Prior to the assassination of John F. Kennedy, what was the biggest breaking news story covered on television? Some might argue in favor of royal coronations or civil rights protests, but in terms of unfolding events, I'd suggest that we look back only one year, to 1962, and the Cuban Missile Crisis—what television historian Eric Barnouw called "the most sensational interruption" of America's daily television routine.
For all that we hear nowadays about "existential threats" (whatever that's supposed to mean), it's difficult to appreciate just how frightened people were during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I recall my mother talking about how she held me on her lap (I was just two at the time), wondering if this was going to be it. She wasn't alone; for many people, the end of the world wasn't just an intellectual exercise to ponder, but a real possibility, with the United States and the Soviet Union ready to duke it out over Cuba.
We don't hear a lot about televison coverage of the crisis, primarily because there wasn't a lot of it, at least not compared to what we'd experience today. There were a variety of reasons for this: most of the action took place either out in the ocean, where American warships were in the process of assembling a blockade of Cuba, or behind closed doors in Washington and Moscow. There were no remotes, no on-the-spot lcoverage, no journalists embedded in combat units—a drawback for a medium based on visuals. There was also an embargo of official statements from government officials, which network news heads vigorously protested, limiting the news flow even further. Compared to the non-stop coverage we'd have today, with reports of the world "on the brink," talking heads analyzing the situation 24/7, and continuous video loops of ships circling at sea, I'm not sure we weren't better off with limited television presence. You can imagine the frenzy of anxiety it would have produced.
And yet, of course, there was coverage; in fact, a TV Guide letter to the editor complains about news bulletins interrupting daytime soap operas. The first news that most Americans had of the crisis came via President Kennedy's televised address to the nation on Monday, October 22, in which he descibed the situation, demanded that the Soviet Union remove the missiles in Cuba, and announced the naval blockade of Cuba. TV Guide's Henry Harding wrote in the November 3, 1962 issue that "The TV networks interrupted scheduled programs to prsent news bulletins, and hastily stitched together news specials bringing the viewers whatever facts could be gathered by correspondents all over the world. They switched to the UN for live pickups of the deliberations of the Security Council" (including UN Ambassador Adlai Stevenson's dramatic Security Council speech dramatic Security Council speech.)
But there's no question that coverage was limited. As Harding pointed out, "In a situation as critical as this, the information supplied by TV could never be adequate to satisfy the public's appetite and need to be informed." He added, however, that "it is some comfort to know that, as news breaks, a twist of the television dial can make it available to every American." (How true that would be a year later.)
Here are a couple of special broadcasts during the crisis: first, from October 23 (62 years ago today!), NBC's weekly news analysis program Chet Huntley Reporting presents an in-depth "Report on Cuba":
Next, Walter Cronkite anchors a CBS News Special Report on October 24, with reports from various CBS correspondents.
And from David Von Pein's excellent YouTube JFK news channel, here's a sampling of NBC News radio coverage from October 28.
For those interested in digging into it a little further, Robert MacNeil's long-form interview with the Television Academy includes this section on his experience covering the crisis. And in 1974, ABC presented an excellent (if not always trustworthy) dramatization, The Missiles of October.
A little over a year later, Kennedy's assassination would completely change how television covered breaking news. Granted, in some ways it was an easier story to cover; at the same time, live remotes were still difficult to pull together, especially on short notice. Remember, no television or radio station was able to broadcast the announcement of Kennedy's death live, nor were they able to cover Lyndon Johnson's swearing-in aboard Air Force One at Love Field. Given the technical limitations of the time, it's a wonder that television was able to provide the coverage it did.
I wonder: had the situation been reversed, had network news already "come of age" by demonstrating their ability to cover breaking news (and to do it well), would they have covered the Cuban Missile Crisis any differently? TV
I was a baby when all that happened. My first introduction to the events was in the 1974 Hallmark Hall of Fame TV program The Missiles of October.
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