On November 22, 1963, when he was hardly past his first thousand days in office, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was killed by an assassin's bullets as his motorcade wound through Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was the youngest man elected President; he was the youngest to die. www.whitehouse.gov

"Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country." Sometimes, being in the right place at the right time can bring about many surprises in the field of journalism. For Bob Schieffer, this proved to be very true. The mother of Lee Harvey Oswald (Kennedy’s assassin) happened to call the Fort Star-Telegram when Schieffer was answering the phones that day. Schieffer then picked up the phone and spoke to Oswald’s mother, and went from there. Due to Schieffer taking control of the situation due to his journalism expertise, he was the very first reporter to get Mrs. Oswald’s story.

Kennedy’s nationally-televised funeral was the first time that American citizens put down their newspapers and turned their television sets on. The assassination then death of President John F. Kennedy clearly mapped out for the American public that the leaders of their nation are not men of steel and that something tragic like this could very well happen again later on down the road.

Soundbytes


Click here to listen to Bob Schieffer talk about his experience with Oswald’s Mother.

Click here to listen to Bob Schieffer talk about how TV became the most popular news media and why people trust TV.

Click here to view the audio transcrips as a Microsoft Word document

Click here to view the audio transcrips as a .pdf file (requires Adobe Acrobat to view)

JOHP :: Bob Schieffer Resources::

Schieffer Bio

The Young Reporter

The Early Years/ Vietnam War

President John F. Kennedy

September 11th/ Change in Network News

Bob's Journalism Tips