news junkie

When I was in junior high school, I decided I wanted to be a journalist. I was already a news junkie -- listening to Edward R. Murrow's evening radio news report and NBC's weekend hourly news as well as reading both Denver newspapers. I became friendly with the men in the INS office, who showed me how they wrote their reports on perforated tape, then fed it into the teletype machines. After holding each day's output for a month, they let me have the discarded rolls. I took them home and pretended to write up my own news scripts [125 wpm, a journalism text prescribed].

I thought of those yellow roles, the staccato typing, and the five bells signifying a bulletin when I read Mike Allen's comments on this anniversary of the Kennedy assassination [see item 10 here] and also the AP historical report here. The Pulitzer went to UPI's reporter, who held onto the pool phone. Here's a long version of the UPI roll.

Thanks to Google, which wouldn't exist for another 35 years, I see another account of how journalists covered the tragic events that day. Myself, I was driving my freshman debaters to a tournament at the University of Vermont in Burlington. I stopped at a New Hampshire state liquor store [prices were much cheaper there] and noticed the flag at half staff. Inside, people were talking about the shooting. That's how I found out. To this day, I'm always curious to learn why flags are at half staff when it's not a holiday.