Presidential assassinations, both successful and attempted, are a fortunate rarity. But when they do happen, the ensuing firestorm is hard for even seasoned journalists to cover.
I was in a car returning to Washington from Richmond, Va., from a funeral when I learned about the attempted assassination of former President Trump.
I was in a car heading to a wedding on Long Island when I learned about the attempted assassination of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., in 2012.
I was on the elliptical machine at a gym in Alexandria, Va., when I learned about the attempted assassination of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., at a Congressional baseball practice in 2017.
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I was at home after school in the sixth grade when I learned about the attempted assassination of President Reagan in 1981.
I didn’t realize after the Reagan shooting that reporting on these incidents would become a normal part of my job. Perhaps that’s why I’ve dug deep into the recesses of my memory to recall nuggets of information from these episodes. In fact, they help me put what I report on now into context.
Back in 1981, I was in my Dad’s maroon Pacer as we drove to Hamilton, Ohio for my weekly trumpet lesson. We listened to the news coverage on the radio as legendary anchor John Chancellor of NBC presented to the planet that "John Hinckley Jr." was the suspected gunman.
For some reason, one detail stands out. I recall Chancellor saying that Hinckley had worked as a radio disc jockey in Colorado.
The whole thing sounded chaotic. Coverage of attempted political assassinations tend to be that way. I remember some of the same chaos on the radio when my Dad picked me up after school that same fall. I was then in the 7th grade. A team of soldiers had just assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.
No one talked about the Sadat killing at school the next day. But everyone at school was abuzz about the Reagan shooting.
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A friend at school also watched the news and remarked the next day how one newsman nearly lost his composure when he learned that Reagan was actually shot. Not just shot at.
As I said, assassinations and assassination attempts are chaos. So you can understand the bedlam enveloping Frank Reynolds – then the anchor of ABC’s World News Tonight – as he covered the Reagan shooting from the news desk.
It’s easy to review major, breaking news events and see what was accurate in hindsight. But such scenes are pure furor in real time.
Reynolds even reported at one point that "the president was not hit."
But the first draft of history is often wrong. That’s not the fault of the journalists. You just be as careful as you can with the information you know at the moment.
Reynolds was navigating ABC’s live coverage of the attempted assassination of Reagan alongside former ABC White House Correspondent Sam Donaldson. Someone handed them a yellow slip of paper.
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Reynolds and Donaldson studied the sheet as though they were decrypting a foreign code and simultaneously solve an algebra problem.
"He was wounded!?!?!" exploded an incredulous Reynolds and Donaldson, almost in unison.
Donaldson kept his eyes trained on the page and pressed his hand to his lip. Meantime, Reynolds raised his right palm to his forehead.
"My God!" said Reynolds.
In seeming disbelief, Reynolds then turned to someone off camera, to confirm that what he just uttered on the air to millions was accurate.
"The president was hit?" asked Reynolds tersely.
A muted voice off-camera says something about "stable condition."
Reynolds was now volcanic with anger, but trying to keep it together.
He turned to his right, and glared off-stage, stunned at how the story just shifted geometrically in a few seconds.
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One can only speculate what spun through Reynolds’ head at that moment. Was this an unsuccessful assassination attempt like Squeaky Fromme pointing a gun at President Ford in a San Francisco park in 1975? Or was this going to be JFK at Dealey Plaza in Dallas?
"All this information!" Reynolds snarled, double-clutching the yellow notebook paper.
Reynolds strangled the sheet with such force that you hear it crinkle over the air.
For a nanosecond, Reynolds looks like he wants to punch someone out. He’s been reporting to a nationwide audience that the president wasn’t shot. Now that’s wrong. In fact, he may be wrong on one of the biggest stories of all-time: the potential assassination of a president.
Donaldson continued to stare at the desk, trying to grasp the gravity of the situation.
And then, like throwing a switch, Reynolds regained his composure. His voice lowered. The edge receded. His dulcet, anchorman baritone returns. Reynolds then delivered the information in a smooth cadence.
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However, a little later, someone tried to again relay something to Reynolds from off camera. Reynolds strained to hear the person over the din of the newsroom.
"Speak up!" Reynolds barked like a drill sergeant, waving an accusing index finger at someone unseen.
One can’t really blame Reynolds in that moment. He was just trying to get the story right amid the chaos.
It’s popular convention that most people learned about JFK’s assassination via the CBS broadcast from Walter Cronkite, in the middle of "As the World Turns."
"From Dallas, Texas, the flash apparently official, President Kennedy died at 1 pm, Central Standard Time," intoned Cronkite removing his glasses. "Two o’clock, Eastern Standard Time. Some 38 minutes ago."
Cronkite swallowed hard, pausing for a full seven seconds before speaking again.
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But it’s unclear if that’s truly how most people learned of JFK’s death. That was the "TV" version. Thus, it’s iconic. Millions of Americans were listening to the radio in the middle of the afternoon. And it’s fascinating to cull through old radio broadcasts to see how local stations reported on it.
The coverage on WLW-AM in Cincinnati is particularly interesting.
And chaotic.
WLW is one of the nation’s most prominent radio stations. Billed as "The Nation’s Station," WLW is what the industry calls a "blowtorch." The station boasts a formidable, 50,000 watt, clear-channel signal which purportedly can reach 38 states at night. At one point, WLW was the strongest station in the world. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt flipped a switch at the White House which boosted the power to an astounding 500,000 watts. People in Europe could hear the transmission.
But WLW’s broadcast of the Kennedy assassination is emblematic of what hundreds of stations across the nation went through when the news broke.
At 1:30 pm et, WLW goes to the national NBC Radio newscast, hosted by Martin Agronsky. Agronsky does a report about Kennedy’s visit to Dallas. The national newscast concludes and local WLW host Fred Bernard takes back over in the studio. He gives the weather and talks about rain stretching from Toledo to Dayton. Bernard then plays the overture of the Broadway musical "Li’l Abner." I guess that’s what they played on the radio back in those days.
The overture only advances into a few soaring bars until it quickly fades. At the end, you hear Bernard slightly scratch the record as he lifts the needle and prepares to go on air.
"We’ll have to standby here for just a moment. There may be something happening," warns Bernard as calmly as he gave the weather report.
"Yes there is," says Bernard.
You then hear a studio door slightly squeak.
"There’s a bulletin just handed (to) me from Dallas, Texas," says Bernard.
He then mentions that someone fired on President Kennedy’s motorcade.
After trying to parse the wire copy for a moment, Bernard levels with the audience.
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"I’ll tell you exactly how this reads," says Bernard. "‘Dallas. An unknown sniper fired three shots.’ And there are five letters. ‘PMOUX.’ Then a ‘FLASH.’ Kennedy’s name is misspelled. ‘FLASH’ again. And at the bottom of this headline it says ‘Kennedy seriously wounded.’"
Bernard says he’ll update the audience. But goes back to the record.
"This is the overture to Li’l Abner. Lehman Engel and orchestra," says Bernard.
The most incongruous music possible for such an intense moment then begins playing. It’s an absurd barnyard fiddle which sounds like you’re at a hoe-down.
This lasts for no more than ten seconds. The music cuts out cold. You hear two people speaking off-mic in the studio, in mid-conversation.
"…has been shot!" someone says.
"Who? Kennedy?" inquires another voice.
"Yeah," someone affirms.
"The president?" asks the second voice, incredulously.
"Yeah," the other voice confirms again.
Then things get serious.
A deep-voiced announcer voice begins.
"Here is a bulletin from the WLW Comex Newsroom," says an announcer-type, formally giving information about the shooting.
The voice says there were no casualties.
"We’ll keep you posted as the news comes in to the WLW newsroom."
Without warning, the music starts up again, halfway through the overture.
Ironically, the tune from the musical at this point is a satirical ditty titled "The Country’s In the Very Best of Hands."
The announcer comes back a few minutes later. Finally WLW switches to NBC Radio News and goes wall to wall with coverage. There’s even a live report from Robert MacNeil in Dallas who was traveling with Kennedy. MacNeil would go on to host the "MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour," on PBS for 22 years.
There was pandemonium in Butler, Pa., on Saturday night. There were initial questions about whether there was actual gunfire.
I have experienced, watched and listened to many of these scenes before. Even covered or been a part of other moments like this in person.
There’s a common denominator in all of them. They are familiar to me. They’ve been familiar to me for decades.
They’re utter chaos.
