For four reporters (Huffaker, Mercer, Phenix, and Wise) at CBS affiliate KRLD-TV in Dallas on November 22, 1963, there was not a dress rehearsal for what they had to do in the aftermath of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. They provided the first continuous feed of an unfolding tragedy to millions of people around the world. From the initial shots to the shocking shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby, the CBS reporters were responsible for keeping the news live and informative, under the microscope of one of the harshest moments in America's history.
Here, finally, is the view from the street about November 22, 1963. This reporters' account of the Kennedy assassination brings to full focus the personal anguish as well as the professional pressure endured that day by those who could not take the time to cry. This book will become part of the real and permanent history of a dark day for America.
The story they tell is riveting, insightful, and filled with new detail about that awful weekend that changed America.
'The President has been shot!' It has been more than forty years, and everyone old enough remembers what he was doing the day Kennedy died. And then Oswald. But few were close enough to see the whole terrible story unfold. This book brings us a version few have ever seen. Bill Mercer, Bob Huffaker, Wes Wise, and George Phenix lived this story minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day. Now they take us live and in living color back to those blood-dimmed days in Dallas. A stunning set of recollections.
As each of the authors gives his account of the segment of the Kennedy assassination he was most involved with—the race to get the injured president to the hospital, Oswald's flight and capture, Ruby's shooting of Oswald and Ruby's trial—he opens a window into the earlier era of broadcast history. The integrity and dedication of these four veteran journalists is impressive, as is their ability to make a 40-year-old event come alive again.
