I learned about the assassination attempt on former President Trump while I was driving back to Washington after the funeral in Richmond, Virginia.
I was driving to a wedding on Long Island when I learned about the 2012 attempted assassination of former Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
He was on an elliptical at a gym in Alexandria, Virginia, when he learned about the 2017 attempted assassination of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana) during a congressional baseball game practice.
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I was in sixth grade and home after school when I learned about the 1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan.
After the Reagan shooting, I never thought that reporting on these events would be part of my job, which is probably why I had to dig deep into my memory to recall bits and pieces of information about these events that actually help me understand in context what I’m reporting now.
In 1981, I was riding in my dad’s maroon Pacer to Hamilton, Ohio for my weekly trumpet lesson when I heard legendary NBC host John Chancellor on the radio news informing the world that “John Hinckley Jr.” was a suspect.
Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci took this photo of former President Trump shortly after the assassination attempt. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
For some reason, one detail stands out: I recall Chancellor saying that Hinckley had worked as a radio disc jockey in Colorado.
It all sounded chaotic. That’s how reports of political assassination attempts tend to be. I remember hearing the same chaos on the radio when I came home from school that fall and my dad picked me up. I was in the seventh grade. A group of soldiers had just assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.
The next day, no one at school was talking about Sadat’s murder, but everyone at school was buzzing about the Reagan shooting.
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My friend at school also saw the news, and the next day a news anchor said that Reagan was actually shot. but also Shot.
As I said earlier, any assassination or assassination attempt creates chaos, so it is easy to understand the chaos that surrounded Frank Reynolds, then anchor of ABC’s World News Tonight, as he reported from his news desk on the shooting of President Reagan.
It’s easy to look back at major breaking news stories and see what went right in hindsight, but in real time, such moments are pure mayhem.
Police officers and Secret Service agents jumped in to protect then-President Ronald Reagan during an assassination attempt outside the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, DC. (Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
At one point, Reynolds even reported that “the president was not shot.”
But first drafts of history are often wrong. That’s not the journalist’s fault. They just need to be as careful as possible with the information they know at the time.
Reynolds and former ABC White House correspondent Sam Donaldson were working on ABC’s live coverage of the assassination attempt on President Reagan when someone handed them a yellow slip of paper.
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Reynolds and Donaldson studied the sheet as if they were simultaneously deciphering a foreign code and solving an algebraic problem.
“Is he hurt?!” yelled an incredulous Reynolds and Donaldson almost simultaneously.
Donaldson had his eyes focused on the page and his hand over his lips, while Reynolds placed his right palm over his forehead.
President Ronald Reagan looks at a giant get well soon card while recuperating at George Washington Hospital after the assassination attempt by John Hinckley Jr. (Photo: © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
“Oh my goodness!” Reynolds said.
Reynolds looked in disbelief and turned to someone off-camera to confirm that what he’d said on air to millions was accurate.
“Was the president shot?” Reynolds asked simply.
A faint voice coming from off-camera speaks of a “stable condition.”
Reynolds looked ready to explode with rage, but managed to keep his cool.
He turned to his right and glared across the stage, astonished at how dramatically the story had changed in a matter of seconds.
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We can only guess what was going through Reynolds’ mind at that moment: Was this a botched assassination attempt like the one Squeaky Fromm pulled on President Ford in a San Francisco park in 1975? Or was it aimed at President John F. Kennedy at Dealey Plaza in Dallas?
“All this information!” Reynolds groaned, clutching the yellow notebook paper in both hands.
Reynolds squeezed the sheets so hard that they could be heard crinkling in the air.
ABC News’ Sam Donaldson and Frank Reynolds cover the 1974 Nixon impeachment. (Photo by Ed Streaky/American Broadcasting Company via Getty Images)
For a moment, Reynolds looked like he wanted to punch someone. He thought the president There was none Shots fired. He’s wrong. In fact, he may be wrong about one of the biggest stories of all time: a possible presidential assassination.
Donaldson continued to stare at the desk, trying to comprehend the gravity of the situation.
Then, as if by flick of a switch, Reynolds regained his composure. His voice was low, the tension gone. His mellifluous newscaster baritone returned. And he delivered his information with a smooth rhythm.
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But after a moment, someone off-camera tried to tell Reynolds something, and Reynolds strained his ears to hear who it was over the din of the newsroom.
“Speak up!” Reynolds yelled like a drill sergeant, wagging his finger at someone invisible.
You can’t blame Reynolds in that moment: he was just trying to get the story right in the midst of all the chaos.
The conventional wisdom is that most people learned about JFK’s assassination through a mid-air broadcast of Walter Cronkite’s “As the World Turns” on CBS.
“Official news out of Dallas, Texas: President Kennedy died at 1 p.m. Central time,” Cronkite boomed, removing his glasses. “2 p.m. Eastern time. About 38 minutes ago.”
Cronkite took a deep breath, was silent for seven seconds, and then began speaking again.
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But it’s unclear whether most people really found out about JFK’s death that way. It was the “television” version. So it’s symbolic. Millions of Americans were listening to the radio in the middle of the afternoon. And it’s interesting to scour old radio broadcasts to see how local radio stations covered it.
Cincinnati’s WLW-AM’s coverage is particularly interesting.
And it’s chaotic.
Former President John F. Kennedy, the most recent victim of an assassination attempt, attended the press conference. (Photo: Mario Biasetti)
WLW is one of the most famous radio stations in the United States. Billed as “The People’s Station,” WLW is known in the industry as a “burner.” The station boasts a powerful 50,000 watt clear channel signal that reportedly reaches 38 states at night. At one time, WLW was the most powerful station in the world. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt flipped the switch at the White House, boosting the power to an astounding 500,000 watts. People in Europe could even hear the station.
But WLW’s coverage of the Kennedy assassination is emblematic of what hundreds of stations across the country experienced when the news broke.
At 1:30pm EST, WLW switches to an NBC Radio national newscast hosted by Martin Agronski. Agronski reports on Kennedy’s visit to Dallas. The national newscast ends and WLW local host Fred Bernard returns to the studio. Bernard gives the weather report, noting that it is raining from Toledo to Dayton. Bernard then plays the overture to the Broadway musical “Lil Abner,” which I believe was played on the radio at the time.
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The overture builds for a few bars before quickly fading out, and at the end we hear the soft scratching of the record as Bernard lifts the needle, preparing to put the piece on the air.
“We’ll have to wait here for a while. Something might happen,” Bernard warned as calmly as he delivered the weather forecast.
“Yes, there is,” Bernard says.
Suddenly, I hear the faint creak of the studio door opening.
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, while riding in a convertible in downtown Dallas. (Getty Images)
“We just got a bulletin from Dallas, Texas,” Bernard said.
It also states that someone fired shots at President Kennedy’s motorcade.
Bernard tried to interpret the communication for a while, then joined his audience.
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“I’ll tell you exactly what it says,” Bernard says. “‘Dallas. Unidentified sniper fired three shots.’ And then there are five letters: ‘PMOUX.’ And ‘FLASH.’ Kennedy’s name is misspelled. And ‘FLASH.’ And then at the bottom of the headline it says, ‘Kennedy severely wounded.'”
Bernard says he’ll update the audience and then goes back to the record.
“This is the overture to ‘Little Abner,’ performed by Lehmann Engel and the orchestra,” Bernard says.
Then the most incongruous music for such a tense moment begins to play: a silly barn fiddle that sounds like you’re at a hoedown.
CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite reports on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Friday, November 22, 1963. (CBS via Getty Images)
This lasts less than 10 seconds. The music suddenly stops. Two people can be heard having an off-mic conversation in the studio.
“…he’s been shot!” someone says.
“Who? Kennedy?” asked another voice.
“Yes,” someone asserts.
“The President?” a second voice asked incredulously.
“Yes,” the other voice confirmed again.
Then things get serious.
A low voice announces.
“Breaking news from the WLW Comex newsroom,” said a person sounding like an announcer, providing official information about the shooting.
There were also reports of no casualties.
“We will let you know as soon as news enters the WLW newsroom.”
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Midway through the overture, the music starts again without warning.
Ironically, the song in the musical at this point is a satirical ditty about “the country being in the best hands”.
A few minutes later, the announcer returned. Finally, WLW switched to NBC Radio News, which carried the full coverage, including a live report from Robert McNeil in Dallas, who had accompanied Kennedy. McNeil would go on to host the “McNeil/Lehrer NewsHour” on PBS for 22 years.
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Chaos erupted in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday night, with initial doubts raised about whether a shooting had actually taken place.
I have experienced, seen and heard many of these scenes before, I have covered and been present at such moments firsthand.
They all have something in common: they are familiar to me, and have been familiar to me for decades.
It’s total chaos.
