It is just me, or did the 60th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy pass yesterday with much less commemoration than usual? You’d think an anniversary of this sorry day ending in a zero would have merited special closing segments on the evening network news (NBC Evening News chose instead to run a closing puff piece on a Napa Valley winery), covers or special commemorative editions of the husks of our remaining news magazine (or at least People), and special back-from-the-dead edition of Life or something. You’d think the endless market for baby boomer nostalgia would demand the market be satisfied. Instead—almost nothing. No proclamation from the White House, or excuse to run a gun control drill. About the only features were MSNBC and other faux-news organizations giving space for the latest recycled conspiracy theories.
I suspect the media downplayed the anniversary this year because doesn’t want to give even the slightest bit of transitive attention to RFK Jr’s. independent bid for the presidency, which might derail Joe Biden’s re-election.
Meanwhile, it turns out Charles Murray, an undergraduate at Harvard in 1963, was working at the Harvard radio station that day (he was the evening news anchor), and read the UPI flash bulletin on the air. A broadcast engineer had the presence of mind to record it, and now you can hear it, too:
Here’s the voice of a shocked and nervous 20-year-old kid announcing the news from Dallas. Strange to hear one’s voice on such a momentous day from 60 years ago. pic.twitter.com/kZBywkcJtB
— Charles Murray (@charlesmurray) November 22, 2023
Lloyd Billingsley will be back later today with further thoughts on the Kennedy beat.
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