Combining original interviews with previously available material, this volume by the Newseum (a museum of news sponsored by the Freedom Forum foundation) guides readers through the assassination of John F. Kennedy from his arrival in Dallas the morning of November 22, 1963, to the funeral four days later, including the arrest and murder of Lee Harvey Oswald. The emphasis on how the journalists covering the story perceived it adds an illuminating perspective to well-known events, communicating with immediacy the chaos of the moment. Journalists had to draw on all their resourcefulness to report the story while struggling to maintain their professional distance. The account is filled with fascinating details, from a description of the AP and UPI reporters fighting over a car phone to Dallas reporter Tom Alyca's recollection of staying inside the Texas School Book Depository after investigators closed it off, then smuggling out photos of the shooter's perch. The companion CD includes audio excerpts from radio and TV coverage and snippets of Dallas police communications, radio transmissions between the White House and the airborne, Tokyo-bound press secretary, Pierre Salinger, even a phone call from Lyndon Johnson to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. Those who were alive 40 years ago remember the events so clearly because of the journalism commemorated here, but readers of all ages will be moved by the powerful testimony. 120 b&w photos.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School-A powerful, multimedia reliving of Kennedy's assassination, beginning with Air Force One landing at Love Field and ending with the president's internment at Arlington National Cemetery. The commentaries from some of the nation's foremost journalists, including Mike Wallace, Dan Rather, and Walter Cronkite, have a clarity, drama, and intensity that only newsmen of their stature can provide. An audio CD narrated by Rather provides actual news broadcasts, phone calls, police radio transmissions, and aircraft radio communication. The book-CD combination is so well done that many readers will feel as if they have experienced that fateful day.
John Kiefman, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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4.0 out of 5 stars A cameo of detail during a momentous event, Jan 5 2008

By	M. J. Fenn (Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: President Kennedy Has Been Shot (Hardcover)

This book presents the death of Preisdent Kennedy and the aftermath from a unique perspective: that of the journalists involved in covering the story as it broke and developed. The audio CD narrated by Dan Rather, is expecially effective and well-produced.

Some of the big names and subsequent veteran news anchors: Rather himself, Walter Cronkite, were intimately involved in the reporting of this traumatic event in November 1963.

What especially stuck me was the expectation of detachment which was professionally expected on the part of the journalists reporting the shaterring event: a detachment which, it must be said, was not uniformly achieved.

The day of J F Kennedy's funeral is also covered; in fact, three funerals occurred on that day, linked to the events at Dealy Plaza: not only that of Kennedy, attended by world leaders, but also those of Office Tippett, also killed by Oswald, and then Oswald's own funeral, mainly attended by reporters.

An eloquent description of the senselessness of such violent acts.

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5.0 out of 5 stars With an audio cd with actual broadcasts, Jul 14 2004

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

On November 22, 1963 President Kennedy was assassinated: this collection of images and memories assembled by Newseum (an interactive museum of news), recounts the four days in November which began with his death and charted the nation's confusion and agony. The addition of an audio cd with actual broadcasts accompanies eyewitness accounts, pictures and a unique 'you are there' impression contributed by the numerous news accounts and stories throughout. An excellent survey.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Incredibly COMPELLING: puts you THERE, Dec 4 2003

By	Joel L. Gandelman (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

There has never been and may never be a book like this one. President Kennedy Has Been Shot combines the best of "oral history" (long-quotes from people who were there rather than a long newsmagazine-style narrative account) plus a pull-out-all-stops CD...that puts you BACK in 1963, even if you weren't born yet.

Where was I? I had just finished a (terrible) speech to run (unsuccessfully) for jr high school vice president. I was self-absorbed after my first-ever serious public speech. Right after I spoke a teacher got up and said something, there was a gasp and people filed out to the buses (it was time to go). I asked a teacher what happened and he said the title of this book: "President Kennedy has been shot..."

It doesn't matter if you lived through this time or not. The highly-detailed reminiscences plus excerpts from things said at time time -- coupled with the effective use in the book of text of key audio-news tracks on the incredible CD -- make this highly compelling. And you're shoved into 1963, whether you were alive then or not, when you hear the CD's radio and television news bulletins, the shooting of Oswald -- but especially the loud, shocked GASP from the crowd when the Boston Symphony's conductor tells the crowd that the President was assasinated. And then you hear the mournful gasp as he says he will play a funeral march...

It's all there in the text and the CD. Including things you didn't know at the time: authentic audio of Lady Bird Johnson's dramatic diary dictations, tapes of private phone calls by Johnson to J Edgar Hoover, Rose Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr, and a slew of news correspondents trying to cover a story. In the text you see how they covered it; in the CD you hear how some of them emotionally lost it.

This is THE amazingly-priced multimedia packet to get anyone who wants to learn more, recall, or learn for the first time about what happened on that awful Nov. 22, 1963 and on those wrenching days after it. The CD is worth the price of the book and CD; the book is worth the price of the book and CD.

I was reluctant to buy this at first. I thought it'd be seriously deficient and not do justice to the man or the tragedy. I was wrong on all counts.

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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting
You cannot compare the assassination of John F. Kennedy to the terror attacks on September 11, 2001. I'm not saying one event is more horrible than the other. Read more

Published on Nov 23 2003

4.0 out of 5 stars May and May Not Be Good
The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon horribly changed America than the assassination did. Read more

Published on Nov 9 2003 by Sanjay N. Iyer

4.0 out of 5 stars President Kennedy Has Been Shot
In the 40 years since his assassination, I have never experienced the kind of breathless, consuming, dark pain that I did when I first heard President Kennedy had been wounded and... Read more

Published on Nov 7 2003 by Roger Dier

5.0 out of 5 stars I Felt Like I Was Living Through This Again
Both newspaper reporters and television newscasters provide the reader with a review of the unforgettable four days in 1963 that jolted America. Read more