When the News Went Live: Dallas 1963

Updated Author Appearances

Want to come see us?  Here's where we'll be:

May 26 Thurs    DALLAS Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

                            College English class
                        
Sept 8 Thurs     ARLINGTON Arlington Public Library Book Group 7:30 pm
 
Oct 21-22         BRYAN Bob's 50th High School Reunion

Oct 28-30          AUSTIN Texas Book Festival features When the News Went Live 

Nov. 3 Thurs.     DUNCANVILLE All honored as SW Authors of the Year

                              7:00pm Banquet
                        
Nov. 10 Thurs.   COLLEGE STATION Bob at Primetimers

                              10:30am 30-40min w/Q&A
                        
Nov. 17 Thurs    DALLAS Book Club, Church of Transfiguration

                             Hillcrest N.of LBJ
                 

Review: "Newsmen at JFK's last hours"

The San Antonio Express-News

By Sterlin Holmesly
Originally published November 7, 2004

When the News Went Live slices across four decades to vividly recount the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, as told by four men who were there and reporting to a stunned nation.

The events of November 1963 also changed the way the country got its news. Live television coverage, encumbered by then-primitive equipment and technology, moved to the forefront.

All employees of Dallas radio/TV station KRLD, Huffaker, Mercer, Phenix and Wise scrambled and battled as they covered the assassination from the shots at the motorcade, the desperate race to get the president to a hospital, the arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald, the live-on-TV shooting of Oswald by Jack Ruby and the trial and death of Ruby.

Naturally, there is overlap as each tells of his part from different vantage points, but each brings insight and understanding to the chaos.

They were versatile individuals, and they had to be. Variously, they could shoot film, edit it, write and edit a newscast, deliver a newscast, do weather, broadcast football games, ride the police beat and hang out with news sources. In 1963, they had to deal with huge sound cameras, with snakes of cables and 16-mm black and white cameras. They also had to cope with a horde of outside news people, including demanding personalities from their own network, CBS.

Bob Huffaker went on to become a college professor and author. Bill Mercer is a Hall-of-Fame broadcaster and journalism teacher. George Phenix founded Texas Weekly, a premier newsletter, and worked with various politicians. Wes Wise was elected mayor of Dallas, and helped the city reclaim its reputation.

This work brings immediacy and intensity to events that shook the nation. You are there with the four, on the streets, at the hospital, along the flower-strewn Grassy Knoll the day after, in the jail as Oswald is paraded for the press and then for murder live on TV.

Interwoven with this is the perspective of 40 years from men grown old, who still live with November 1963.

Are you a reader? Or a writer? Isn't everyone?

By George Phenix

After those of us in the  Matlock generation die off, who will read the traditional newspapers?

I have four grown children (grown children - my favorite oxymoron) and not a damn one of them subscribes to a newspaper that requires them to put on house shoes and pad out to the curb and pick it up. Electronic. That's how they get their news.

And ours was a newspaper family. We owned several community weeklies and my kids even worked there.

Unfortunately, my kids are not alone. Recently, George Will wrote: The percentages of adults who say they read a paper "yesterday" are ominous.

65 and older, 60 percent
50-64, 52 percent
30-49, 39 percent
18-29, 23 percent

He says Americans ages 8 to 18 spend an average of six hours and 21 minutes a day with media of all sorts but just 43 minutes with print media.

Bummer. My kids are missing a lot. The closing of our favorite restaurant, for example, didn't make the fragmented electronic outlets.

Readership is tanking. The Audit Bureau of Circulation reported a 1.9 percent drop in daily circulation, and a 2.5 percent decline on Sundays.

True -- almost.

All newspapers lie about circulation, intentionally or not. They never, never adjust for population growth. Yet, when they report falter advertising revenue numbers, they always "adjust for inflation." Why not "adjust for population growth." Why not? Because the decline would be steeper.

Most old media outlets are suffering from the new world competition. Only magazines show an increase in ad dollars. The New York Times reports: "Of the $141 billion spent on all forms of advertising in 2004...the newspaper share was down, the magazine share was flat, and the Internet was growing fast. Advertising Age predicted last week that the combined advertising revenue of Google and Yahoo this year would rival those of the big three television networks, marking what is called a watershed moment in the evolution of the Internet."

Incredible.

And then there are the blogs. Fully 56% of Americans haven't even heard of
blogs and only three percent read them daily, among the young they are
standard fare, with 44 % of online Americans aged 18-29 reading them often, says the Economist quoting a poll by CNN/USA Today/Gallup. Obviously, the younger people just aren't buying what the older people are selling. These days, everyone can become a reporter. But few electronic outlets have matched OhmyNews in South Korea. In just five years, OhmyNews has two million readers and over 33,000 citizen reporters backed up by only 50 permanent staff, according to the Economist.

Got video you think is newsworthy? Send it to Now Public and file your video story. Several tsunami stories were filed this way.

Podcasts? Try http://www.omn.org/ which is a site called Open Media Network, the future of public TV and radio. Don't like what you're getting on
commercial broadcast outlets? Start your own.

Sigh. Does anybody remember crystal radio sets?

Want Your Own Newspaper?

By George Phenix

If I were 20 years younger, I would launch an electronic newspaper under the noses of the downtown daily (the Austin American Statesman).  And I would whip their butts.

In Texas, it ain't bragging if it's true.  And I've already whipped the daily once before with a weekly newspaper (The Westlake Picayune).

This time, it might be even easier.  Only this time, it wouldn't be a newspaper -- it would be a blog.

Think about it.  Schools generate most of the news for community newspapers.

What the hell, every parent loves seeing a picture of their kid in the newspaper.  And with cell phones that take pictures, every soccer mom could post pictures of their kid on the community newspaper site.  Text to follow.

Ditto PTA meetings.  School board meetings.

No need for reporters as such.  Have the local participants post their stories themselves. Controversial?  No problem with "Pro" and "Con" columns.

And for the schools themselves, what a blessing this would be.  Post the calendar, homework assignments, parent conferences, field trips.  Tax rates, too.

Ask any old sports reporter and they'll tell you the toughest assignment they ever had was covering high school football.  No press box.   Poor lighting.  Cold.  Wet.  No problem.  All sports parents are fanatics.  They'll write the game stories and not whine about the conditions.  Eleven starters?  Eleven parents writing about their family's personal hero.  No problem because space is not a problem in the electronic world.

The community newspaper blog could be set up with more departments than the traditional daily ever thought of.  Stamp collectors could have their own section.  Genealogists, gerontologists, geologists (enough with the g-words,George)...special sections for special interests.  ALL special interests.

And the news would be posted 24/7.  A daily newspaper all day long!

Libel?  Well hell yes, libel is a problem.  But don't you have a cousin who is a lawyer?

Editors?  Admittedly, I haven't solved this one yet.  Even Rupert Murdoch has admonished editors to abandon their "God-like" relationship with their readers (amen), but some sort of filtration system is helpful.

Advertising?  Potentially, this is a bigger problem than libel.  Local merchants are slower to come  on board with ads in the new media.  Banners,streamers, pop-ups...they will be slow to convince.  But they will.

Well.  That's the outline.  Go flesh it out yourself.

The problem with many bloggers is that they don't think big enough.  Too many see themselves as Avenging Angels, independent Samurai, Lone Rangers.

Screw that.  Think big.  If you really want to rattle the Main Stream Media,start your own community newspaper/blog.  Just imagine if you create an entity which not only delivers the news but also gives the reader a seat at the table.  Exciting.

A word of caution.  In public opinion polls, journalists now rank below trial lawyers.  Bloggers must avoid God-like attitudes or they will suffer the same fate.   Ultimately. 

Another Good Review of When the News Went Live

The Flip Side

By Ken Judkins

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE LEWISVILLE LEADER, 11/20/2004

When the News Went Live

As the anniversary of the Kennedy assassination is upon us, it seems a good time to talk about one of the more engaging books I've come across in some time.

When the News Went Live, co-written by  Bob Huffaker, Bill Mercer, George Phenix, and Wes Wise, tells the story of the most infamous era in Dallas history through the first-person eyes of four local journalists.

Bob Huffaker wrote the majority of the book, telling the story of that awful time in Dallas that began with the assault on UN Ambassador Adlai Stevenson in October 1963, through the trial of Jack Ruby in early 1964. Each of the other three authors contributed a chapter relating their own experiences at the time, while all four collaborated on the final chapter lamenting the state of broadcast journalism today.

Each of the four men has a fascinating tale to tell.

Huffaker was a reporter for KRLD and by extension CBS. He broadcast the motorcade and later scenes at Parkland Hospital as word was received that the president had died of his wounds.  Two days later he was holding the CBS microphone as Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald a few feet in from of him.

George Phenix filmed scenes of the president's arrival at Love Field, then of the chaos around Parkland.  He was manning the CBS film camera standing next to Huffaker as Jack Ruby elbowed in beside him and then darted out and shot Oswald. 

Those of us who grew up in the metroplex all remember Bill Mercer as the voice of Saturday Night Wrestling. He has had a distinguished career as the voice of a number of local sports teams.  He broadcast a bizarre midnight news conference with Lee Harvey Oswald on the night of the assassination.  (It was determined later that Jack Ruby was in attendance.)

Wes Wise was a popular sportscaster in the area for years, and then served as an equally popular mayor of Dallas, in which capacity he helped save the School Book Depository from destruction.  He was accosted by Jack Ruby outside that infamous building the day before Ruby shot Oswald, and was waiting to cover the arrival of Oswald at the county jail.

When the News Went Live was the brainchild of Bob Huffaker, who left journalism decades ago for a career teaching English.  He told me his coverage of the assassination caused him to reflect on the nature of the profession, deciding he didn't want to spend the rest of his life "reporting on tragedy."  Though stated by none of the authors, I was struck by the fact that they were all very young when this event was thrust upon them.  It is obvious that being in that place at that time in their positions had a profound effect on each of their future lives.

The authors' accounts of the time literally bring the events up close and personal to the reader.  The book overlays the thoughts and feelings of each on top of the factual events and is unique to the genre.

None of the authors is sympathetic to conspiracy theorists.  They were hard-nosed journalists interested only in the facts, and they use them to tell an incredible story.

When the News Went Live paints a tragic portrait of Jack Ruby that is downright moving at times.  It is difficult to read this book without ultimately feeling sorry for the strange little man who was flabbergasted to find he was not treated as a hero after slaying the man he perceived as killing the nation's soul.  His high-profile attorney's exploitation of his plight and the subsequent downward spiral toward mental illness are tenderly portrayed.

I am always fascinated with the more obscure tidbits of history, and this book is full of them.  In one interesting side story, a week prior to Kennedy's visit George Phenix was covering a Dallas appearance by Alabama Governor George Wallace when he (Phenix) was physically attacked by General Edwin Walker, who, ironically and not known at the time, Oswald had tried to kill the previous April.  Huffaker relates stories about the resentment that sprang up in the local press toward the perceived arrogance and condescension among members of the national media who sometimes had no qualms about taking over their local offices.

The final chapter provides the authors' collective take on the state of journalism today.  None of the four is complimentary of the current trend toward sensationalism and the lack of in-depth investigation. When I asked Huffaker if he would consider a career in journalism were he starting out today, he stated, "I really don't think I would."

Had these four chosen different professions during their younger days, we would all be the poorer for it.

This is a first-class account of a tragic historical moment that still has an impact on our nation.

From hot type to hot heads...or as the news morphs

By George Phenix

It should come as no surprise that I'm a hot-type kinda guy. Heritage being what it is. I still remember the scars on the hands and wrists of the Linotype operators at the newspapers. As they would pound out a line of type, hot lead would splash from the well on the sides of their machines.

Those guys (interestingly, most were men. I wonder how they got men to take typing classes back in the early days?) anyway, those guys were experts at reading text upside-down and backwards as they literally hammered the rows of metal sentences into a rectangle the size of a newspaper page called a pig, for some reason that escapes me.

I learned how to read upside-down and backwards, too. Gave me a secret weapon back when I was a city hall reporter. I could read letters that weren't pointed my way.

Where am I headed with all this?

First, one more digression. I read somewhere that the day President Kennedy was assassinated, the Ft. Worth Star Telegram put out seven special editions and people were lined up outside the building anxiously waiting to buy each ssue as it came hot off the press.

My point (finally) is that the way people get their news has been morphing
all my life. Yours too?

Yep, the telegraph put the Pony Express out of business. And things have
been changing ever since.

In 1963, most people didn't believe it until they read it in their local
newspaper. (I know, I know...today, people don't believe their local
newspaper, their local TV...nuthin. And that's not all bad.)

But, when the president was murdered, the nation and the world hungered for more and more information. Was it the Communists? The Mob? Who would do such a thing? And who the hell was this shrimp Lee Harvey Oswald?

Television came into its own.

Today, we've morphed from gawd-awful talking heads on cable news to a nation mainlining news from the Internet. Info anarchy to some. Freedom for others.

Just this week I learned something from Boing Boing, with their nod to Chris Anderson's Long Tail blog. 

Here's Chris' stats on the meltdown of mainstream media:

• Music: sales last year were down 21% from their peak in 1999
• Television: network TV's audience share has fallen by a third since 1985
• Radio: listenership is at a 27-year low
• Newspapers: circulation peaked in 1987, and the decline is accelerating
• Magazines: total circulation peaked in 2000 and is now back to 1994 levels (but a few premier titles are bucking the trend
• Books: sales growth is lagging the economy as whole

And, as you might expect, there's growth on the other side of the ledger, as
Anderson writes:

Up:

• Movies: 2004 was another record year, both for theaters and DVDs
• Videogames: even in the last year of this generation of consoles,sales hit a new record
• Web: online ads will grow 30% this year, breaking $10 billion (5.4% ofall advertising)

Whatever the outcome, transitions are part of the fabric of this nation.
Nobody know the final outcome, but, lordy, it's fun keeping score.

Re: Tom Delay's mounting troubles

By George Phenix

After nearly forty years in press and politics, I've conjured a life theory
which helps makes sense of the nonsense:

Republicans screw themselves out of office because they don't understand
power.

Democrats screw themselves out of office because they don't understand sex.

There. I feel better now.

Author Introduction: George Phenix

Meet George:

GEORGE PHENIX has spent his life in press and politics. After leaving KRLD News, George returned to Austin as a boy lobbyist for the Texas Municipal League, where he wrote speeches and television shows for a number of political figures, including Governor Preston Smith. Congressman J.J. Pickle recruited him to run his Washington office, where Phenix wrote more than 250 speeches for the legislator in a single year. After four years in the nation's capitol, he returned to Texas as Executive Assistant to US Senator Lloyd Bentsen.

After a career as film-maker, speech writer, and political consultant, Phenix published several weekly newspapers in and around Austin. He co-founded Texas Weekly, the state's oldest and largest political newsletter, and for more than twenty years he has served as its publisher.
Phenix, an avid bicyclist, invited his four children to join him on a twenty-six-mile ride to celebrate his sixtieth birthday.

They allowed him to come in third, and he plans rematches.

The Authors

The four authors of this blog and of When the News Went Live: Dallas 1963, L-R, Bob Huffaker, Wes Wise, Bill Mercer and George Phenix.

Proper introductions to follow....