Walter Cronkite Was The Source Of The Core "JFK Conspiracies"

President John F. Kennedy was killed, Texas Governor John Connally and James Teague were wounded during an assassination ambush in downtown Dallas on November 22nd, 1963. The shooting occurred at approximately 12:30pm Central Standard Time (CST). CBS-TV broke into regular programming with a bulletin about ten minutes later. Since television cameras back in 1963 took nearly thirty minutes to cold start, all audiences saw were a CBS News Bulletin card and heard the voice of Walter Cronkite. He reported from the Associated Press that three shots had been fired at the motorcade and that Kennedy was "seriously wounded." Cronkite advised, to what was probably a stunned audience, "stay tuned to CBS News for further details".

Well, the "further details" that Cronkite reported during the next thirty minutes are the source material for the core "conspiracy theories" about the assassination. Yes, and not without a definite caveat dolloped on at the end! These reports, of course, disappeared from the broadcasts as the story became the arrest of the possible assassin.

Iconic Polaroid photograph taken by Mary Moorman.

Below, I have transcribed the relevant portions from a recording of the actual broadcast.

12:40pm CST (all times approximate)

CBS breaks into regular programming with a special report by Walter Cronkite, voice only over a “CBS Bulletin”  logo.

Only twenty minutes after the assassination, Cronkite is reporting about the discovery of two possible assassins: a man and a woman! Rarely reported in pro-conspiracy books and articles and not at all in the anti-conspiracy one, this odd imagery, as it were, would be repeated five years later with the assassination of Robert Kennedy. Also, the infamous grassy knoll makes its first appearance.

12:50pm CST

CRONKITE: After these three loud bursts of gunshot, Dallas motorcycle officers escorting the president quickly leaped from their bikes and raced up a grassy hill. At the top of the hill a man and woman appeared huddled on the ground. In the turmoil it has been impossible so far to determine whether the Secret Service and Dallas Police returned the gunfire that struck down Kennedy and Connally, or whether this couple at the top of the hill, crouched down in their inert forms as the police rushed them were the would-be assassins.

This report contains the first overt mention of shot(s) coming from the grassy knoll and automatic weapon fire. Also, he is reporting "a crowd" surrounding the previously mentioned couple.

12:57pm CST

CRONKITE: Some of the Secret Service Agents thought the gunfire, however, was from an automatic weapon fired to the right rear of the Chief Executive’s car. Possibly from a grassy knoll. And that’s that knoll to which motorcycle policemen were seen racing and where the huddled figures of a man and a woman were seen on the ground with a crowd surrounding them. Which suggests of course, that perhaps, this is where the shots came from. This we do not know as yet positively.

The CBS network now switches to its local affiliate in Dallas. The first report of a Secret Service agent in the President's motorcade being killed is aired.

1:03pm CST

Reporters from Dallas station KLRD-

EDDIE BARKER: One of the Secret Service Agents who was riding with the President was killed. Is that correct?

DICK ?: That is the report at this moment.

BARKER: Dick, has there been any report as to whether or not the assassin was apprehended?

DICK ?: Nothing on the apprehension as yet…

1:06pm CST

Still from Dallas station KLRD.

BARKER: Uh, the report is that the attempted assassins, we now hear that it was a man and woman, who fired the shots, were on the ledge of a building near the Houston Street underpass. Uh, just from memory, that would put…

After this interesting bit of news, a major confirmation of what Cronkite had reported less than twenty minutes earlier, Barker is cut off and the image returns to CBS news headquarters in New York and Walter Cronkite.

CRONKITE: That was a report from Eddie Barker at our affiliate KLRD in Dallas, Texas.

1:11pm CST

Back to Dallas and the caveat of unconfirmed stories, however the reporting of the death of a Secret Service agent continued.

BARKER: As you can imagine there are many stories that are coming in now as to the actual condition of the President. One is that he is dead. This cannot be confirmed. Another is that Gov. Connelly is in the operating room. This we have not confirmed. Another is, and apparently this is correct, that one of the Secret Service Agents, whose job it was to guard the life of the President was killed in his line of duty. The President was whisked from the scene of the attempted assassination, or assassination, depending upon his condition of course at this hour, by bus to Parkland Hospital…

Walter Cronkite reads the official bulletin of JFK's death. (photo source: obrag.org)

As these initial reports quietly disappeared, even the reports about the heroic dead Secret Service agent, Cronkite eventually reported the awful, obvious news about Kennedy.

1:38pm CST

CRONKITE: From Dallas, Texas, the flash, apparently official: "President Kennedy died at 1 p.m. Central Standard Time." 2 o'clock Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago.

We Hold These Truths...

We hold these truths to be self-evident:

THAT Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin who killed John F. Kennedy and wounded Governor John Connally and James Teague; in spite of the fact "he" stayed at the assassin window for several seconds, ran in a direction away from the exit to secret "his" rifle, ran to the exit, down five flights of stairs, go into the lunch room, buy a coke from the machine and then be confronted by a Dallas Police officer only 90 seconds after the last shot.

THAT the Gulf Of Tonkin Incident, which got us in a shootin' war with them Viet Cong, actually happened; in spite of the fact, revealed years later, that it did not happen.

THAT Sirhan Sirhan was the lone assassin who killed Robert Kennedy and wounded six other people; in spite of the fact that he was standing in front of Kennedy, whose wounds were all from the back.

THAT James Earl Ray was the lone assassin who killed Martin Luther King; in spite of the fact that King's son doesn't believe it is true.

THAT Watergate was just a third rate burglary.

THAT the United States had nothing to do with the hostage crisis in 1979-80.

THAT the John Lennon shooting was the work of a lone gunman.

THAT the Ronald Reagan shooting was the work of a lone gunman.

THAT all the wars of the Reagan/Bush era were merely unending coincidences that had no relation to each other at all, step away nothing to see here.

THAT the Waco fire was a mere tragic accident.

THAT lying about who sucked your cock is a high crime and misdemeanor.

THAT the presidential election of 2000 was fair and balanced.

THAT September 11th was achieved by box cutter wielding terrorists hired by Saddam Hussien, no wait, Osama bin Ladin, well you get the idea.

THAT the presidential election of 2004 was fair and balanced (see above).

THAT it is okay for a private corporation called the Federal Reserve to print worthless money and sell it to the United States government and charge interest.

THAT we must pepper spray peaceful protesters.

THAT we must pepper spray peaceful protesters who think Wall Street is corrupt.

The Portland Police/Occupy Portland Lament

[with apologizes to Lennon-McCartney]

I'm so tired
I haven't slept a wink
I'm so tired
My mind is on the blink
I wonder should I get down
Pepper spray another fink
Yeah, yeah, yeah

I'm so tired
I don't know who to berate
I'm so tired
My club is set on you ape
Thanks to you filthy hippies
I was late to another call of rape
Yeah, yeah, yeah

The Mayor he's been putting you on
Well it's no joke
He's doing you harm
You know I can't sleep, I can't stop my brain
You know it's three weeks, I'm going insane
Funny how the media don't notice we cover our badges and names

I'm so tired
I'm feeling so upset
Although I'm so tired
Put out that cigarette
And curse Sir Walter Raleigh
You deserve everything you get
Yeah, yeah, yeah

The Mayor he's been putting you on
Well it's no joke
He's doing you harm
You know I can't sleep, I can't stop my brain
You know it's three weeks, I'm going insane
Funny how the media don't notice we cover our badges and names
Funny how the media don't notice we cover our badges and names
Funny how the media don't notice we cover our badges and names

Portland Mayor Sam Adams walks with members of the police. (photo source: seattlepi)

THE JFK CONSPIRACY: The Proof Is In The Warren Report

I believe it is safe to say that no one will ever be arrested, let alone tried and convicted, of deed or complicity, in the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22nd, 1963. Mainly because almost all of them are dead. It is unlikely that a notarized document from Oswald or a member of the military/industrial complex exclaiming, "Yes, I shot that son of bitch Kennedy dead!" will suddenly be discovered. Yet, even a cursory examination of the available evidence reveals that a coup d'état was accomplished in America that day.

It is easy to forget, given the distance in time of almost 50 years, that almost every conspiracy theory began with the publication of the very document created to refute conspiracy: The Warren Report.
More importantly, even though the Report's conclusion was that a lone assassin fired three shots from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository building, the evidence included in the Report completely refutes its own conclusion!

What I would like to do is focus on three examples of evidence which explicitly show that the official version is incorrect and hence a conspiracy in the truest sense of the word did exist. With this knowledge we can see that a coup did happen and we as a people and as a nation have suffered from the repercussions that reverberate to this day. To begin, let us look at the well worn official version of the assassination in Dallas, Texas. President Kennedy, his wife Jackie, Texas Governor John Connally and his wife Nellie were riding in an open air convertible as part of a motorcade through downtown Dallas.

The presidential motorcade in downtown Dallas. Left to right: Texas Governor John Connally, his wife Nellie, President John F. Kennedy, his wife Jackie.

Obama Thinks You Are An Idiot

President Obama's Veteran's Day remarks expose his belief that Americans are a bunch of idiots. We are incapable, he believes, to look beyond his statements to see how hypocritical he is, what a mass murderer he is and that he continues to receive support from Wall Street. We are apparently incapable of doing simple google searches which easily belie his remarks. See this and this for some background.

Photo source: C-Span

Random Thoughts Of A Random Guy...

I was alone in the desert. I was hot. I was sweaty. It was dry. The sun was beating down. I was beating down. There was no bush to beat around.

How did I get here? This was not typical. Normal, some would voice. Abnormal, I knew. Certainly against nature. Nevertheless, here I was and maybe it was Abby Normal after all.

But it was summer and it was cool. The sort of summer that drove me to write like this. Like Hemingway? But there was no white entry parlor. No white staircase. No shotgun in my hand, muzzle stuck in my mouth. And no reason to pull the trigger. There was no need. The image of brain matter slung like a bloody rice against the wall...no. Not for me.