up extensive coverage of JFK's Dallas motorcade--former U.S. Marine Rather "persuaded his editorial superiors in New York to lay on extra coverage for the President's visit to Dallas" because "Rather was among those who felt, most acutely, that `something unusual' might happen while Kennedy was in Dallas." Gates also noted that "When it was all over, CBS News executives in New York would remember" Rather's "foresight" and "only a few weeks after the assassination, he was appointed CBS News White House correspondent over the heads of several more experienced reporters in Washington."

(Downtown 8/4/93)

50 Years Since JFK Assassination Retrospective: Dan Rather And The CIA

Former CBS Evening News Anchor Dan Rather and former CBS News producer Les Midgeley apparently secretly met with CIA Director William Colby in 1975 "to discuss a forthcoming documentary on assassinations," according to Southeastern Massachusetts University Professor of Political Science Philip Melanson's 1990 book, Spy Saga: Lee Harvey Oswald and U.S. Intelligence. The same book also noted:

"According to a September 6, 1975 `Memorandum of Conversation' authored by Colby (obtained by the author from the Agency's Kennedy assassination file), the meeting covered `a variety of matters,' but the topic of Oswald's possible connection to the CIA seems clearly to have been the central concern...The memo concludes on a hopeful note but refuses to leave things to chance.

"`The two gentlemen expressed appreciation for our discussion...From their attitude, I believe there is a chance that the program will indicate that there is no CIA connection with Oswald beyond that noted above...We must, however, insure that Mr. Rather does not learn anything which would cause the slightest doubt on the above account before he produces the program in November.'"

(Downtown 6/9/93)

50 Years Since JFK Assassination Retrospective: Who Stationed Dan Rather At JFK Ambush Site?

Around three weeks before President Kennedy was ambushed, CBS News' then Bureau Chief in New Orleans, Dan Rather, was apparently told by then-CBS News Editor Ralph Paskman to set up extensive coverage of President Kennedy's November 22, 1963 motorcade through Dallas. And, coincidentally, at the very moment President Kennedy was ambushed, Rather was "on the other side of the railroad tracks, beyond the triple underpass, thirty yards from a grassy knoll," according to Rather's 1977 book, The Camera Never Blinks.

Although Rather claims he heard no shots on November 22, 1963, after President Kennedy's limousine rushed past him Rather apparently ran as fast as he could to the TV station of CBS's local affiliate, telephoned Parkland Hospital and was the first U.S. journalist to be informed by an unidentified hospital doctor that President Kennedy was dead.

After the JFK ambush, according to Rather, "We ran our leads through the FBI and the Dallas Police" and "Finally, we had a name: Abraham Zapruder." Rather claimed that:

"When we reached him, Zapruder did not know what he had...We helped arrange for Eastman Kodak to process the film. This job had to be done by the best equipment. It had to be done fast. And it had to be kept confidential."

But after he viewed the Zapruder film of President Kennedy's elimination, CBS's "Man in Dallas," coincidentally, apparently described its contents to television viewers in an erroneous way that implied that President Kennedy was not killed by shots from the grassy knoll. As BBC investigative reporter Anthony Summers wrote in his 1980 book, Conspiracy:

"If the only comprehensive visual record of the Kennedy assassination had been shown on November 22, 1963, most people in the United States would have gone to bed that night certain that their President [JFK] had been shot from the front and only perhaps--by an earlier shot--from behind. Americans were of course not shown the full Zapruder film until more than a decade later. They were, within days, given a verbal description of the footage on CBS television. Dan Rather, a television correspondent who had been permitted to view the film, was the narrator. Rather said that at the fatal head shot the President [JFK] `fell forward with considerable violence.' He omitted to say what in fact is mercilessly obvious from any alert viewing of the film. It is manifestly clear that the President [JFK] jerked backward at the moment of the shot that visibly exploded his head."

(Downtown 7/22/92)