Read Online The Day Kennedy Was Shot by Jim Bishop - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Jim Bishop
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told the Times âNo comment,â but he wanted presidential advice in the matter. Mr. Kennedy ordered his man to go ahead and write a release about him. At the same time, Pamela Turnure, the dark, attractive secretary to Mrs. Kennedy, was issuing a press statement in the name of the First Lady that Texas had turned out to be just as warm and hospitable and friendly as she had always heard. Yesterday had been âa wonderful day.â
The White House press corps was stacked in rooms all over the big U-shaped hotel. The dean, gray-haired Merriman Smith of United Press International, had filed some overnight copy; Seth Kantor made notes that the crowd in the parking lot had started to collect âbefore dawn.â Charles Roberts of Newsweek; Tom Wicker of The New York Times; Robert Donovan of the Los Angeles Times; Jim Mathis of the Advance Syndicate; Jack Bell of the Associated Press; there were correspondents accredited from Washington, from New York, from Fort Worth, Dallas, Chicago, and there were newspaper photographers, televisioncameramen, radio and TV reporters, Western Union telegraphers and, in some cases, editors-on-the-scene to correlate the efforts of groups of reporters.
The importance of the press was never underestimated by the Kennedys. The President, having served his apprenticeship as a reporter, understood professional jargon such as âovernight,â âbulldog,â âlead to come,â and âfolo-up.â In a manner of speaking, he was his own press secretary. The post was nominally filled by a stout, jolly man named Pierre Salinger, a onetime investigator for the Senate McClellan Committee, whose counsel was Robert Kennedy. The President dealt with the press through Salinger, and the reporters heard only what Mr. Kennedy wanted them to hear, without exposing himself to charges of âmanagingâ the news.
The attitude of the President was that the press, in a real sense, was akin to a fire: it can warm a man, but it can also burn him. At morning conferences, he and Salinger tried to anticipate the questionsâespecially âthe curvesââwhich might be asked at Salingerâs daily briefings. The increasing importance of the press to presidential aspirations is seen in the fact that, in the Woodrow Wilson administration, his personal secretary, Joseph Tumulty, dealt with the newspapers when he was so disposed, whereas in the Kennedy administration, Mr. Salinger, assisted by Malcolm Kilduff and Andrew Hatcher, occupied a suite of White House offices full of researchers and stenographers.
It is possible that the Kennedys (Mrs. Kennedy feared press coverage and especially unflattering photographs of herself) attributed more importance to the press than it deserved. Mr. Kennedy began his Administration by trying to seal the sources of news and information. He demanded that ministers of Cabinet rank and less, even servants in the White House, agree not to take notes and write tracts, magazine articles, or books about their experiences. He also asked bureau and department heads not to write articles of major importance ormake speeches without first submitting the copy to the White House for endorsement.
On the surface, Mr. Kennedy handled the press with urbane wit and a first-name camaraderie. As a minority President, one who had won election by the narrowest of margins, he was aware that he needed the goodwill of these questing men and women who, by the nature of their daily work, had to fear being used by a charming man and his attractive wife. The breakfast speech on this particular morning was of no moment if addressed solely to the 2,000 members of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce and their guests. It must be directed more to the press, which could funnel the words and their import to 180 million Americans outside the area.
Under the surface, the President was chagrined to find that the goodwill of the press had to be solicited anew every day. No
The White House press corps was stacked in rooms all over the big U-shaped hotel. The dean, gray-haired Merriman Smith of United Press International, had filed some overnight copy; Seth Kantor made notes that the crowd in the parking lot had started to collect âbefore dawn.â Charles Roberts of Newsweek; Tom Wicker of The New York Times; Robert Donovan of the Los Angeles Times; Jim Mathis of the Advance Syndicate; Jack Bell of the Associated Press; there were correspondents accredited from Washington, from New York, from Fort Worth, Dallas, Chicago, and there were newspaper photographers, televisioncameramen, radio and TV reporters, Western Union telegraphers and, in some cases, editors-on-the-scene to correlate the efforts of groups of reporters.
The importance of the press was never underestimated by the Kennedys. The President, having served his apprenticeship as a reporter, understood professional jargon such as âovernight,â âbulldog,â âlead to come,â and âfolo-up.â In a manner of speaking, he was his own press secretary. The post was nominally filled by a stout, jolly man named Pierre Salinger, a onetime investigator for the Senate McClellan Committee, whose counsel was Robert Kennedy. The President dealt with the press through Salinger, and the reporters heard only what Mr. Kennedy wanted them to hear, without exposing himself to charges of âmanagingâ the news.
The attitude of the President was that the press, in a real sense, was akin to a fire: it can warm a man, but it can also burn him. At morning conferences, he and Salinger tried to anticipate the questionsâespecially âthe curvesââwhich might be asked at Salingerâs daily briefings. The increasing importance of the press to presidential aspirations is seen in the fact that, in the Woodrow Wilson administration, his personal secretary, Joseph Tumulty, dealt with the newspapers when he was so disposed, whereas in the Kennedy administration, Mr. Salinger, assisted by Malcolm Kilduff and Andrew Hatcher, occupied a suite of White House offices full of researchers and stenographers.
It is possible that the Kennedys (Mrs. Kennedy feared press coverage and especially unflattering photographs of herself) attributed more importance to the press than it deserved. Mr. Kennedy began his Administration by trying to seal the sources of news and information. He demanded that ministers of Cabinet rank and less, even servants in the White House, agree not to take notes and write tracts, magazine articles, or books about their experiences. He also asked bureau and department heads not to write articles of major importance ormake speeches without first submitting the copy to the White House for endorsement.
On the surface, Mr. Kennedy handled the press with urbane wit and a first-name camaraderie. As a minority President, one who had won election by the narrowest of margins, he was aware that he needed the goodwill of these questing men and women who, by the nature of their daily work, had to fear being used by a charming man and his attractive wife. The breakfast speech on this particular morning was of no moment if addressed solely to the 2,000 members of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce and their guests. It must be directed more to the press, which could funnel the words and their import to 180 million Americans outside the area.
Under the surface, the President was chagrined to find that the goodwill of the press had to be solicited anew every day. No
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