Nov. 22

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Mon Nov 17, 2003 12:34 am

I suppose its pointless to remind everyone that Nov. 22, 1963, was a very long time ago. For most of our readers, and especially our most coveted readers, the assassination of John F. Kennedy might as well have been the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. It would be a colossal mistake to overplay the 40th anniversary this weekend (and not just because anniversary "stories" are pretty much worthless), but that won't stop us.

Bumfketeer · **Posted:** Mon Nov 17, 2003 12:38 am

Too late. We started overplaying it Saturday...front page every day...long-ass excerpts from the Connally book, which came to the desk with a stern reminder that it was "not to be converted to AP style."

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Mon Nov 17, 2003 8:44 am

Zay N. Smith makes the point in Quick Takes:News Headline: "Where were you ... Nov. 22, 1963?"The Census Bureau wants you to know that 58 percent of you can't tell us where you were because you hadn't been born yet.

majorbabs · **Posted:** Mon Nov 17, 2003 3:07 pm

I will only add that my new hairdresser wasn't sure about the band Paul McCartney was in before Wings and asked if it was the Beatles or "one of the other groups from those days." I'm sure the Kennedy assassination, as you say, has as much meaning as the Lincoln assassination, to her, and maybe less.

Bumfketeer · **Posted:** Mon Nov 17, 2003 4:55 pm

here is how I have been describing it for years:
My oldest child was born in 1975...12 years after the assassination.I was born in 1953. Twelve years before that, the seminal event for a generation occurred: Pearl Harbor. Obviously, that was a far, far, far more significant event than Nov. 22, 1963 was.Pearl Harbor seems like ancient history to me.
My daughter, now a schoolteacher and mother pushing 30, no doubt feels the Kennedy assassination is ancient history.
Imagine what our young "target reader audience" feels about it. To them, it might as well have been the Crusades.Frankly, I am not particularly interested in long retrospectives on Pearl Harbor, even though I enjoy reading about history. If there were a weeklong series of two-yard-long stories about Pearl Harbor, I wouldn't read it unless I were paid to do so.Yeah, Nov. 22 was a big deal. But now it isn't. And I wish papers would use some small amount of restraint. But they won't.

jmcg · **Posted:** Mon Nov 17, 2003 8:52 pm

The larger point, though blanp hints at it is his on the mark dismissal of anniversary stories generally, is that there's nothing new in these JFK stories. I'd like to think we could engage "younger" readers with stories how, 40 years later, the truth was out and the cover-ups exposed. But even that's a stretch, probably.[ November 18, 2003: Message edited by: jmcg ]

Bumfketeer · **Posted:** Mon Nov 17, 2003 11:46 pm

Good point, jmcg....Like making people pay half a buck to sit in history class again.

Rio · **Posted:** Tue Nov 18, 2003 12:01 am

The good news is that after this year, we should have to suffer through this only once more, in 2013. After that, virtually all the editors who believe the assassination anniversary is something worth packaging will be retired or dead.

dmfugitive · **Posted:** Tue Nov 18, 2003 12:09 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by majorbabs:
I will only add that my new hairdresser wasn't sure about the band Paul McCartney was in before Wings ...<hr></blockquote>I'm surprised she'd even heard of Wings.

majorbabs · **Posted:** Tue Nov 18, 2003 2:04 pm

She also has "Come Together" as one of her cell phone ringtones, but only knows it as something associated with Michael Jackson. Didn't know it was from the Beatles. Sigh.

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Fri Nov 21, 2003 8:22 am

Four decades after the shooting in Dallas, it's surprising how little the assassination -- at the time a veritable thunderclap among events -- affected the inexorable tide of history. (New York Times)***But we'll make a major production out of the anniversary anyhow.***

mcarlson · **Posted:** Fri Nov 21, 2003 8:52 pm

{bc-post-front
{(wap)
{The Washington Post first-edition Page 1 for Saturday, Nov. 22: ...
Above the fold:
Col. 1: Memory of JFK assassination fades in Dallas (JFK-DALLAS, moved).

mcarlson · **Posted:** Fri Nov 21, 2003 8:54 pm

And there is more...{bc-news-advisory
{(wap) (ATTN: National editors)
{Editors:
{
The following is now scheduled:
KENNEDY-LEADER — Despite the predictable outpouring of television retrospectives from conspiracy theorists and Camelot nostalgia buffs, it's extremely difficult for those under a certain age to understand everything that died in Dallas 40 years ago, and why we are today in some ways so very much a poorer country. 1550 words, by Ken Ringle (Post) (a).

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Nov. 22

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