Why CBS Covered up the JFK Case (pt1)

[Ray Mitcham]

How convenient that the film of Perry survived without sound.

[David Von Pein]

How convenient that the film of Perry survived without sound.

You aren't suggesting something sinister was involved there, are you Ray?

It was simply a case of there being no sound cameras available at Parkland when Perry and Clark gave their conference, as Gary Mack explains in incredible detail in this Internet forum post from December 1999:

~quote on:~

"While the absence of any recordings of the 2:18pm Perry-Clark press conference is disappointing, there is information that explains why. First...I learned there were NO live cameras in that room. Here's why:

1) KRLD's two remote cameras were still at the Trade Mart as late as 1:35pm, when technicians started the long process of packing it all up and moving over to Parkland. This would have taken at least an hour. One camera was put in place in time for Dr. Robert Shaw's conference, which started around 3:30pm (that time is off the top of my head, but it was quite some time AFTER Perry & Clark finished.)

2) WFAA's cameras and remote truck were enroute back to the studio after having been in place at Love Field for the 11:35am landing and live broadcast. Their plans were originally to provide live pool coverage of JFK's return flight. At some point, their truck was sent to Parkland and had just arrived in time to catch the hearse with JFK leaving for Love Field. The other camera, I recall from some other source, was still being unloaded to bring inside the hospital. It would be virtually impossible to have it set up and available until at least 2:30-2:45 or later. They may very well have been waiting for Clark-Perry to finish to get into the room.

3) WBAP's remote truck sat in east Fort Worth at the side of the turnpike (now I-30) with a blown engine and no back up. Eventually, it was towed to Dallas City Hall and sat on Commerce Street the rest of the weekend.

4) KTVT, which offered its remote truck to WBAP in exchange for permission to carry NBC programming (the station was an independent in those days and had only a small news department), headed to Parkland from east Fort Worth, arriving just before 2pm. Their only live camera was poking up through the truck's roof and was turned on and recording as they arrived. Just a few minutes later, the hearse left the hospital with JFK and that scene was recorded. Again, it would have taken 30-45 minutes or more to get that camera moved out of the truck, into the hospital and set up.

In short, none of the stations had video equipment in place to capture the press conference.

As for TV news film cameras, there is a series of still photographs taken by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram of the Perry-Clark conference. The one in Lifton's book was taken early in that sequence. Many of the 30-40 images were shot from the back of the room and show a large, relatively empty classroom with only a few reporters present. Not one microphone or news film photographer are anywhere to be seen!

What this means is that, despite Dr. Malcolm Perry's later explanation to the Warren Commission that there were microphones present, no recordings were made and only a handful of reporters covered it.

This may not make sense to everyone, but TV news was equipment-challenged in those days. The best example is that of WBAP, then and now the NBC affiliate (today known as KXAS), which was far and away the #1 station in the entire Dallas-Fort Worth market in 1963. TV sound film cameras were cumbersome and generally not used for "spot" (breaking) news stories. So little use was made of sound in those days that the station only owned two sound cameras -- one was assigned to the Fort Worth office and one to Dallas.

The Dallas camera that day was held by the station's Bob Welch, who filmed the only sound record of Malcolm Kilduff's announcement of JFK's death at 1:30. Bob then left the hospital and headed to downtown Dallas where there was more important news to cover.

I do not know much about the other stations, other than WFAA had a silent camera there, but it only caught a few seconds of Perry's entrance into the room, suggesting that the photographer may have been sent by the station to another location and was, therefore, absent when the pictures were taken.

As for the radio stations, the photographs show no microphones or audio tape machines in the room. I have heard original and first-generation copies of the radio station tapes, some of which have been in private hands, and there was no live radio broadcast on either KLIF, WFAA, KRLD, KBOX, WBAP, or any other major station, with the possible exception of WRR. Their tapes, or copies, are at the National Archives, but since indexes exist and there's no mention of such a broadcast, perhaps WRR wasn't there. The station was, and remains, owned by the city of Dallas (a highly unusual situation) and did not have much of a news department at all.

So what does all this mean? I have to think, with some first-hand understanding of the business in those days, that only minimal coverage was done. Those kinds of stories are generally routine in nature and can be covered by the newer reporters or the wire services. The big story was what was happening at the TSBD, in Oak Cliff and at the police station, so that's where most reporters went. Others went to Love Field and were there from about 1:45 or 2pm until nearly 3pm.

With breaking stories happening in four different parts of the city, Parkland was left virtually unattended."

-- Gary Mack; December 22, 1999

Edited April 8, 2016 by David Von Pein

[James DiEugenio]

I enjoyed it it too Jim.

Here is a Walter Cronkite interview with John J. Mc Cloy about the Warren Report. In his intro he is acknowledged as the former high commissioner for Germany.

Not to get too psychoanalytical but what I'm struck with by Mc Cloy in the interview is how in answering Cronkite's questions that he's continually turning his head away from Cronkite as if to check his notes on what is presumably a spontaneous interview. It's as if he can't fix his gaze at his questioner and has to be continually retreat to himself. It's common for people to avert eye contact in an interview to perhaps collect their thoughts. But this "aside bobble head" quality of Mc Cloy looks very awkward. And Cronkite (who I was brought up with) acts like he's just thrilled and privileged that one of the esteemed Warren Commission members would actually condescend to answer questions from the public. This sort of fawning was very common among newsman to political leaders of that time.

As an adolescent i remember sort of liking Walter Cronkite, but I had no idea until later that people invested such a huge amount of trust specifically in their TV anchors.His anti Viet Nam War piece was the first thing I remembered from him that was in any way defiant. IMO, He did perfectly represent the people of that time who heartily wanted to believe in their country and wanted what was best for the country despite any say, party affiliations, but definitely had their blind spots.

https://youtu.be/vigbW8qdFks

I agree that it is very interesting to watch McCloy's body language during that interview with Cronkite.

And what is he doing with his fingers and his glasses?

As I did point out, he did lie during the interview, and of course Cronkite did not call him on it.

Maybe that explains it.

[James DiEugenio]

As per Davey's "scan" of my article, Gerald McKnight put to rest the whole idea of that being a fragment that hit Tague. DVP does not read books like that so he is oblivious to it. But CBS did not even mention the Tague hit.

As per the 5.6 seconds, no one did a better micro analysis than did Thompson. As he noted in SSD if you go with the WR first hit at about 210, that is what you come up with.

As per the Perry press conference, well that settles it. Davey can't find it and the Sixth Floor explained why. Ipso facto it was not filmed.

The soft shoe con is meant to hide the fact that Perry said three times during this press conference that the anterior neck wound appeared to him to be an entrance wound. And no one had a better look at it then he did.

The Secret Service then lied to the WC and said they had no record of this conference, when, in fact they did have one.

CBS also did have one. But they concealed the facts that:

1. The Johnson administration had relabeled it as the first press conference of their administration--over the previous labeling that is was a Kennedy press conference.

2. That it eventually ended up at the LBJ Library instead of the Kennedy Library.

3. That CBS then said that Perry was "rushed" and "badgered" during the press conference, implying he was thereby somehow not responsible for what he said.

Which is, of course, a ridiculous lie. That is how deep in McCloy's pocket CBS was.

What a disgrace.

Edited April 8, 2016 by James DiEugenio

[James DiEugenio]

Here is the link to part 2: http://www.ctka.net/2016/FeinmanCBS2.html

What a line up of "consultants", eh?

Edited April 8, 2016 by James DiEugenio

[Ray Mitcham]

How convenient that the film of Perry survived without sound.

You aren't suggesting something sinister was involved there, are you Ray?

It was simply a case of there being no sound cameras available at Parkland when Perry and Clark gave their conference, as Gary Mack explains in incredible detail in this Internet forum post from December 1999:

~quote on:~

"While the absence of any recordings of the 2:18pm Perry-Clark press conference is disappointing, there is information that explains why. First...I learned there were NO live cameras in that room. Here's why:

1) KRLD's two remote cameras were still at the Trade Mart as late as 1:35pm, when technicians started the long process of packing it all up and moving over to Parkland. This would have taken at least an hour. One camera was put in place in time for Dr. Robert Shaw's conference, which started around 3:30pm (that time is off the top of my head, but it was quite some time AFTER Perry & Clark finished.)

2) WFAA's cameras and remote truck were enroute back to the studio after having been in place at Love Field for the 11:35am landing and live broadcast. Their plans were originally to provide live pool coverage of JFK's return flight. At some point, their truck was sent to Parkland and had just arrived in time to catch the hearse with JFK leaving for Love Field. The other camera, I recall from some other source, was still being unloaded to bring inside the hospital. It would be virtually impossible to have it set up and available until at least 2:30-2:45 or later. They may very well have been waiting for Clark-Perry to finish to get into the room.

3) WBAP's remote truck sat in east Fort Worth at the side of the turnpike (now I-30) with a blown engine and no back up. Eventually, it was towed to Dallas City Hall and sat on Commerce Street the rest of the weekend.

4) KTVT, which offered its remote truck to WBAP in exchange for permission to carry NBC programming (the station was an independent in those days and had only a small news department), headed to Parkland from east Fort Worth, arriving just before 2pm. Their only live camera was poking up through the truck's roof and was turned on and recording as they arrived. Just a few minutes later, the hearse left the hospital with JFK and that scene was recorded. Again, it would have taken 30-45 minutes or more to get that camera moved out of the truck, into the hospital and set up.

In short, none of the stations had video equipment in place to capture the press conference.

As for TV news film cameras, there is a series of still photographs taken by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram of the Perry-Clark conference. The one in Lifton's book was taken early in that sequence. Many of the 30-40 images were shot from the back of the room and show a large, relatively empty classroom with only a few reporters present. Not one microphone or news film photographer are anywhere to be seen!

What this means is that, despite Dr. Malcolm Perry's later explanation to the Warren Commission that there were microphones present, no recordings were made and only a handful of reporters covered it.

This may not make sense to everyone, but TV news was equipment-challenged in those days. The best example is that of WBAP, then and now the NBC affiliate (today known as KXAS), which was far and away the #1 station in the entire Dallas-Fort Worth market in 1963. TV sound film cameras were cumbersome and generally not used for "spot" (breaking) news stories. So little use was made of sound in those days that the station only owned two sound cameras -- one was assigned to the Fort Worth office and one to Dallas.

The Dallas camera that day was held by the station's Bob Welch, who filmed the only sound record of Malcolm Kilduff's announcement of JFK's death at 1:30. Bob then left the hospital and headed to downtown Dallas where there was more important news to cover.

I do not know much about the other stations, other than WFAA had a silent camera there, but it only caught a few seconds of Perry's entrance into the room, suggesting that the photographer may have been sent by the station to another location and was, therefore, absent when the pictures were taken.

As for the radio stations, the photographs show no microphones or audio tape machines in the room. I have heard original and first-generation copies of the radio station tapes, some of which have been in private hands, and there was no live radio broadcast on either KLIF, WFAA, KRLD, KBOX, WBAP, or any other major station, with the possible exception of WRR. Their tapes, or copies, are at the National Archives, but since indexes exist and there's no mention of such a broadcast, perhaps WRR wasn't there. The station was, and remains, owned by the city of Dallas (a highly unusual situation) and did not have much of a news department at all.

So what does all this mean? I have to think, with some first-hand understanding of the business in those days, that only minimal coverage was done. Those kinds of stories are generally routine in nature and can be covered by the newer reporters or the wire services. The big story was what was happening at the TSBD, in Oak Cliff and at the police station, so that's where most reporters went. Others went to Love Field and were there from about 1:45 or 2pm until nearly 3pm.

With breaking stories happening in four different parts of the city, Parkland was left virtually unattended."

-- Gary Mack; December 22, 1999

Delete

Edited April 8, 2016 by Ray Mitcham

[Ray Mitcham]

How convenient that the film of Perry survived without sound.

You aren't suggesting something sinister was involved there, are you Ray?

It was simply a case of there being no sound cameras available at Parkland when Perry and Clark gave their conference, as Gary Mack explains in incredible detail in this Internet forum post from December 1999:

~quote on:~

"While the absence of any recordings of the 2:18pm Perry-Clark press conference is disappointing, there is information that explains why. First...I learned there were NO live cameras in that room. Here's why:

1) KRLD's two remote cameras were still at the Trade Mart as late as 1:35pm, when technicians started the long process of packing it all up and moving over to Parkland. This would have taken at least an hour. One camera was put in place in time for Dr. Robert Shaw's conference, which started around 3:30pm (that time is off the top of my head, but it was quite some time AFTER Perry & Clark finished.)

2) WFAA's cameras and remote truck were enroute back to the studio after having been in place at Love Field for the 11:35am landing and live broadcast. Their plans were originally to provide live pool coverage of JFK's return flight. At some point, their truck was sent to Parkland and had just arrived in time to catch the hearse with JFK leaving for Love Field. The other camera, I recall from some other source, was still being unloaded to bring inside the hospital. It would be virtually impossible to have it set up and available until at least 2:30-2:45 or later. They may very well have been waiting for Clark-Perry to finish to get into the room.

3) WBAP's remote truck sat in east Fort Worth at the side of the turnpike (now I-30) with a blown engine and no back up. Eventually, it was towed to Dallas City Hall and sat on Commerce Street the rest of the weekend.

4) KTVT, which offered its remote truck to WBAP in exchange for permission to carry NBC programming (the station was an independent in those days and had only a small news department), headed to Parkland from east Fort Worth, arriving just before 2pm. Their only live camera was poking up through the truck's roof and was turned on and recording as they arrived. Just a few minutes later, the hearse left the hospital with JFK and that scene was recorded. Again, it would have taken 30-45 minutes or more to get that camera moved out of the truck, into the hospital and set up.

In short, none of the stations had video equipment in place to capture the press conference.

As for TV news film cameras, there is a series of still photographs taken by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram of the Perry-Clark conference. The one in Lifton's book was taken early in that sequence. Many of the 30-40 images were shot from the back of the room and show a large, relatively empty classroom with only a few reporters present. Not one microphone or news film photographer are anywhere to be seen!

What this means is that, despite Dr. Malcolm Perry's later explanation to the Warren Commission that there were microphones present, no recordings were made and only a handful of reporters covered it.

This may not make sense to everyone, but TV news was equipment-challenged in those days. The best example is that of WBAP, then and now the NBC affiliate (today known as KXAS), which was far and away the #1 station in the entire Dallas-Fort Worth market in 1963. TV sound film cameras were cumbersome and generally not used for "spot" (breaking) news stories. So little use was made of sound in those days that the station only owned two sound cameras -- one was assigned to the Fort Worth office and one to Dallas.

The Dallas camera that day was held by the station's Bob Welch, who filmed the only sound record of Malcolm Kilduff's announcement of JFK's death at 1:30. Bob then left the hospital and headed to downtown Dallas where there was more important news to cover.

I do not know much about the other stations, other than WFAA had a silent camera there, but it only caught a few seconds of Perry's entrance into the room, suggesting that the photographer may have been sent by the station to another location and was, therefore, absent when the pictures were taken.

As for the radio stations, the photographs show no microphones or audio tape machines in the room. I have heard original and first-generation copies of the radio station tapes, some of which have been in private hands, and there was no live radio broadcast on either KLIF, WFAA, KRLD, KBOX, WBAP, or any other major station, with the possible exception of WRR. Their tapes, or copies, are at the National Archives, but since indexes exist and there's no mention of such a broadcast, perhaps WRR wasn't there. The station was, and remains, owned by the city of Dallas (a highly unusual situation) and did not have much of a news department at all.

So what does all this mean? I have to think, with some first-hand understanding of the business in those days, that only minimal coverage was done. Those kinds of stories are generally routine in nature and can be covered by the newer reporters or the wire services. The big story was what was happening at the TSBD, in Oak Cliff and at the police station, so that's where most reporters went. Others went to Love Field and were there from about 1:45 or 2pm until nearly 3pm.

With breaking stories happening in four different parts of the city, Parkland was left virtually unattended."

-- Gary Mack; December 22, 1999

I'm afraid I don't believe anything the late Gary Mack said about the assassination.

Edited April 8, 2016 by Ray Mitcham

[James DiEugenio]

Well Ray, you are justified in this instance.

From Horne's IARRB, via LIfton and Mark Lane:

"Marvin Garson, a researcher assisting Mark Lane in preparing Rush to Judgment, was told by Dallas television executive Joe Long, of radio station KLIF, that the original recordings had been seized by Secret Service agents." (Volume 2, p. 647, emphasis added, Horne makes clear in his discussion of this matter, that there was video made.)

[Ron Ecker]

CBS did not even mention the Tague hit.

I'll bet the farm that CBS also didn't even mention the gaping wound in the back of JFK's head. Why didn't they just say there was no such wound (despite the WC's own exhibits)? Look at that back of the head photo! Case closed! No, better not to mention it and open a can of worms.

Edited April 8, 2016 by Ron Ecker

[James DiEugenio]

As I recall, no they did not.

I mean, the Justice Department scripted the 1967 Humes interview. Dan Rather was such a stiff for them on this one.

And Lattimer consulted Westion on the 1975 one. And Weston went on to work on the HSCA Panel.

Just a coincidence I am sure.

Edited April 8, 2016 by James DiEugenio

[Michael Walton]

Jim, this part - especially in bold - had me rolling on the floor laughing:

"As most people who have studied the case know, this would have meant that Oswald would have had to be firing through the branches of an oak tree—which is why the Commission moved this shot up to frame 210. But CBS left themselves an out here. They actually said there was an opening in the tree branches at frame 186, and Oswald could have fired at that point. This is patently ridiculous. The opening at frame 186 lasted for 1/18th of a second. To say that Oswald anticipated a less than split second opening, and then steeled himself in a flash to align the target, aim, and fire—this is all stuff from the realm of comic-book super heroes. Yet, in its blind obeisance to the Warren Report, this is what CBS had reduced itself to."

It's utterly amazing to me, given what we know half a century later, how anyone in their right mind out there can give these people a shred of credibility for what they broadcast on national TV. This is why I put very little faith in *anything* the FBI and WC put out in their official reports.

Talk about hammering square pegs in round holes to fit the evidence. Jeez.

[David Von Pein]

I'm afraid I don't believe anything the late Gary Mack said about the assassination.

Gee, there's a surprise.

[David Von Pein]

Gerald McKnight put to rest the whole idea of that being a fragment that hit Tague. DVP does not read books like that[,] so he is oblivious to it.

I never said I agree with the theory that a fragment from the head shot is what caused Tague's slight injury. In fact, I definitely disagree with that theory, and I've said so on many occasions, such as this one here.

But my opinion on the matter is not at all related to the point I was making in my previous post regarding Tague. In that post, I was merely pointing out your wholly inaccurate interpretation of what the "Warren Commission said". You, Jim, said this in Part 2 of your CBS attack piece, and this is just not an accurate statement at all (as I proved earlier):

"On his one miss, the Warren Commission said that Oswald’s shot hit the curb beneath bystander James Tague. This then bounced up off his face, drawing blood."

As per the 5.6 seconds, no one did a better micro analysis than did Thompson. As he noted in SSD[,] if you go with the WR first hit at about 210, that is what you come up with.

Not if the first shot missed the whole automobile. If the first shot missed, then (naturally) the timespan for all three shots goes much higher than just 5.6 seconds. And the Commission did not specifically discount or eliminate the possibility of Oswald's first shot being the shot which missed the car and its occupants.

Besides, when it comes to what I'm talking about in this discussion, who cares what Josiah Thompson concluded? I was talking, yet again, about how you misrepresented the Warren Commission's position on a particular matter. In the "5.6 seconds" instance, you, like almost all other conspiracists, want to believe the Commission was boxed in to only accepting a 5.6-second timeline for the total time of the shooting. But, as Page 117 of the Warren Report clearly proves, that is not true at all. The Commission clearly indicates that they could not say for sure which of the three shots missed:

"The wide range of possibilities and the existence of conflicting testimony, when coupled with the impossibility of scientific verification, precludes a conclusive finding by the Commission as to which shot missed. .... If either the first or third shots missed, then a minimum of 2.3 seconds (necessary to operate the rifle) must be added to the time span of the shots which hit, giving a minimum time of 7.1 to 7.9 seconds for the three shots. If more than 2.3 seconds elapsed between a shot that missed and one that hit, then the time would be correspondingly increased." -- WCR; Page 117

Better stick to attacking CBS, Jim. Because you miss the boat a lot when you try to tell your readers what the Warren Commission concluded.

As per the Perry press conference, well that settles it. Davey can't find it and the Sixth Floor explained why. Ipso facto[,] it was not filmed.

Do you see any television or film cameras in this photo below? I sure don't. I suppose it's possible a camera is hidden by a spectator here, but there are certainly no TV or film cameras clearly visible in this picture (although it does look like the slightly-blurred man on the left might be looking down at something he is holding in his hands which could be a film camera of some kind; but, if it is a camera he's holding, he's certainly not using it to film the press conference at the time this picture was snapped). And the man at the bottom of the photo is obviously holding a camera up to his eye. But that looks like a smaller "still" camera to me. At any rate, it's certainly not a "sound" camera. Click to enlarge:

EDIT:

Here's what Dr. Perry said in his Warren Commission testimony concerning possible recordings made during the Parkland press conference [at 3 H 375]:

GERALD FORD -- "Was there ever a recording kept of the questions and answers at that interview [i.e., press conference], Dr. Perry?"

DR. MALCOLM PERRY -- "This was one of the things I was mad about, Mr. Ford. There were microphones, and cameras, and the whole bit, as you know, and during the course of it a lot of these hypothetical situations and questions that were asked to us would often be asked by someone on this side and recorded by someone on this, and I don't know who was recorded and whether they were broadcasting it directly. There were tape recorders there and there were television cameras with their microphones. I know there were recordings made, but who made them, I don't know and, of course, portions of it would be given to this group and questions answered here and, as a result, considerable questions were not answered in their entirety and even some of them that were asked, I am sure were misunderstood. It was bedlam."

GERALD FORD -- "I was thinking, was there an official recording either made by the hospital officials or by the White House people or by any government agency?"

DR. PERRY -- "Not to my knowledge."

GERALD FORD -- "A true recording of everything that was said, the questions asked, and the answers given?"

DR. PERRY -- "Not to my knowledge."

=====================================

And here's what Dr. Kemp Clark said [at 6 H 21]:

ARLEN SPECTER -- "What mechanical instruments were used, if any, by the press at the conference?"

DR. KEMP CLARK -- "Tape recorders and television cameras, as well as the usual note pads and pencils, and so forth."

=====================================

~shrug~

Edited April 9, 2016 by David Von Pein

[James DiEugenio]

Gee Davey Yes I do see one.

But that is not my point.

See, the Secret Service lied to the WC about whether they had the transcript of the press conference. I noted that above. Its in one of those books you never read.

But further, in another book you never read, it was revealed that contrary to your see no evil, hear no evil, say no evil, about any aspect of JFK's murder, there was evidence the Secret Service did scoop up and then depart with recordings of that conference. Its the kind of research you do not do--that is going somewhere and talking to someone.

What this meant was that very early, as early as about 72 hours after the murder, the Secret Service was in on the cover up.

Now, without the ARRB, that would have just been an implication that would have been left out there dangling. But today, with the ARRB releases, we now know who was very likely in on the disappearing of the recordings and hiding of the transcript. Its a name that Aguilar has written about, Horne has written about, Speer has written about and I have written about. And I have little doubt that if CBS would not have been in the tank for McCloy, they could have found out about this also.

The name is Elmer Moore.

How do I know Moore almost had to be in on this caper? Because a witness told the Church Committee that Moore actually told him that it was his job to talk Perry out of his story about the anterior neck entrance wound! His name was Jim Gochenaur. He told the investigators that Moore actually got kind of scary talking about what he had done. He said he felt bad about what he did to Perry. But Moore then went off on a crazy rationale about how Kennedy was a commie symp who was selling us out to the Russians. (Reclaiming Parkland, pgs. 142-45)

Moore was transferred from his assignment in San Francisco, to Washington DC, the evening of the assassination.

CBS could have taken a shot at this story with what they had. They did not touch it. They had their marching orders.

Edited April 9, 2016 by James DiEugenio

[Pat Speer]

Hey, Jim, I noticed that you don't link or show many of the CBS memos uncovered by Feinman in your article. Do you have them? Roger put a power point presentation on his battle with CBS up on the internet at one point. I think around 2006. I screen-grabbed images of some of the memos. So they are fairly blurry. If nobody has the original memos, or even Feinman's images of the memos, I can put them up on my website, and you can link to them or use them however you wish.