By Julyssa Lopez
Although he was on the ground in Dallas the day President John F. Kennedy was shot, journalist Dan Rather said he was too “zoned” to let emotions get to his reporting.
“I had a job to do,” he said. “There were no emotions—forget about emotions. You had to keep focused.”
Mr. Rather, the first person to report the president’s death, spoke about his experience 50 years later last Friday on the Kalb Report.
Host Marvin Kalb and Mr. Rather discussed how the American people dealt with President Kennedy’s assassination, the difficulty separating the first “television” president’s legacy from his politics and the conspiracy theories that linger after his death. The conversation was held at the National Press Club.
Mr. Rather remembered back to Nov. 22, 1963. He was organizing coverage for CBS news in Dallas.
“I didn’t hear any shots. I didn’t know what had happened. All I knew was that I thought I saw the presidential limousine go by me, just for a second,” he said.
The strange part, Mr. Rather told the audience, was that there was no motorcade following the limousine, and it seemed to be going in a different direction than planned.
When he got back to CBS studios, Mr. Rather heard from colleagues that there were reports of the president being shot—perhaps fatally. He got on the phone with doctors and a priest from the hospital where the president was being treated. Although the information wasn’t confirmed, Mr. Rather made his announcement based on his instincts: The president had died.
Mr. Kalb remembered hearing the news while getting ready to do a briefing at the State Department. He said the report hit him like “a sledgehammer emotionally,” and that he wasn’t sure he could go on the air until he had recomposed himself by walking around the State Department building.
He said he imagined Mr. Rather felt he had a professional responsibility to the country, but asked if he had been nervous about the possibility of filing an unconfirmed report.
“You’re not thinking about your own emotions,” Mr. Rather said. “You’re a reporter. What have you got? You’ve got a dead man, and you know it.”
Long-held conspiracy theories have circulated about President Kennedy’s assassination, but Mr. Rather said he has yet to find a convincing one. He said he believes beyond a reasonable doubt that there was only one shooter and one gun. Mr. Rather added that although the “foreign angle” may suggest Russia or Cuba had a motive, very little evidence proves conspiracy theories.
“Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but we’re not entitled to our own facts,” Mr. Rather said.
The journalists discussed how the course of history would have been different if President Kennedy hadn’t been assassinated. Mr. Rather said he didn’t think civil rights would have been passed in the ’60s or ’70s, and both journalists agreed President Kennedy likely would not have pulled troops out of Vietnam.
Mr. Kalb recalled the words of Washington Post publisher Phil Graham, who said journalism “is the first draft of history.” Mr. Rather said he felt journalism did a better job than usual writing the “first draft” during and following the assassination. Mr. Kalb then asked if Mr. Rather thought the statement held true today.
“Maybe a rougher first draft,” Mr. Rather said.
He compared his coverage of President Kennedy’s assassination to 9/11. He described both events as the "bookends" of a television era in which the medium served as “the national hearth.” The pair agreed that today’s social media and the Internet can make it difficult to discern a journalist’s credentials. Mr. Rather added he believes television is still an important way in which people receive news, because it has the ability to plug an audience directly into an event.
“Television’s strength has always been that it can take you there and transport you to the scene,” he said.
The conversation ended with Mr. Rather and Mr. Kalb reflecting on the legacy the president left behind. Mr. Rather pointed out that the young president represented the American spirit with his forward-looking ways. Although President Kennedy showed the promise to be a great leader, his two-year term didn’t give him enough time to prove himself, Mr. Rather said.
The Kalb Report is jointly produced by the National Press Club Journalism Institute, the George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs, Harvard University, University of Maryland University College and the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism. The series is underwritten by a grant from Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation.