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‘Get it first. But get it right.’ This was the impossible conundrum facing journalists covering the shooting of JFK in 1963 and it remains the dilemma at the heart of live news to this day. For a feverish hour or so, everyone basically knew John Kennedy was dead. But who would dare break the as-yet-unconfirmed news?
Obviously, the assassination was a seismic political and social event. But, as this fascinating film shows, it was a turning point in media history too – the moment the punters became aware of the true nature of news-gathering. It also made a semi-reluctant star of newsreader Walter Cronkite and reporter Dan Rather – indeed, non-American observers might be puzzled about the emphasis on this pair, with Cronkite seeming almost as sainted a figure as JFK himself.
The Kennedy assassination remains a shocking moment in recent history, and this film does a good job of placing it in its wider context while evoking the raw feelings of the day.