JFK, 45 years later

Hard to believe it has been that long since JFK's assassination, but even now the images and events of those days are burned into my brain, as vivid as though they happened yesterday. Back then people trusted their government for the most part, and the media... trust that is now gone in both cases.

JFK inspired people in a way that hasn't happened since. Looking back, you can see he was a flawed human being with character issues, but when you're a nine year old kid you need heroes. Mine were JFK and Alan Shepard. Kennedy told us anything was possible and Shepard proved it was.

We talked about Kennedy in class a lot, especially during the Cuban missile crisis. Being so close to Manhattan we knew we could all be vaporized in an instant. There was a team spirit back then, a patriotism I never saw again until 9/11... and even that faded quickly. Kids were inspired to reach for the top.

I remember the school nurse coming into our fourth grade class, whispering into the teacher's ear, and then quickly leaving. The teacher announced, "President Kennedy has been shot. You are all to go home." After a few numbing moments, the kids in the class turned into a bunch of reporters. Was he dead? Where was he shot? "I don't know. Just go home," the teacher said.

We ran home and parked ourselves in front of the television set for basically four days. The one time we left was to go to church (packed beyond belief) and on the walk home people were on their lawns yelling, "Oswald's been shot!"

The images and events are frozen in time. Cronkite wiping away a tear, John Jr.'s salute, the natural sound of the drums as the coffin rolled through DC (with nary a word from a commentator... back then they knew enough to shut up and let the pictures and sound carry the story). We trusted television back then, we believed what we saw.

Then, everything began to unravel. Lyndon Johnson escalated Vietnam and Americans began to seriously doubt the government. When the Warren Commission ruled that Oswald had acted alone and a network agreed, it was the first crack in the credibility of television journalism. No one believed Oswald had shot JFK with a mail order rifle. (When I visited Dealey Plaza years later, it only confirmed my beliefs.) We didn't believe the Warren Commission, and since the network agreed with them, we didn't believe the network. (The one dissenter on the Commission was a congressman named Hale Boggs, who mysteriously died in a plane crash later. Hmmmm.)

But before I get off on an Oliver Stone tangent, let's get back to the original point. Trust. The media has lost it, and truly jumped the shark during the 2008 election. Now we're like the cheating husband asking the wife to take us back and trust us. The wife is objectivity, while opinion is our mistress.

How do we get back that trust? Well, it won't happen overnight. We have to become objective again, do stories that really affect people instead of just chase the scanner, provide people with information that can make their lives better. Be part of the community, provide help as only television people can.

Deliver the news without an opinion or an agenda.

Many have written that America lost its innocence the day JFK was shot, and that is a perfect way to describe the time period. It has sadly never come back. Living in "Leave it to Beaver" land might seem corny looking back, but we were happy and believed in a future. I'm not sure anyone believes in anything anymore.

But we have to start turning it around. We saw a little of it during 9/11 but news slipped back into its old tricks, running sleazy stories during sweeps and being as sensational as possible.

Time to turn back the clock.