Dan Rather Speaks on the 50th Anniversary of His Most Important Story

BY EMMA THOMSON

Fifty years after he broke the news that President John F. Kennedy had been killed, Dan Rather joined The Kalb Report at the National Press Club to talk about his experiences as a journalist covering the president’s assassination from Dallas. The former anchor of the CBS Evening News sat down with Marvin Kalb to give his firsthand account of the events surrounding Kennedy’s death.

His Story

On Nov. 22, 1963, CBS assigned the Texas native to coordinate media coverage for a “routine political visit”. Rather was stationed at the underpass where the president’s motorcade was scheduled to culminate when he saw what he believed to be Kennedy’s limousine speed by him.

It was not until Rather rushed to the local CBS station to complete a film drop that he heard Kennedy had been shot. The wires at the station began to run as the news broke.

“Every reporter’s emotions just kicked in,” he said.

Knowing the phone lines would soon be busy, Rather placed three calls to the hospital where Kennedy had been taken. Although a nurse hung up on him the first time he called, Rather eventually was able to speak to a doctor and a priest, who both confirmed the president indeed had been shot and was dead.

The word of doctors and a priest was enough evidence for Rather. 

“When you’ve got a dead man, you’ve got a dead man,” Rather said.

Although television broadcasts would wait until the official White House announcement to break the news to the American people, CBS immediately played the Star Spangled Banner and announced that Kennedy had been assassinated.

During the four-day ordeal, Rather relied on his journalism fundamentals to report the facts to the American people. This allowed him to calmly break the tragic news during one of the most emotional experiences of his life.

“When a sledgehammer hits your heart, your instincts kick in,” he said.  “You’re a reporter…and you’ve got a dead man.”

Rather attributes his news instincts to helping him avoid a potential disaster as he covered Kennedy’s death. When Kalb mentioned that he would have been terrified to break such immense news without official confirmation, Rather reminded him that when things are in chaos, simply reporting was more important than anything else. 

“If you had been there, you or any reporter, your instincts would have kicked in,” he said.

Kalb and Rather discussed the role of journalism in the Kennedy coverage. Both pointed out that the assassination was the beginning of the, “TV age as we knew it.” Comparing earlier work to modern journalism, Rather said past journalism had been less bias and more honest.

“[The coverage of Kennedy’s death] was the spine of American journalism,” he said. “Most journalists were honest brokers of information.”

Rather related the Kennedy assassination news reporting to the coverage of 9/11. He called the two national tragedies, “bookends of the television news era.” According to him, TV news came of age during the four day programming following the Kennedy assassination and lost headway in the digital era following 9/11.  

Conspiracy Theories

Rather is for the most part quick to dismiss potential conspiracies surrounding Kennedy’s death. He believes that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone and Jack Ruby was the person who killed Oswald.

“An assassin assassinated in the police station, you can’t make this stuff up!” Rather said.

He emphasized the necessity to analyze the Kennedy assassination with facts and not emotion.

“We’re entitled to our own opinions,” he said. “But we’re not entitled to our own facts.”

GW connection

Many members of the GW community attended Friday’s School of Media and Public Affairs (SMPA) sponsored event.

Steve Mukherjee, who earned an engineering management degree from the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) in 1979, said he was thrilled to see Rather that evening. Although Mukherjee was in a small Indian town when he heard that Kennedy had been shot, he still values the veteran journalist’s work surrounding the assassination.

Rather is, “The best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be,” he said. 

Other attendees included Provost Steven Lerman and SMPA Director Frank Sesno. Lerman, who was in his seventh grade gym class when he heard that Kennedy was dead, said that the opportunity to attend the Kalb Report was an educational and exciting opportunity for GW students. As a broadcast journalism veteran, Sesno emphasized the importance of television reporting during the coverage surrounding the assassination. 

Several GW students had the opportunity to ask Kalb and Rather questions following the program. Junior Omeed Firouzi asked Rather how President Lyndon Johnson was affected by the Kennedy assassination. After the event, Firouzi said he was excited to hear Rather’s “unique vantage” of the events surrounding Kennedy’s death.

“Rather lived through the events,” Firouzi said. “He is a primary source.”  

However, the man of the hour did not try to venture into the unknown. On Kennedy’s legacy and the what-ifs surrounding his administration cut short, Rather does not speculate on the “would have beens.”

“We’ll never know,” he said. “It ended too soon to judge.” 

The accomplished journalist still considers the story the biggest of his career. When he was asked which network had the best coverage of the assassination and following events, Rather replied with a sheepish grin.

“CBS,” he said. As if he had any other option. 

Former U.N. Ambassador Visits SMPA to talk Benghazi, American Diplomacy

by Andrew Desiderio

Former Ambassador to the United Nations Thomas Pickering visited the School of Media and Public Affairs on Tuesday, in an event sponsored by the Walter Roberts Endowment and the GW Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication.

At the event, titled “Beyond Benghazi: U.S. Public Diplomacy in Troubled Times,” Pickering spoke extensively of his experiences as co-chair of the Accountability Review Board (ARB) report, which detailed what went wrong during the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. The attack resulted in the death of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens.

SMPA Fellow Tara Sonenshine, the former Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, opened the event by emphasizing Pickering’s service to this nation in his many roles within the federal government. “Tonight, we really honor him for extraordinary service,” Sonenshine said.

SMPA Director Frank Sesno, who offered personal insight regarding Ambassador Pickering’s service while Sesno was the White House correspondent for CNN, moderated the discussion. Sesno said Pickering was always one of his most reliable sources.

Sesno began the conversation by asking Pickering what the Benghazi attack has meant for the U.S. and our influence abroad. “Benghazi was a blow,” he said asserted. Pickering was emotional when speaking of Ambassador Stevens, who was a close friend of his: “A friend tragically died under circumstances that should never be repeated.”

But what exactly went wrong in Benghazi on that fateful day? “We made a series of quite harsh findings,” Pickering asserted, claiming that our forces were “caught short.” There was, according to Pickering, an element of failed leadership on the part of many government officials in carrying out basic responsibilities in Benghazi.

“It was not possible for us, in these special circumstances, to dodge the bullet.”

Pickering outlined many of the specific problems that were present in Benghazi. Local authorities and law enforcement were particularly absent in Benghazi. Specifically, security protection overlooked the potential for fire and arson at the compound: “We learned, in fact, that fire is a weapon,” Pickering said.

The diplomatic mission in Benghazi was “too big a compound,” with “too few people protecting it,” Pickering said of his findings outlined in the ARB report.

Overall, “there should be no exceptions to the rules for dealing with security.” Benghazi, unfortunately, was an exception.

Another important aspect of the Benghazi probe is the media coverage and partisanship which has come along with it. To the ambassador’s dismay, he has seen what he calls the “worst kind of partisan strife,” and an “embarrassing level of party politics at the lowest level of mud wrestling.”

Pickering did not mince his words, and did not sugarcoat the issue at hand. He compared the hyped-up media coverage to winning a “Pulitzer Prize in creative fiction.”

But with all of the extensive reporting and evaluations of what went wrong in Benghazi, Sesno asked, has there been appropriate accountability for what went wrong? Pickering’s answer was an emphatic “yes.”

Furthermore, when asked if the Benghazi incident exposed vulnerability for then-Sec. of State Hillary Clinton if she decided to run for president in 2016, Pickering asserted that Clinton and President Obama were not responsible for any of the wrongdoings.

When asked about the current political environment, Pickering made the case that Washington has become increasingly out-of-touch with what is going on, in the sense that key positions are widely populated by political appointees who, to his dismay, have little or no abroad experience.

“Every administration wants their own people in the key jobs, and they’re not necessarily the people who have spent their life in the field and who know what’s going on,” Pickering explained.

In addition, Pickering believes that our government has, in many ways, less of a capacity to listen to what foreign governments are thinking and saying, even though our media outlets here in the U.S. report on it extensively. He cited Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in their criticisms of U.S. public diplomacy.

Finally, Pickering offered valuable advice to those seeking careers in Foreign Service: “Learn as much as you can about your job and what other people do. Be committed to service, and don’t worry too much about your next assignment. Go regularly to church, synagogue, or mosque, and pray for luck.”

Event Organizers Look To Move-On After Gorbachev Cancels GW Event

By Andrew Desiderio

Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev last Thursday canceled his upcoming visit to GW on October 1st due to health reasons.  The cancellation came just days after The School of Media and Public Affairs and the Media Student Community Council (MSCC), one of the event's co-sponsors, announced that SMPA Director Frank Sesno would interview Gorbachev in Lisner Auditorium. 

Now, SMPA and the Media Student Community Council, who spent months planning the event, are determined to move forward.

“President Gorbachev is welcome to appear at GW at any time, and we await word from his agency on when that may occur,” said Samara Sit, the Director of Administration and Special Projects for SMPA.

Gorbachev recently backed out of other events for health reasons, including Margaret Thatcher’s funeral in April.

The former Soviet leader was also supposed to speak at Principia College in Illinois on Oct. 3^rd, just two days after he planned on speaking at GW. GW would have been Gorbachev’s only DC stop on his US tour.

Student reaction across campus has been one of disappointment.  

“I’m a little bit disappointed, but I understand the circumstances," said Jonathan Adams, a Columbian College Freshman.  "I’m sure there will be an opportunity for him to return sometime in the future. I wish him the best with his health.” 

The Media Student Community Council was surprised by the news but is quickly looking to move forward.

“I speak for myself as well as the rest of the MSCC E-board when I say that we were utterly devastated by today’s news,” John Torrisi, chairman of MSCC, wrote in an email to members.

Torrisi, a GW senior in SMPA, attempted to lift members’ spirits.  

“We will work diligently with SMPA to replace this event with a bigger and better one later this school year.”

Despite the apparent disappointment around campus, Torrisi assured MSCC members that the organization’s goal is to bring another world-class speaker to GW. 

“I promise you that we will work tirelessly to achieve it.”

In the email sent to members, there is a link to a survey that asks members to name current or former Heads of State they would like to see speak on campus.  

In the first Student Association Senate meeting of the academic year on September 9th  SA Finance Chair Ryan Counihan reported that the Student Association had contributed thousands of dollars for the Gorbachev event.  Counihan told WRGW News, though, that there is no policy in place that the event either needs be replaced or the money needs to be returned.  However, he would not comment further about what would happen with the money until the next Student Association Senate Meeting, which will be on October 7th. 

McKinley Kant and Myles Goldman contributed to this report.  

Chuck Todd Interview (audio)

SMPA Director Frank Sesno's November "Conversation Series" continues at 7:30 tonight with NBC News Chief White House Correspondent and Political Director Chuck Todd. Sesno and Todd will discuss the chances of President Obama and the Republican candidates in the 2012 election, as well as the 24-hour media coverage around it. The Jack Morton Auditoriun will open its doors at 7:00 pm. The event is sold out, but all unoccupied seats will be given on a first-come, first-serve basis to early comers who join the standby line. The event is free and open to the public.

Todd gave WRGW News' Jorge Gadala-Maria a live, on-air preview of tonight's event earlier this afternoon. Listen and download below.

 Chuck Todd on the GOP Primaries and 2012 Election - Nov 28th, 2011 by WRGW News

http://www.mediafire.com/?z0f30ypj0pqmsf6

Ex-Democratic Congressman Critical of Obama at SMPA Event

A few notable politicians, journalists, and a political scientist sat down for a discussion as a part of the Center for Innovation Media’s Conversation Series at Jack Morton Auditorium Monday evening. The discussion, entitled “Broken Politics, Mixed-up Media: Can This Be Fixed?," focused on the current divided government and its coverage by the media. 

Moderated by SMPA Director Frank Sesno, the panel included CNN’s senior congressional correspondent Dana Bash, former Utah Republican Senator and SMPA Distinguished Professional Fellow Bob Bennett, former Tennessee Democratic Congressman Harold Ford Jr. and GW political science professor John Sides. 

During the opening questions, Sesno asked Bennett and Ford about the health of our government. 

“[Government is] broken. The people are not happy,” Bennett said. 

 Sesno pressed the question on Ford: “Do you think this president is leading?” 

“I don’t think he’s leading. I don’t think he’s been an effective [leader],” Ford replied. 

Dana Bash, a journalist covering the day-to-day Congressional activities, commented that “adults” are hard to find in Congress. 

Bennett commented that his father, Wallace Bennett, a former Utah senator, would have fellow legislators at his apartment during his tenure in the Untied States Senate. Nowadays, Bennett says legislators are too busy to get to know each other. 

At the heart of the problem, Professor Sides said that the “[political parties] have become further apart than before,” noting the increased polarization. To have success in the polarized political environment, Sides suggested, “Get your brand of crazy on the ballot.” 

While Bennett sees the root of the problem as being the congressional redistricting process every decade, Ford claims that legislators are learning more about electioneering than policy. 

Bennett says it is a “reaffirmation of what the Republican Party was founded on,” but called the Tea Party a movement without any “real solutions.” Ford said the Tea Party has a “manifesto that isn’t all that bad.” 


Bennett was defeated by now Senator Mike Lee at the Utah Republican convention in 2010. He claims he ran a traditional campaign, but recognizes the lack of a social media aspect that led Lee to win the Republican nomination for Bennett’s senate seat. In order to fix our broken government, Ford says, “Obama has to be more of a leader. The best time to solve big issues is when government is divided.”

Former Press Secretaries Reflect on White House, Presidency, and Social Media

On Monday, four former White House Press Secretaries joined School of Media and Public Affairs (SMPA) Director Frank Sesno for a discussion on their experiences in the White House. Ari Fleischer and Dana Perino, from President George W Bush’s administration, and Mike McCurry and Dee Dee Meyers, from President Bill Clinton’s administration, spoke about shaping the image of their respective administration and their limited role in forming policy. Joe Lockhart, also from the Clinton administration, was slated to attend but was unable due to complications from a recent surgery.

Describing the event as the biggest of the semester for SMPA, Sesno began by reflecting on the years between Meyers and Perino, respectively the earliest secretary and most recent secretary on the panel. “When Dee Dee Meyers started her job there were fifty websites,” said Sesno to an audience of students, journalists, and media at Lisner Auditorium. In addition, Sesno reflected on the impact of social media. Sesno jokingly said, “When [Dana Perino] tweets, the world listens.”

Questions to the panel were fielded online from attendees prior to the event. On one question, pertaining to the changing format of the press, McCurry said, “It’s a real danger if we believe all media should be freely available. We need to pay for the content that matters.” The last question of evening asked how students could get close to becoming a press secretary. Perino suggested that GW students should take advantage of DC’s unique opportunities and “take the deputy job.”

Larry King Visits SMPA and Talks With Frank Sesno

As part of The School of Media and Public Affairs ongoing “Conversation series” The George Washington University had the distinct privilege to host Larry King Thursday afternoon.

In front of a crowd of about 200 students, faculty, and outside attendants in the Jack Morton Auditorium, the usual roles were reversed, as SMPA director Frank Sesno conducted the interview with Mr. King as his guest.

Mr. King described the luck he has had over the course of his career. After the death of his father, he claimed, he “lost interest in school,” leading to his choice to skip college. He did, however, have a dream to go into radio, one that would lead him to a small Miami station, WAHR. After learning the trade, young Larry Zeiger, was presented with an opportunity to host his own show.

Immediately before going on the air, the station manager informed him, Mr. King explained, that he would have to change his name, Zeiger was simply too complicated for the radio. Quickly flipping through a newspaper, an advertisement for King’s Wholesale Liquors inspired his now famous moniker.

After leaving radio to switch over to television, he described his job as host for “Miami Undercover,” moderating debates about contemporary issues, the first step on his path to global stardom as a world-renowned interviewer.

Though the next segment of the interview was mixed with personal anecdotes about his show, “Larry King Live,” many of them funny, Mr. King proceeded to speak directly to the SMPA students, giving them important lessons about journalism and life.

Perhaps one of the most important issues, one that bothers him about news anchors today, is the fact that some journalists have large egos. Instead of simply letting the guest speak, they often include themselves too much in the conversation, using the word “I,” which, as Mr. King explained, rarely shows up in his diction.

It’s important to let the interviewee speak because that’s where the knowledge comes from, a fact that allows Mr. King “to go to college each and every night” because, as he explained, “I never learned anything while I was talking.”

Mr. King also emphasized the point that it’s important to remain calm, no matter who’s sitting in front of you. They’re just people, he stated, “they put their pants on one leg at a time just like everyone else.”

Lastly, he criticized the 24-hour news cycle because it forces organizations, such as CNN, to “run with things” and air a story even if all the facts haven’t been collected yet.

Recently, he stated, his show was contacted by the Guinness Book of World Records, and was presented with the award for longest running show in television history with the same network and the same host. Thinking back about all he’s done, Larry King humbly stated that through all the fame and success, “I’m basically still a little Jewish kid from Brooklyn.”

Snapshot: Secretaries Clinton and Gates Speak at Lisner

[caption id="attachment_2861" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="L to R: GWU Board of Trustees Chairman Russell Ramsey, CNN's Christiane Amanpour, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, SMPA Director Frank Sesno, GW President Steven Knapp"][/caption]

Click the image above to go directly to our Flickr photostream of CNN's Christiane Amanpour, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates speaking at Lisner Auditorium!

Planet Forward Premieres on PBS

Planet Forward, a website-turned-television show spearheaded by GW Professor Frank Sesno and research institution Public Agenda, aired last night on PBS.

To coincide with the premiere, GW Sustainability hosted a viewing party at Funger Hall that was attended by several university students and staff members, including students who had been working on the project since the beginning of the school year as part of the Planet Forward “Core.”  These students had helped come up with the title for the show, make content for the website and show, and reach out to the public.

Sesno and GW President Steven Knapp were in attendance to give remarks before the viewing.  Both stressed the importance of dialogue and GW’s involvement in finding alternative energy sources.

Due to technology glitches, the show wasn’t watched live on PBS, but was viewed via DVD, which included backstage footage shot taken during the taping by GW student and GWTV staff member Andrew Springer.

After the hour-long show – which included a panel discussion with energy experts and an exclusive interview with Obama’s Climate Czar Carol Browner – Sesno took questions from some of the audience members, who suggested ideas for future episodes and expressed support for the concept of the show.

“I am hopeful,” said one audience member after watching the premiere, adding that she looked forward to further televised discussions on the world’s energy future.

Footage of the show will soon be put up on Planet Forward’s website, www.PlanetForward.org, and a ‘webisode’ sequel to the premiere will also appear on the site late next month.

-Alex Laska

Earth Op-Ed

The debate on energy dependence and global climate change is often considered a partisan issue. But SMPA Professor Frank Sesno plans to bring all viewpoints to the table in a new forum which will promote a dynamic and unpredictable exchange of opinion.

The working title is Earth Op-Ed and it will be taking place on several media platforms, centering around a website and television show aired on public affairs programming. Earth Op-Ed will bring together people to exchange ideas, get information and engage in debate.

Sesno says that he hopes the project will be dynamic, interesting and fresh and he believes that, if done right, it will establish a leadership position for the George Washington University in both the global warming debate and in cross-platform media as a whole. The concept will be a university-based initiative, with several students and faculty members getting involved, and the television program to be shot on campus, in the Jack Morton Auditorium.

Sesno stressed above everything else that this is not a liberal activism platform. Rather, he plans to engage students, schools, advocates and interest groups from all sides of the debate the get and informative and engaging dialogue going.

Plans are still tentative, but Sesno aims to getting airing the show within the first 100 days of the new Presidential administration. Currently, his team is working on fundraising, and Sesno reports that they have already garnered over half of the funds needed to begin the project. They are also engaging potential partners and sponsors fro the operation and are recruiting students and faculty to get involved.

-Alex Laska