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 When, Where, Why?" with that editorial report: Following Cronkite's editorial report, President Lyndon Johnson is claimed by some to have said, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America." This account has been questioned in a book on journalistic accuracy. At the time the editorial aired, Johnson was in Austin, Texas attending Texas Governor John Connally's birthday gala and was giving a speech in his honor. In his book "This Just In: What I Couldn't Tell You on TV", CBS News correspondent Bob Schieffer, who was serving as a reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram when Cronkite's editorial aired, acknowledged