Dallas TV and radio Personalities Active on November 22, 1963

[Denis Morissette]

My new blog: List of as many Dallas TV and radio personalities as I can remember who were active on the weekend of the assassination. I will included the places where they were and photos and films of them or taken by them when possible. I probably forgot a few of those personalities. I included live broadcasts of several of those TV and radio stations, and TV and newspaper reports on them.Updates will be done when required.
https://jfkassassinationfiles.wordpress.com/2019/09/01/tv-and-radio-people-present-at-parkland-on-november-22-1963/

[Ken Rheberg]

On 9/1/2019 at 12:40 AM, Denis Morissette said:

My new blog: List of as many Dallas TV and radio personalities as I can remember who were active on the weekend of the assassination. I will included the places where they were and photos and films of them or taken by them when possible. I probably forgot a few of those personalities. I included live broadcasts of several of those TV and radio stations, and TV and newspaper reports on them.Updates will be done when required.
https://jfkassassinationfiles.wordpress.com/2019/09/01/tv-and-radio-people-present-at-parkland-on-november-22-1963/

 

You've done a lot of work on this project, Denis.  Unfortunately, critical information you posted on the three most important figures from that Friday (more important even than Zapruder) is either incorrect or misleading at best.  The three?  Dan Rather.  James Underwood.  And Tom Craven.

Maybe now, after almost 56 years, it's finally time for the truth to be told about what really happened in Dealey Plaza just before, during, and after the shots.

So let's start with Dan Rather.  Why did you place him, incorrectly, at the Stemmons Freeway on-ramp?

Ken
 

[Denis Morissette]

He was waiting to grab a film from one of the cameraman. I was told this is the most likely place for him to be. According to you, what is the correct answer? And what error did I make regarding Craven and Underwood?

[Joseph McBride]

Rather has given several different alleged locations

for himself over the years. A colleague wrote that

Rather was actually at the Trade Mart at the time of the shooting.

No pictures of Dealey Plaza show him.

[Josh Cron]

Do you by chance have a source for the Trade Mart comment?

Thanks in advance!

[Denis Morissette]

Here Dan say he was just beyond the overpass. He did not hear any shots. Was not sure the car he had seen was the President's limo.  Ran back to Dealey Plaza. 

I thought he was beyond the overpass with a cab driver waiting for a film that he would bring to KRLD. 

 

[Ron Bulman]

So he was at the Trade Mart, waiting on film from the overpass (underpass) but ran back to Dealy Plaza.  I guess he was still winded and not thinking clearly when he saw the Z film a day later and saw JFK's head go violently forward.

[Joseph McBride]

I will have to go back into my research materials on Rather. He has given

various locations where he claims he was during the shooting, which are in conflict and of varying

degrees of improbability, and a colleague has disputed all his accounts. Eddie Barker

of CBS disputed other aspects of Rather's coverage, and the rivalry between

them became quite bitter. I discuss Rather's role on Nov. 22 and beyond in

my Episode 46 of Len Osanic's series 50 REASONS . . . FOR 50 YEARS, "Political

Truth: The Media and the Assassination," which can be found on YouTube and accessed

through Len's Black Op Radio website. There is an unpublished

manuscript on Rather, THE RATHER NARRATIVE, that goes into considerable detail on the strange saga of

what he was doing in Dallas that day. Also see John B. Mayo, BULLETIN FROM

DALLAS: THE PRESIDENT IS DEAD; THE STORY OF JOHN F. KENNEDY'S ASSASSINATION

AS COVERED BY RADIO AND TV (1967), which reports that Rather convinced

CBS to have five full camera crews covering Kennedy's trip to Dallas (including

the only live network hookup, at the Trade Mart) when the other two major

networks each had only the standard single crew with the president. I highlight

that startling piece of information in "Political Truth and the Assassination."

Edited September 4, 2019 by Joseph McBride

[Ken Rheberg]

On 9/2/2019 at 11:09 PM, Joseph McBride said:

Rather has given several different alleged locations

for himself over the years. A colleague wrote that

Rather was actually at the Trade Mart at the time of the shooting.

No pictures of Dealey Plaza show him.

 

Two stories so different it boggles the mind.

In 1964 Dan Rather said he was "stationed along the expressway leading to the Trade Mart."  In other words, he was stationed by the Stemmons Freeway at the point of the Trade Mart which is so close to the freeway that its address is 2200 Stemmons Freeway.  After the Presidential limousine sped past, he took a cab back to KRLD.

But no one has ever been able to confirm Dan's presence at the Trade Mart when the shots were fired.  No photos, film or tape.  And no personal recollection of anyone seeing him there at that time.  Dan's appearance at the Trade Mart about an hour later that day was supported by KRLD's Eddie Barker.

In 1977, however, Dan completely changed his story saying that he was "on the other side of the railroad tracks, beyond the triple underpass, thirty yards from a grassy knoll that would later figure in so many conspiracy theories."  In other words, he was now right next to the west side of the triple underpass.  From there he ran back to KRLD.

Dan would confirm this new spot in an article he wrote back then for "Scholastic Magazine."  On a Dealey Plaza map, he marked off his location on the north side of Elm Street close to the west side of the underpass.  Many years later he offered to stand in that same spot and was photographed there for all to see.  No confusion anymore.  The place where he was allegedly standing when the shots were fired was right next to the west side of the underpass on the north side of Elm.

But we know this was impossible because the Daniels film and a McIntire photo show nobody at that place, at that time.

That's because Dan was really in the KRLD-TV studios when the shots were fired.  And this can be confirmed.

So why two completely different stories, both not true?  And why did Dan leave KRLD to stop by the Trade Mart an hour after the assassination, something he's never admitted to anywhere?

Follow Dan Rather that day, and you wind up with the biggest story of them all.  There really were two people shooting that day.  Hard evidence of it, as Gary Mack would say, that cannot be disputed.

Ken

 

[Josh Cron]

Thank you for your reply Joseph.

Ken, "Stationed along the expressway leading to the Trade Mart," implies to me pretty much anywhere along Stemmons, including the area where Denis has listed him.

Edited September 4, 2019 by Josh Cron

[Ken Rheberg]

On 9/2/2019 at 10:38 PM, Denis Morissette said:

 

. . . what error did I make regarding Craven. . . ?

 

 

You said, "The footage he took in Dealey Plaza was allegedly permanently damaged during its process at KRLD due to water damage."

Not true, Denis.  That never happened to Craven's Dealey Plaza footage.  It came through the developing process in pristine condition.  Please tell us where you came up with this misleading story.  And for those reading along, I want to make sure you all understand I have the utmost respect for what Denis Morissette has done with regards to the press coverage of the assassination and the photographic record more than anything.  He's one of the few who has dared to bring up Tom Craven and his film.  Denis had nothing to do with the origin of that misleading water damage story.  It's time to clear things up.

Ken

Edited September 4, 2019 by Ken Rheberg

[Denis Morissette]

I mention the water (pressure?) damage in my blog about the Craven Film. One or two reels were allegedly ruined. Back to you. How do you know that It came through the developing process in pristine condition?

https://jfkassassinationfiles.wordpress.com/2016/05/14/the-destroyed-craven-film-taken-in-dealey-plaza/

Gary Mack told me about it. 

Email 1: 

“Tom Craven’s film never got on the air; it was damaged during processing at CBS’s Dallas affiliate, KRLD-TV.  I interviewed the station’s film processor operator, Henk Dewitt, who said a few reels were damaged early that afternoon due to low water pressure at the building.  Craven’s film was apparently one of them”

Email 2:

“Craven’s film was apparently misidentified.  Some years ago, Henk DeWitt, the man who operated KRLD’s film processor, told me he had mechanical problems that day and the first one or two reels were ruined.  There was a problem with very low water pressure and the heat of the dryer or something damaged the films. 

[Ken Rheberg]

On 9/4/2019 at 10:36 AM, Josh Cron said:

Thank you for your reply Joseph.

Ken, "Stationed along the expressway leading to the Trade Mart," implies to me pretty much anywhere along Stemmons, including the area where Denis has listed him.

 

KRLD, where Dan Rather was headquartered that day, was just four blocks away from Dealey Plaza on North Griffin Street, a quick and simple walk back.  The logical place for Dan to be stationed in order to catch a roll or rolls of CBS film would have been anywhere along the motorcade route in Dealey Plaza.  Just as Dallas Times-Herald reporter James Featherston was stationed near the corner of Main and Houston to catch film thrown to him by Herald cameraman Bob Jackson.  To suggest that Dan would head all the way down to the Stemmons Freeway on-ramp to collect the film is a real stretch at best.  It makes no sense.  But to imply, further, that Dan or any other sane reporter would instead station themselves even further away from the studio -- miles not blocks -- anywhere along the side of a fast, busy freeway to catch some film. . . well, that's a baffling thought indeed.

No, it seems clear to me what Dan meant was that he was outside of the Trade Mart, next to the Stemmons Freeway, waiting for the film drop.  This was apparently the understanding of Dallas historian and SMU professor emeritus Darwin Payne -- a Dallas Times-Herald reporter at the time of the assassination -- when he wrote about the Press in action that day for a 1969, 53-page Journalism Monograph.  He said that members of the news media -- some four or five newsmen -- were waiting outside of the Trade Mart for the arrival of the President. One reporter saw the motorcade speed by without stopping and convinced a police officer to take him to the hospital in an unmarked car.  Darwin then said:

"Another television newsman at the Trade Mart, Dan Rather of CBS-TV, reacted differently.  Upon seeing the passing motorcade, he rushed in his waiting taxi-cab to the downtown office of KRLD-TV, the Dallas CBS affiliate station."

I had the pleasure of speaking with Darwin on a few occasions back in 2003, some 34 years after he wrote that monograph.  I was curious as to how he had concluded that Dan was actually at the Trade Mart when the motorcade passed by.  He couldn't remember and wasn't sure where his notes were.  However, with a copy of that monograph in my hands, it appeared to me that he was simply relying on John Mayo's book, "Bulletin from Dallas."  Mayo had taped interviews with several reporters active on the day of the assassination.  One of them was Dan Rather.  It's in that transcript of his interview where Dan mentions the Stemmons Freeway, the Trade Mart, and taking a cab back to KRLD after the limo sped past.  That would have to mean sped past the Trade Mart.  Otherwise it makes no sense. Darwin referenced Mayo's book seven times with footnotes in his monograph and, to me, this was his source, and understanding, for placing Dan at the Trade Mart when the shots were fired.

But this was all rendered meaningless when Dan came up with another story documented in his 1977 book, "The Camera Never Blinks."  He was now standing on the north side of Elm Street, next to the west side of the triple underpass when the shots were fired.  Backed up by a later photo of him standing in that precise spot.

Except for one thing.  He wasn't at the Trade Mart.  And he wasn't standing next to the underpass.  He wasn't anywhere between the underpass and the Trade Mart.

He was at the KRLD-TV studio.  This was confirmed by someone who worked closely with him on 11/22/63.

I can't emphasize this enough.  If you (and I mean "you" collectively, the research community as a whole) really, seriously, want to get to the bottom of what happened that day in Dealey Plaza, this is where it all begins.  But "you" just won't go there.  Resist.  Deflect.  Ignore.  Avoid.  Mislead.  Argue.  Attack.  Maybe this is where it all ends.

Come on you people.  Get with it.

Ken
 

Edited September 5, 2019 by Ken Rheberg

[Josh Cron]

1 hour ago, Ken Rheberg said:

He was at the KRLD-TV studio.  This was confirmed by someone who worked closely with him on 11/22/63.

Do you have a source?

[Denis Morissette]

Ken, I’m grateful for the info. Do you mind my including in my blog?