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The Kennedy/Nixon Debate
Photo for Wikipedia. If anyone should’ve known the political power of television, it was Nixon. Yet he didn’t fully grasp the
importance of his mere appearance when he met rival John F. Kennedy on September 16, 1960, in the first
televised presidential debate. Those who listened on the radio thought Nixon had won. But on television,
the poised, handsome, and well-rested Kennedy was the clear winner. -
Walter Cronkite Announces the Death of JFK
Photo from CBS Sunday Morining. CBS interrupted As the World Turns for Cronkite’s announcement, taken from a
UPI report, that three shots had been fired at the Kennedy motorcade. A little over an hour later, at 2:38
p.m., Cronkite appeared to deliver the news: “From Dallas, Texas, a flash, apparently official, President
Kennedy died at one p.m., central standard time, two o’clock eastern standard time, some 38 minutes
ago.” Tears welled in the distinguished newsman’s eyes; his voice cracked slig -
Walter Cronkite Denounces the Vietnam War
Vietnam was the first “television war,” 16mm news cameras bringing back footage of troops on the ground
and bloodshed in the field. And early on, CBS Evening News anchor and “most trusted man in America”
Walter Cronkite had been a supporter, going to Saigon and visiting both high-ranking generals and troops
on the front line. But as the network began airing reports critical of operations there, Cronkite felt his
opinion shifting. He didn’t make a practice of voicing political opinion, but after -
The Apollo 11 Moon Landing
Photo from NASA. Television often unites us in moments of tragedy, and the space program is no exception — it’s easy to
remember where one was when first learning of the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986, or
of the Columbia in 2003. But television also captured the astonishing beauty of space travel, and the
tremendous achievements of those who dedicated their lives to it. -
Richard Nixon Resigns
Photo from MSNBC. Nixon went on television on August 8, 1974 and gave a 16-minute speech in
which he resigned the presidency. The following afternoon, he bid farewell to his staff and departed via the
presidential helicopter, posing one more time for photographers and TV cameras, a smile on his face, his
arms raised with his hands in a V-for-victory pose. -
Roots
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Fall of the Berlin Wall
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The O.J. Simpson Chase
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The Septmber 11th Attacks
Photo from Business Insider. The crumbling of each tower all happened on live television, with not only cable news
channels but broadcast networks going to continuous coverage and viewers across the nation riveted to
their televisions for hours, days, and weeks. -
Hurricane Katrina
Photo from the History Channel. Severe weather coverage has, by now, become a series of visual cues: breaking waves, heavy rains,
on-the-scene reporters braving the forces in network windbreakers. But Katrina became more than just a
weather story, as New Orleans’ levees broke, thousands of residents pleaded for help from news cameras,
and reporters on the ground relayed stories of heartbreak and fear from the streets, the roofs, and the New
Orleans Superdome — sometimes telling those stories to
