November 22 42 years ago

In April, 1945, when I was 11 years old, I recall being shocked by the news of the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. I was delivering newspapers for a neighborhood newspaper about six blocks from my home. It was warm enough that people were outside their homes as I walked from house to apartment house to house. Several people along my route told me of the news, apparently figuring an 11-year-old could understand.

Just about everybody you talk with, if they were old enough in 1963, can tell you where they were and what they were doing when they first heard news of the assassination of President John Kennedy.

I had the unique experience of reporting it on the radio.

I was a reporter-newscaster for WRCV in Philadelphia, an NBC-owned station (it is now KYW NewsRadio). In those days, I did the morning news starting at 5:30 a.m. so I was near the end of my work day in the newsroom, along with John Schubeck, who at the time did the morning cut-ins during the TODAY SHOW. The Copy Boy in the small room where the teletype machines were located heard highly unusual loud bell sounds coming from one of the machines.

The Copy Boy gave me the copy, something to the effect that “shots rang out at the Kennedy motorcade in Dallas”. Soon thereafter, the follow-up said President Kennedy had been shot. I told John Schubeck of the brief item, and he said at once: “You take it on radio, I’ll take it to the announce booth (television).”

John had been employed there before I joined the station just three months prior to November 22. So I was not about to question his judgment. He “beat” the NBC network to the news on Channel 3, where Chet Huntley and David Brinkley soon took over non-stop coverage.

I had seen first-hand how popular President Kennedy was. For the TV news side (Channel 3), I was assigned to politics, and took one of the station’s crews to Convention Hall one night in October when the main speaker at the Democratic City Committee Annual Dinner was John Kennedy. I never will forget the thunderous ovation he received when he walked into the hall and over to the head table. He was a very, very handsome man. And his smile was unbelievable. The place just came apart, there was such adoration.

About a month after that, I walked into the radio studio where a disc jockey was playing music. I told him President Kennedy had been shot, and I needed the air at once. The disk jockey introduced me with a brief mention that I had a major news bulletin. By the time I was on the air, the teletype machine account had given additional details, which I read on the air. The disc jockey had the unfortunate predicament of following the bulletin with a comment, and he said, I thought quite nervously, that WRCV would provide further details as soon as we had them. I know both of us were in a kind of shock.

I left the studio and went back to the newsroom, and walked into the teletype room and watched in further shock, by myself, as a teletype writer, somewhere, manually and very slowly and carefully typed that the President had been shot, “PERHAPS FATALLY”, or words to that effect.

NBC-TV had not yet taken the air on our television station, Channel 3. NBC Radio also had not been heard from. I took the additional information including “PERHAPS FATALLY” back into the studio, and asked for the air again. The disc jockey interrupted the music, and introduced me again. This was only two or three minutes after the first bulletin.

I read all the additional information including the PERHAPS FATALLY, explaining that we were updating immediately so as to provide all we knew.

When I finished, the disc jockey said something like “Well, we certainly hope that’s not true.”

What else could he say??

House of Representatives

The Iraq war, of course, is a controversial issue nowadays. Supposedly, the polls have it that two-thirds of Americans oppose the war. If the polling were more structured (i.e., objective and truthful), we would find that two-thirds of Americans oppose the killing of American servicemen…and the other one-third oppose the killing while at the same time recognize that military deaths are a given in time of war. The death toll was 25 times higher in Vietnam than present-day Iraq. This does not justify the Iraqi death toll, but critics do not admit the obvious: we are at war. Last night, the House of Representatives voted on a “non-binding” proposal to call for an immediate pullout of American forces from Iraq. After heated, sometimes juvenile debate, the proposal was overwhelmingly defeated. Only three Democrats voted in favor. We send our representatives to Washington to represent us. After the smoke cleared, they did so last night. But we wouldn’t have seen such a debate had not the liberals advanced their causes: there were no WMD’s in Iraq; there was no connection between Iraq and 9/11, ad nauseum. Let us suppose the House APPROVED that resolution. First, of course, President Bush would have ignored it, as he properly should do. Secondly, somebody would ask the U-S Senate to conduct a similar vote. And President Bush would ignore any Senate approval of such a ridiculous proposal. Congressman John Murtha, an ex-Marine from my state (PA), Thursday called for the pullout “at the earliest practicable time”. That triggered last night’s debacle. “At the earliest practicable time” could be 10 years. Or 15 years. What we are doing in Iraq is fighting a war on terror. The suicide bombers strike daily. They kill people every day. Most of the dead are Iraqis. The ongoing assault by American et al forces against the so-called insurgents is designed to pick them off day by day. It is a struggle. People asked for a “plan” regarding Iraq. It is right before you. No government can put down on paper chapter and verse as to how to eliminate terrorism. The liberals not only demand a “plan” but they also call for a pullout date. The fact that this is crazy does not deter the liberals from constantly presenting this drivel. Terrorism is a war unlike any we ever have seen. Our enemy does not even wear uniforms. Where is the ACLU or somebody to complain that the enemy is in violation of the Geneva Convention in not wearing uniforms? Where is the ACLU or somebody to complain that it is barbaric to cut somebody’s head off? Where is the news media in pointing this out? Where are the polls asking IF YOU OPPOSE THE WAR IN IRAQ, AND THE AMERICANS PULL OUT, are you prepared for daily suicide bombings in the United States? We do not have a specific plan. That is correct. We are ad-libbing to a great extent. We are fighting a war against terrorism. It will take time to win. But win we must.

Polls

The so-called MAINSTREAM MEDIA seek to make a lot of news from polls they or somebody else conduct. Why is it that we never get to see the questions that are asked? The subjective nature of questions certainly can sway the answers.

It seems to me we should not pay attention to, much less trust, any of these polls unless the questions are fully disclosed. Yet the lovely MAINSTREAM MEDIA pounce on polls offered almost as breaking news. We also never know whether the poll is NOT REPORTED if the media source doesn’t like the results.

Dan Rather thinks there is no liberal bias in the news media. Dan Rather himself is part of the problem. The media has a bias. It is left wing. Dan Rather is a typical left-winger. The reader may not agree, but it always seemed, during his newscaster years at CBS, that he enjoyed providing poll information allegedly harmful to the conservative side. He says he is not reporting with a bias. Although his anchoring days are past, in speeches and other commentary, he speaks with a bias. And he knows it. Surely he does, doesn’t he?

Dan Rather and the MAINSTREAM MEDIA love polls when they warp to the left.

Polls should be accurate. Polls should avoid any biases. Polls should tell us the truth. The subject may come up again on thishere blog because we also must question the method of selecting the people who are polled. Ever watch Jay Leno doing a MAN ON THE STREET, or Sean Hannity on the radio. One might think the American public as a generality are…. dumb. Let’s just say they perhaps are less than INFORMED sufficiently to ANSWER a poll and polling questions.

A U. S. President recently authorized a poll to tell him where to take his next vacation. This craziness is self-explanatory.

Thank God we have a President today who does NOT make his decisions on what the polls say.

My First Blog Fri 11/18/05

My son David “installed” this blog for me. Took him only a few minutes last night. He has had his own blog for two years: davidpierron.com He just talks on there from time to time . . . . . about computers or whatever else comes to his attention. He makes a grammatical error here and there but I think it is mostly because he is in a hurry. David, you should proof your copy before you send it to China! But maybe they wouldn’t be paying attention in China, anyway. And what do they know? They still are ruled by Communists, who basically do not like our country.

And why did I get on the subject of China?? Oh yeah… because David used incorrect grammar once or twice. So, why did I ask him to install a blog for me ??? Well, there are two reasons: one is that I don’t know where this will lead, and the other is that I want to put in writing some things that have happened over the years that otherwise would go unreported forever. That may not be the least bit tragic for the history of the world, but I would ask the reader to decide if proper use is being made of this blog.