John F. Kennedy became the primary source by which people were kept informed of events surrounding John F. Kennedy's assassination. In fact, television started to come of age before the assassination. On September 2, 1963, Kennedy helped inaugurate network television's first half-hour nightly evening newscast according to an interview with "CBS Evening News" anchor Walter Cronkite. Newspapers were kept as souvenirs rather than sources of updated information. In this sense his assassination was the first major TV news event of its kind. TV coverage united the nation, interpreting what went on, and creating memories of this space in time. All three major U.S.
Walter Cronkite Howard K. Smith and Harry Reasoner, because ABC at the time fed their newscast live at 6:00 pm Eastern instead of 6:30 to get a head start on CBS and NBC for those stations that aired "ABC Evening News" live (although not every affiliate did). On December 10, 1963, Cronkite introduced The Beatles to the United States by airing a four-minute story about the band on "CBS Evening News". This was originally broadcast on November 22, 1963, and was going to be shown again on the "CBS Evening News", but the assassination of John F. Kennedy prevented the broadcast at