The Morning Delivery

Reading News on your Favorite App

 
According to a 1993 article from Mac User, `` The future of application software is not the bulky dinosaurs of today but smaller, more focused products, documented and distributed electronically''

How right the biweekly computer magazine was in reading the tea leaves of what the 21st century had in store for online users.

Steve Jobs and his Apple company have clearly been one of the leading pioneers to have cashed in on the growing popularity of computer applications or apps with the opening of the Apple Store on July 11, 2008, which offers iPhone and iPod touch users a wide selection of apps in 20 categories, including games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel.

In January, Apple announced more than three billion apps have been downloaded by users from its App Store ; and a company representative recently confirmed that the Cupertino, Calif. company, as of August, 2010, offers more than 225,000 apps on the App Store

News organizations have been especially anxious to take advantage of this new venue for disseminating information as more and more consumers abandon the print newspapers or watching television news from their living rooms; opting instead to read their news on the run-either from the gym, in their cars, during the lunch breaks, using their iphones or laptops.

Recent data from the Pew Research Center, shows that 59 percent of adults now access the internet wirelessly using a laptop or a cell phone.

Not only are news organizations going wireless in increasing numbers, but their very survival, especially print publications, hinges on how well they are able to market their products on the iphone and ipad.

According to Michael Gartenberg, a partner and analyst with the Altimeter Group, ``As consumers use their devices for more functionality and to consume more content, newspapers, magazines etc need to embrace this change with compelling apps and business models to keep their readers.’’

Despite the importance of media organizations developing creative online venues, there are still media analysts who question how profitable apps as a gateway to news information will be in the long run.

``Clearly some news organizations have hope they can use apps to add a powerful new revenue stream to their operations, but there isn’t enough data yet for us to know what kind of impact the apps environment will have on 1) consumer consumption habits; 2) consumer paying practices’’ Lee Rainie, Director of the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project in Washington D.C. wrote in an email.

To give you a sense of the variety of news available on mobile devices, I compiled a brief list of apps that are on the Apple Store.

• The Wall Street Journal: unveiled their app for the ipad in April, which provides updated news and information, full-screen video, market data and customizable features, including the ability to save articles and full sections, such as ``What’s News’’, ``Marketplace, Money & Investing’’ and Personal Journal, for later or offline reading. The Wall Street Journal for iPad is available as a stand-alone subscription for $3.99 per week from the App Store on iPad. According to the company press release, the app is free to download with a subscription required for full access to all content and features.  Current Journal subscribers will receive full access free for a limited time. 

• The New York Times features the ``Editors Choice'' application , a free app and in sync for Wi-Fi or through a cellular network, which downloads the latest news directly to your device.

Besides the Journal and the Times, leading television news networks can be found at the Apple Store, including:

• CNN  launched the international iPhone app last month, a free application, featuring global news through text, video and photos, which also includes user-generated content capture and upload functionality through iReport. The app additionally provides access to an extensive selection of on-demand video clips across many categories, including World, Most Popular, Sport, Business, U.S., Entertainment, Tech and CNN en Español.

And last year, CNN came out with the CNN iPhone, which according to a company representative, ``carries with it a dual revenue stream - ads and a $1.99 price tag.’’

• Fox News, meanwhile,features Fox News for the iphone, which according to a Fox spokesperson, is the number one free news application through the Apple Store,

FoxsNews for the iphone features the latest news, top videos, FOX News shows, the Fox Business Network, live video streaming (including clips on demand) and Fox News Radio.

• ABC News features an app specifically tailored to the ipad in which the user with a mere spin of the globe reads breaking news stories, has the option of customizing news to their particular interests with access to a rich archive of historic news stories.

• National Public Radio (NPR) in August, 2009, launched its news app which uses location-based technology so that users just type in their zip code to access the nearest NPR station. Users are able to read news articles and listen to some of the best programs NPR has to offer, including the ``Morning Edition’’, ``All Things Considered’’, ``Car Talk’’ and ``Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me’’!

If you like sports, new apps geared to rabid fans seem to be popping up like toasters on the Apple Store. Two of the most popular are what Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association offers.

• MLB features an extremely popular app (At Bat 2010) available for the iphone and ipad touch for a annual subscription of $14.99, in which users can stay connected to their teams by listening to play-by-play, or the means to monitor a live scoreboard, view a batter-pitcher icon, which displays the type of pitch, including the speed. The app additionally provides video highlights and a free game of the day.

• During the 2009-2010 season, the NBA launched more than 100 mobile devices on a variety of platforms, including NBA Team Game Time Courtside,  an app designed exclusively for the ipad during the NBA playoffs , which included bracket break downs, play-by-play features and video highlights for an in-depth look at every game. Also available on the Apple Store is NBA Game Time,  another free application which offers fans access to game recaps and highlights, along with live play-by-play audio for every game
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App Store Milestones

July 14, 2008: Three days after the opening of its new App le Store, Apple announces that iPhone and iPod  touch users have downloaded more than 10 million applications. Apple reports it has more than 800 applications available on the App Store, with more than 200 offered for free and more than 90 percent priced at less than $10.

September 9, 2008:  Apple announces more than 100 million applications have been downloaded by users

April, 2009: Apple announces one billion applications have been downloaded from its App Store. The one billionth app was ``Bump’’ created by Bump Technologies, which was downloaded by Connor Mulcahey, age 13, of Weston, CT.

September 28, 2009: Apple announces more than two million apps have been downloaded from the App Store. Apple additionally reports more than 85,000 apps are available to the more than 50 million iPhone™ and iPod touch® customers worldwide.

January 5, 2010:  Apple  announced that more than three billion apps have been downloaded from its revolutionary App Store by iPhone® and iPod touch® users worldwide.

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]

LeBron Inducted into Cleveland's Hall of Shame

 
  
When LeBron James informed ESPN’s Jim Gray at 9: 27 pm ET Thursday that he was taking his talents to South Beach and join the Miami Heat, the NBA’s most coveted free agent, also joined a long list of Cleveland products who will be remembered for their acts of treachery and betrayal.

Here, then, are some other sordid characters in Cleveland’s past, who LeBron joins in the city’s Hall of Shame.

• A loathsome figure plastered on Cleveland’s  ``Wall of Shame’’  is Leon Cszolgosz, an anarchist, also a Clevelander, best remembered for his despicable act of assassinating President William McKinley at the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo on September 6, 1901, plugging two shots into McKinley’s chest and abdomen using a .32 caliber Iver-Johnson revolver.  McKinley died on September 14;th; 45 days later, Cszolgosz was electrocuted and later buried in an unmarked grave in Auburn, New York.

• John Leonard Whitfield was inducted into the Hall of Shame on the first ballot, having shot and killed Cleveland Policeman Dennis Griffin in cold blood in 1923, burning his uniform and hiding his corpse under a tree. Rewards up to $2, 500 were offered for his capture. It took one of the largest police manhunts in U.S. history before Detective Charles O. Nevel  and his five-man police squad caught up with Whitfield working at the Ternes Coal & Lumber Company in Detroit under the alias, ``Sam De Carlo.’’  To avoid an angry mob waiting for his return to Cleveland, authorities made arrangements to have Whtifield get off the train in Elyria (23 miles east of Cleveland); but a crowd estimated to be 1,000 were nonetheless on hand when he was ushered inside the Cleveland Police Station on June 28th.

Before getting on the train in Cleveland to the Ohio Penitentiary after being convicted of murder, Whitefield’s parting words to Northeast Ohio were: ``To hell with the people of Cleveland-they don’t mean a thing to me!’’

NOTE: Whitfield managed to escape from the Ohio Pen on March 10, 1928, but was eventually gunned down by Detective William J. Bonzo.

• Joseph Cole, a millionaire industrialist, who bought Cleveland’s afternoon daily, the Cleveland Press in 1980, promising to boost its sagging circulation, ended up losing a million a month and opted to close the newspaper in 1982 after 103 years in existence.

What Press employees and Cleveland readers didn’t know soon after Cole bought the newspaper was he had already cooked up a private deal with Si Newhouse, owner of their cross town rivals, The Plain Dealer to merge the operations of the two papers. Newhouse later testified that Cole had approached him about the deal almost as soon as he bought the Cleveland Press.  After some extra prodding from Cole, Newhouse eventually relented and agreed to pay $22.5 million for a subscription list in return for Cole shutting down the Cleveland Press, enough to cover Cole’s losses and make a handsome profit for himself, giving The Plain Dealer and its owners a monopoly of the Cleveland newspaper market and millions more in advertising revenue.

NOTE: Newhouse and Cole’s secret deal was exposed by the Akron Beacon Journal, while the federal government launched a criminal anti-trust investigation.  The Justice Department, however, later dropped the charges, and gave Newhouse immunity in exchange for his testimony.

• Clevelanders might have forgiven Art Modell for firing legendary head coach Paul Brown in 1963, but inhabitants of this football crazed town weren’t so forgiving when the Cleveland Browns principal owner ripped out their hearts, by moving their beloved Browns to Baltimore in 1995, a flagrant act of duplicity that Clevelanders still haven’t gotten over despite landing a new team in 1999, while maintaining its team colors and heritage under new owner Al Lerner.

• On November 19, 1996, the Cleveland Indians mighty clean-up hitter Albert Belle left a loyal battalion of fans behind in the dust , when he signed with the Chicago White Sox, the Tribe’s hated division rivals for a staggering five-year $55 million contract, becoming the first $10 million a year player in baseball history. White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf’s coup in snagging the Tribe’s slugger and putting him on the same team with Frank Thomas and Robin Ventura would arguably make this trio the best 3-4-5 lineup in baseball. The Sox ended up finishing six games behind the division leading Indians in 1997; Ventura broke his ankle during spring training; and wasn’t able to rejoin the Sox until the end of July. The Indians advanced to the World Series for the second time in three years.

Belle bolting for the ``Windy City’’ was a clear slap in the face. Cleveland fans, after all, stuck with this troubled outfielder through thick and thin, through his drug rehabs, through his profanity-laced tirades, despite having been suspended for playing with a corked bat, and putting up with his multiple instances of charging the pitcher’s mound.

• October 27, 1997, the Cleveland Indians were two outs away from winning its first World Series in 49 years, when their prized closer, Jose Mesa, aka ``Senor Smoke’’ stepped to the mound, only to cough up the lead in a critical game 7 against the Florida Marlins in Miami. The Marlins ended up edging the Tribe, 3-2 in 11 innings to win their first World Series and send yet another fatal dagger through the hearts of Cleveland fans. Mesa quickly became a marked man in Cleveland; fans never forgave him for letting a World Series slip away and he ended up being traded to the San Francisco Giants the following year for pitcher Steve Reed in a five-player deal.

• Cleveland Indians General Manager Frank Lane might as well have written his own death certificate when he traded away one of baseball’s premier sluggers, Rocky Colavito (who belted 129 home runs in four seasons) to the Detroit Tigers for Harvey Kuenn on April 17, 1960. ``The Rock’’ went on to smash 173 home runs over the next five seasons. Lane was so hated for his dunderhead deals, (he also traded away Norm Cash) it’s no wonder he earned the moniker, ``Trader Lane.’’ Cleveland fans long since believed Lane’s Colavito-for- Kuenn blunder placed a curse on the Tribe and prevented them from advancing to the World Series. It would take until 1995 before the Indians made it to the World Series; but the Tribe still hasn’t won a World Series since 1948.

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]

Source: ``The Cleveland 200: The Most Noted, Notable and Notorious in the First 200 Years of a Great American City’’` By Thomas Kelly; ``They Died Crawling: And Other Tales of Cleveland Woe’’ by John Stark Bellamy II; ``Newhouse: All the Glitter, Power & Glory of America’s Richest Media Empire’’ By Thomas Maier; The New York Times Historical Archives

Remembering July 4th; but not for the Declaration of Independence

 

NOTE: The above painting is ``Subway Riders” by Francis Louis Mora,which was published in the New York Sun on December 13, 1914.

***

 In a couple of days, many Americans, from sea to shining sea, will be firing up the grills, attending parades and watching a dazzling display of firework shows in celebration of the approval of the Declaration of Independence 234 years ago by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pa.

It should be pointed out, however, that July 4th has historical significance for other reasons that have nothing to do with gaining freedom from the shackles of Great Britain.

Here, then, is a list of other newsworthy events that took place on July 4th.

July 4, 1826: Thomas Jefferson and John Adams die within two hours of each other; oddly enough on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

July 4, 1863: According to historian James McPherson in his Pulitzer-Prize winning book, ``Battle Cry of Freedom’’, ``Fourth of July,1863, was the most memorable Independence Day in American history since the first one four score and seven years earlier. ’’ It was on that historic day the Confederacy receded from Gettysburg;  in Mississippi white flags towered over rebel enclaves; and at the fortress city of Vicksburg, Union forces raised the Stars and Stripes to the top of the old court house after the surrender of 29, 441 Confederate forces to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.

July 4, 1866: In Portland Maine, 1,500 homes burned to the ground after a boy threw a firecracker into a pile of wood shavings.

July 4, 1923, Jack Dempsey beats Tommy Gibbons in a 15-round decision in Shelby, Montana (population 500) to retain his heavyweight title. The New York Times reports Dempsey and his manager fled the town in Wild West style immediately after the fight ``with guns and sheriffs pursing them.’’

July 4, 1933: In India, Mahatma Gandhi is sentenced to one year in prison.

July 4, 1941: In a special holiday broadcast, FDR tells the nation: ``The U.S. can never survive as a happy and fertile oasis of liberty surrounded by a cruel desert of dictatorship.’’

July 4, 1942: Don Budge crushes Bobby Riggs in straight sets (6-2, 6-2, 6-2) at the tennis tournament in Forest Hills, N.Y.

July 4, 1942: U.S. flyers join the Royal Air Force (RAF) for the first time to help bomb Nazi bases in Holland.

July 4, 1944: Blacks are prevented from voting in Georgia’s Democratic primary when many are told by election officials their names couldn’t be found on the registration lists.

July 4, 1948: 50 leaders of the Democratic Party, many of whom have proposed a draft Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower movement, also expressed support for the inclusion of President Truman’s civil rights program in the party’s 1948 platform.

July 4, 1954: Dr. Samuel Sheppard is injured; and his wife, Marilyn, beaten to death in their Bay Village, Ohio home. Sheppard was convicted of her murder five months later.

July 4, 1954: Down by two goals, West Germany storms back to stun Hungary, 3-2, to win the world soccer championship at Wankdorf Stadium in Bern, Switzerland.

July 4, 1956: The motion picture of Herman Melville’s epic classic, ``Moby Dick’’, starring Gregory Peck and Orson Welles premiers at the Sutton and Criterion movie theaters in New York City.

July 4, 1963: Chicago mayor Richard Daley is booed off stage at an outdoor NAACP rally in Grant Park, following a civil rights parade down State Street. The previous week, Daley stated publicly that there were no black ghettos in Chicago, comments which sparked outrage within the black community.

July 4, 1965: The Rev. Martin Luther King calls for the end of the war in South Vietnam.

July 4, 1966: Farm workers begin to fan across Texas to protest the low minimum wage. The National Farm Workers Association (a California union) claimed Mexican-Americans, who comprise 90 percent of farm workers, are paid less than 80 cents an hour and are seeking a $1.25 minimum wage.

July 4, 1968: Speaking to a crowd gathered for an Independence Day celebration in Columbia, Calif., Gov. Ronald Reagan says that many U.S. citizens carry guns because ``they have lost faith in government’s ability to protect them.’’

July 4, 1969: Israel Galili, Israel’s Information Minister, speaking on the army radio station, expresses Israel’s intention to keep the Gaza Strip permanently. ``I believe it can said definitely that the Gaza region will not again be separated from the state of Israel.’’

July 4, 1970: Five civilians are killed, 200 injured, and more than 300 arrested after a riot breaks out between British soldiers and Roman Catholics in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

July 4, 1975: Billie Jean King disposes of Evonne Goolagong Cawley (6-0, 6-1) in 39 minutes, winning her sixth Wimbledon singles title. The Wimbledon champ announced she was retiring from major singles competition. ``What a way to end my career’’, King told the press after the match.

July 4, 1977: A Ku Klux Klan rally in Columbus, Ohio turned into a brawl, when over 100 ``fist-swinging protestors’’ charged Klan members. Three of the protestors were arrested.

July 4, 1983: Dave Righettti pitches The New York Yankees first no-hitter since September 28, 1951 in a 4-0 win over the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium.

July 4, 1987: In Lyons, France, former Gestapo Chief Klaus Barbie is sentenced to life in prison for deporting hundreds of Jews and Resistance members to Nazi death camps.

July 4, 1988:  The U.S. is chosen as host for the 15th World Soccer Tournament in 1994; marking the first time the World Cup will be played on American soil.

July 4, 2002: The New York Times learns of a military planning document, which calls for a U.S. attack on Iraq in order to oust Saddam Hussein involving air, land, and sea-based forces.

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]

Source: The New York Times’ Historical Archives; ``Facts on File’’; ``20th Century: Day by Day’’ (DK Publishing Co.)

Historic Reading Lists

  
  
Now that summer is officially here, I thought I’d ask other adults what they’re reading, hoping they would consider sharing their summer reading lists with the rest of us.

Unfortunately, not many wanted to participate, the exception being ``Good Morning America’’ co-host, George Stephanopoulos ,who is reading ``Hitch 22’’ a memoir by Chris  Hitchens; while Margaret Carlson, columnist for Bloomberg News, tells me her practice is to start dipping into a selection of books before choosing one worthy of carrying with her. ``So far’’, Carlson tells me, ``I'm taking The ``Imperfectionist’’ [by Tom Rachman]; `Solar’’ by Ian McEwan(the first 50 pages are hilarious), and ``Little Bee’’ by Chris Cleave, about a British fashion editor who crosses paths with a Nigerian émigré.’’

Carlson also informs me she doesn’t read much non-fiction, the exceptions this summer, are ``The Promise: President Obama, Year One’’ by Jonathan Alter, ``Game Change’’ by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, and Mika Brezinski's ``All Things at Once.’’

So as we continue to peruse book reviews and prepare are reading lists, I thought this might be the perfect time to look back on books from some historic bestseller lists through the years.

• On October 10, 1896: The New York Times publishes the first issue of The Saturday Book Review Supplement.

• In 1897, Publishers Weekly reports that 5,703 new books and new editions were published that year.

• In 1900, Sigmund Freud published Die Traumdeutung (The Interpretation of Dreams) in German.

• On June 27, 1920, The New York Times Magazine and the Book Review merged. The alliance would only last for two years.

• 1920: Edith Wharton’s novel, ``The Age of Innocence’’ is released.

• 1921: The first children’s book column appears in The New York Times Book Review.

• James Joyce’s novel ``Ulysses’’ was published in Paris in 1922. It was banned in America beginning on February 21, 1921 until 1933.

• 1923: Ernest Hemingway attends his first bullfight.

• 1930: Sinclair Lewis becomes the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
 
• On August 9, 1942: The New York Times begins to publish a Best-Seller’s list.

• On top of the Bestseller’s list in 1958 was Boris Pasternak’s ``Doctor Zhivago’’, a novel by a Soviet poet who survived Stalin’s purges. The book had to be smuggled out of the Soviet Union; and later Pasternak was forced to turn down the Nobel Prize as well as forgo any royalties earned from the book.

• On May 3, 1959, The New York Times reviews D.H. Lawrence’s ``Lady Chatterley’s Lover’’, a book that was privately published in Italy in 1928 and banned in the United States.

• After November, 1960, paperback editions become more popular. James Baldwin’s ``Giovanni’s Room’’ about an American living in Paris (originally published in hardback in 1957) became a bestseller in a 1960 re-issued paperback edition.

• The 1962 Cuban missile crisis helped sales of `the novel ```Seven Days in May’’ in that year, a spy thrilling novel  by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey about overzealous military generals prepared to launch pre-emptive strikes on the Soviet Union.

• Biologist Rachel Carson’s ``Silent Spring’’ published in 1962 was instrumental in reforming the agriculture industry and launching the environmental movement.  Carson’s book was also significant in setting off a wave of`` whistle-blowing’’ books, including Ralph Nader’s 1965 book, ``Unsafe at Any Speed’’ and his attack on the automobile industry.

• 1963: The New York Review of Books begins publishing.

• Betty Friedan’s ``The Feminine Mystique’’ is published in 1963, a seminal book considered by many which inspired the women’s movement.  In the book, Friedan wrote  that ``American women were trapped in the concentration camp of suburbia,’’

• Prompted largely by the rise in fast-food eating and its excess fat, with the first Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet opening in 1957, Pizza Hut in 1958, an American housewife, Jean Nidetch, organizes the first Weight Watchers’ meeting in 1963; and in 1968 publishes, `the `Weight Watcher’s Cook Book’’, which became an instant bestseller.  Nidetch’s pioneering book would spark a string of weight loss books, including: ``The Scarsdale Diet ‘’(1978); ``The Pritkin Diet’’ (1979); and  ``The Cambridge Diet’’ (1981).

• In 1969, Mario Puzo’s ``The Godfather’’ shot to the top of the bestseller’s list, becoming the fastest bestseller at the time; so that by the time Francis Ford Coppola’s 1971 film starring Marlon Brando hit the screen,  the novel’s publishers worldwide sales had climbed to over $15 million.

• In 1970, Erich Segal’s ``Love Story’’’, a novel which coined the popular line: ``Love means never having to say you’re sorry’’ sold more than 10 million copies over the decade; while the hardback edition was reprinted twenty times in its first year of publication.

• Jim Bouton’s controversial ```Ball Four’’ was published in 1970; setting off a new publishing craze of tell-all books.

• During the summer of 1974, Peter Benchley’s ``Jaws’’ and its Bantam paperback edition sold more than six million copies in as many months. 10 million or one in ten Americans had purchased a copy of ``Jaws’’ by 1976.

• In 1976, Alex Haley publishes ``Roots: The Saga of an American Family’’ which sold over 1 ½ million copies in its first six months.  ABC turned the bestselling novel into a mini-series, attracting a record 130 million viewers. Haley was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for the book.

• In 1987, Tom Wolfe’s ``The Bonfire of the Vanities’’ topped bestseller lists throughout the U.S.

• The United States first real No. 1 Science fiction bestseller was Michael Crichton’s ``Jurassic Park’’ published in 1989.

• On February 4, 1989, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issues a death threat to author Salman Rushdie for writing, `` The Satanic Verses.’’

• On June 6, 1993, in its Summer Reading issue, The New York Times Book Review publishes in color for the first time.

• On December 27, 1998, the first of seven books in the Harry Potter series, by J. K. Rowling `` appears on The New York Times hardcover bestseller’s list. All seven books sold 375 million copies worldwide and were translated into 65 languages. The final book in the series published in 2007, ``Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” sold 8.3 million copies within the first 24 hours

• According to the National Endowment for the Arts, literary reading among adults has increased at a seven percent rate between 2002 and 2008.

• In 2008, nearly half (47.0 percent) of all adults read fiction; while reading poetry and drama continues to decline.

• Young adults (18-24) read books at a slightly lower rate than older adults; although the same demographic read more online than older Americans.

• The highest reading population is ages 55-64, at 58.4 percent, followed by ages 35-44 at 56.2 percent.

• In 2008, nearly 15 percent of all U.S. adults read literature online.

• 54.3 percent of adults read any book; 50.2 percent read literature.

• Fiction (novels and short stories) accounts for the new growth in adult literary readers.

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]

Source: ``Books of the Century: A Hundred Years of Authors, Ideas and Literature’’ from The New York Times (Random House); ``Reading the Decades: Fifty Years of the Nation’s Bestselling Book’’ By John Sutherland (BBC); ``Reading on the Rise’’ (2008 report) from the National Endowment for the Arts.
***

***
Web sites to keep in mind:

Notable Books for Adults, 2010 (From the American Library Association) and Notable Books for Adults 2000-2009 

2010 Summer Reading List from the Library Journal (Women’s Fiction) ; (Men’s Fiction)

The New York Times Bestseller’s List

33 Years Later, Bernstein Stands by Rolling Stone Expose

 
  
 Amid the uproar over comments attributed to Stanley A. McChrystal in Rolling Stone magazine in which the four- star Army General bashes his boss and other members of the White House over their weak-kneed Afghan policy, I couldn’t help but think of another controversial Rolling Stone splash over 30 years ago.

On October 20, 1977, Rolling Stone published a startling expose (``THE CIA AND THE MEDIA’’) by Carl Bernstein, who disclosed that as many as 400 American journalists had been working with the Central Intelligence Agency over the last 25 years, secretly carrying out assignments for the federal U.S. bureau.

Bernstein reported that several news executives, including Williarn Paley of CBS, Henry Luce of Tirne Inc., Arthur Hays Sulzberger of The New York Times, Barry Bingham Sr. of the LouisviIle Courier Journal, and James Copley of the Copley News Service, had worked closely with the agency in providing basic intelligence gathering.

Mr. Bernstein’s findings were based on documents on file at the CIA’s headquarters.

The Rolling Stone investigation, among other stunners, outlined the agencies ``debriefing procedure under which American correspondents returning from abroad routinely emptied their notebooks and offered their impressions to Agency personnel.''

  The article was especially noteworthy for divulging just how the CIA operated at the height of the Cold War.

When Allen Dulles became CIA Director in 1953, he believed the best way to gather intelligence was through agents operating as ``accredited news correspondents’’ who would have wide access to information and freedom to move around a country without arousing suspicion.

 Many of the correspondents and executives named in Bernstein’s report, strongly denied they were working with the CIA or had any relationship with the Agency.

 When I asked  if he still stood by the reporting in that widely discussed 1977 Rolling Stone magazine piece, Bernstein emailed me back to say, `` Of course I stand behind the reporting.   I don’t believe there was ever any serious controversy about the facts of the story:   how those facts were interpreted was subject to arguments that persist to this day:   about the nature of the Cold War;   the role and independence of journalists;   particularly in the United States; what defined   a CIA “asset”   in the press who had agreed to help the agency.’’

 As it turns out, Bernstein’s CIA analysis from 33 years ago has found new life, thanks to the Internet.  And in  September, his entire 25,000-word original article will be republished as a book with a new introduction by Mark Crispin Miller, professor of Media Studies at New York University, which will include an appendix containing excerpts from the Congressional hearings--"The C.I.A. and the Media"--that were held in 1978, following the publication of the Rolling Stone investigation.

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]

A Nation Divided

It’s the best of times; it’s the worst of times.

America’s tale of two cities is the story of a nation deeply divided over health care reform and what the future holds.

It doesn’t matter which poll you read; half of the country welcomes health care reform as long overdue; the other half dismisses it as another government intrusion-and with it-the potential of bankrupting our country for generations to come.

The bitter split over health care, actually embodies the division taking place among American voters, the U.S. Congress, and the national media; with its cast of characters situated on the fringes with little representation in the center.

How did a country which survived the ravages of the Civil War, who came together during the Great Depression, spoke with one voice in defeating Nazi Germany; and later Communism become so divided in such a short period of time?

Alan Brinkley, Professor of American History at Columbia University, thinks the United States has always been divided; it’s only become a little more evident with the explosion of the Internet, which has made it easier for people to express sharp opinions.

Brinkley believes health care isn’t really what’s dividing the country, but rather the ``sense among many white Americans that the United States is changing (as it is demographically).’’   ``It doesn’t help’’, Brinkley writes in an email, ``that we are in a recession with 10 percent unemployment.’’

Looking back at history over the last 50 or 60 years shows how as the Cold War withered away, the country lost its collective purpose and became torn apart at the seems over the Vietnam War, the race riots which engulfed many major U.S. cities, the flood of immigrants to overpopulated urban centers, and a whole host of intrest group politics: from women rights (including abortion) to gay rights (including marriage).

The disaffected, the rebellious, the resentful, and all those left out the political narrative, who didn’t find their interests being represented in Washington, moved away from the Democratic or Republican party (even if in name only) and voiced their concerns with the excess of nonprofit interest groups sprouting up and growing larger every year. The most recent issue of the Encyclopedia of Associations lists 24,421 nonprofit organizations representing a range of special interests dealing with labor issues, pro-life, health care, religious organizations, social welfare, you name it—if you have a pet peeve-chances are there’s a nonprofit out there all too willing to welcome you into their tent.

The defeat of President Clinton’s health care reform in the 1990’s wasn’t so much that it was a bad proposal, as much as the bill didn’t have the support of the American Medical Association, the largest and most influential  medical lobbying group in Washington.  ``Hillary-Care’’, as it was labeled, never stood a chance.

In 1987, it wasn’t so much that Robert Bork was ill-equipped to serve on the Supreme Court as was that there were 185 liberal organizations, including Norman Lear’s ``People For the American Way’’, the AFL-CIO, the National Organization for Women, and the National Abortion Rights Group, all flooding the halls of the Capitol and pushing the ``swing voters’’ of the Senate Judiciary Committee to their corner of the ring. The Committee voted down Bork’s nomination 9-5 and the full Senate likewise rejected the controversial nominee 58-42.

Increasingly more public officials aren’t looking to the party platform on how to proceed or vote on an issue as they are taking cues from the most influential interest group who are usually equipped with the deepest pockets.

Just take a look at which representatives are receiving the most financial support from the top 50 industries (as compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics) and you’ll get a better sense of how politics is drifting away from the party and into the arms of special interests.

The polarization of the United States Congress has become more pronounced by the increase (some say reckless increase) of filibusters over the years. President Obama, moreover, wasn’t able to pick up a single Republican supporter on his final heath care bill, and the Republicans are threatening more intransigence on other pieces of legislation (financial and immigration reform etc) right up until the mid-term elections in November when the President’s party traditionally loses support with voters.

What’s causing such sharp division?

Congressional historians’ often attribute this polarization to the explosion of electoral gerrymandering (redistricting) which builds tailor-made constituencies along racial, ethnic, and religious lines, to benefit a particular party or an incumbent. Matthew Baum, Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University thinks gerrymandering effectively weakens the accountability of the legislature to majority opinion, by facilitating a shift from having relatively "more" moderate representatives of so-called "swing" districts to having relatively fewer of those and relatively more ideologically extreme representatives of more ideologically homogenous districts.’’ This partisan ploy, while building safe seats, also ends up creating representatives on the extreme sides of the political divide, with fewer and fewer representing the middle, according to Baum.

Arguably the most damaging feature of our poisoned political environment, which has lent a destructive voice all its own, has been the advocacy journalism offered by FOX News and MSNBC. These news organizations aren’t interested in presenting both sides of issue in a fair and balanced way. Keith Olberman and Rachel Maddow represent the left; both seem only interested in booking guests whose ideology meshes with their own or whatever personal crusade they’re promoting on any given week.

On the other extreme over at FOX--Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly are especially adept at distorting issues, tapping into pent-up prejudices and stirring up a vicious atmosphere of fear and hate.

What’s worse, members of Congress, representing their extreme views appear on FOX and MSNBC, not so much to be put under the microscope by an inquisitive journalist, but to advance their agenda and speak to their base.

Words escape me just how destructive FOX and MSNBC has been to the political dialogue, they have done such a disservice to both parties, and are  partially responsible for causing such a toxic division among America voters.

If it wasn’t for the superb work done by Charlie Rose over at PBS; or  Anderson Cooper on CNN,  Bob Schieffer on CBS with ``Fact the Nation’’, David Gregory on NBC with ``Meet the Press’’, or ABC’s ``This Week’’ would viewers ever benefit from any constructive news analysis?

It’s much too soon and unfair to blame Mr. Obama for failing to represent the transformative change he promised as a candidate so early into his administration.  Who knows, after health care reform starts to take shape, when more people are put back to work in the coming months, and consumer confidence rises again, Obama might very well have lived up to his billing.

But the extreme views advanced by representatives on both sides of the aisle; the fear and hate mongering voiced among some members of the Tea Party Movement, death threats to both Republican and Democrat representatives from deranged citizens, and distorted views disseminated by talk show hosts are only a few of the most disturbing obstacles that are keeping the United States a divided nation.

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]

Seattle's oldest newspaper remembers their Irish Wake

 
Usually St Patrick’s Day is a day of celebration: whether it’s wearing different shades of green, nibbling on soda bread, taking in a parade, tipping back a few cold ones, reciting Irish proverbs or belting out popular Irish songs with the sounds of bagpipes and drums filling the air.

But for employees of the Seattle-Post Intelligencer, St Patrick’s Day, 2009 was a day for doing only one thing; crying in their beer and wondering what the future holds as Seattle’s oldest newspaper rolled off the presses for the final time.

We are rapidly approaching the one-year anniversary when 150 newsroom employees were told the Seattle Post Intelligencer would cease publishing as a print edition, bringing to a screeching halt its 146-year tradition and leaving Seattle, like so many other major cities, a one newspaper town.

The Hearst newspaper which had accumulated $14 million in red ink the previous year, decided to slice their staff down to 20 newsroom employees (another 20 to sell advertising) and remain an Internet edition only.

Last year, other print editions met a similar fate: the Rocky Mountain News, the Baltimore Examiner, the Washington Blade, the Detroit Daily Press, the Tucson Citizen all folded; and similar to the Post-Intelligencer, the Christian Science Monitor shed its print edition on March 27th of last year, leaving only an online edition with updates posted throughout the day.

When journalists see their profession crumbling before them, left without jobs and stripped of what they love to do (some without much of a warning)--it can only be disheartening and deflating with a feeling of helplessness.

Kristen Millares Young, a business and metro reporter at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, devastated as she was to learn she was without a job on March 16, 2009, refused to give up on her passion for reporting and exposing corruption and government fraud. So Young teamed with other Seattle staffers to form Investigate West, a non-profit organization dedicated to investigative journalism covering the Pacific Northwest and the West.

In addition to Young, I.W. has four other former Post-Intelligencer staffers on board: Rita Hibbard serves as executive director and editor. Hibbard was assistant managing editor for news and led the investigative team at the Post-Intelligencer; Daniel Lathrop, a former member of the P.I.’s investigative projects team is I.W.’s chief digital strategist and investigative reporter;  Robert McClure, a Pulitzer-Prize finalist, who exposed a glaring loophole in the Endangered Species Act, is I.W’s chief environmental correspondent; and Carol Smith, who covered science and medicine for the P-I, now reports on health and social justice for I.W. Two news photographers, Paul Joseph Brown and Mike Kane are additionally part of I.W’s news team.

Investigate West operates on the same non-profit model as National Public Radio, which receives funding from pledge drives and donations from other journalism organizations. I.W, for example, was recently the beneficiary of a $100,000 grant from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation.

On her way to an assignment, Young, who previously worked for TIME Magazine, the Buenos Aires Herald and The Miami Herald before landing at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, called me on my cell to chat about I.W., her commitment to aggressive journalism and the sorry state of the newspaper industry.

Young encourages any reporter, editor, or photographer, who has been laid-off, not to lose heart; as long as the passion is still there, and you love what you were reporting on, whether it was food, politics, jazz music—and you’re willing to get along with little pay (at least for a while)—there’s no reason why your love for journalism should wither away. But Young stresses that unless you’re passionate about your subject—burn-out will likely set in--because flying solo or collaborating with others requires a committement to make it work; meaning, long hours with most independent sites taking as long as a year or even two years before getting noticed or building an established audience.

I.W, incorporated as a nonprofit 501(c) (3) produces journalism for the public trust, by conducting investigative projects and then selling content to other news outlets, such as MSNBC, the Spokesman Review, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and KUOW, a founding member of NPR; and an affiliate of Public Radio International (PRI).

Whether this new non-profit investigative journalism model will catch on is still an open question, but it has certainly earned the respect of seasoned professionals, such as Walt Bogdanich, assistant editor for the New York Times Investigations Desk, and adjunct professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. `` I'm a big supporter of the nonprofit model.  It's too early to tell how successful that approach will be over time, but right now it shows great promise’’ the three-time Pulitzer Prize winner wrote in an email. The encouraging news for investigative journalism sites like I.W. according to Bogdanich is that ``as these groups develop track records, the established media will be more inclined to consider their offerings.’’

Paul Steiger, editor-in-chief, president and chief executive of ProPublica. an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest, and whose work has been featured in The New York Times, USA Today, the Denver Post, among other news publications, while encouraged by the investigative journalism undertaken by non-profits, observes that it’s a little more difficult for someone age 45-50 whose been laid-off to match what they were doing as far as compensation goes and the reporting tools they were accustomed to using at their former newspapers.

``Younger journalists’’, Steiger points out, ``don’t need as much income, they don’t have kids, they don’t have mortgages to worry about, so they can experiment and work for modest wages at startups.’’

Despite the limited field, Steiger, a former managing editor of the Wall Street Journal, is mightily impressed with a number non-profit investigative ventures, namely:  The Center for Public Integrity, the Center for Investigative Reporting, California Watch, and the Huffington Post Investigative Fund   based in Washington D.C.

Doug Clifton, former executive editor of The Miami Herald and most recently, editor of The Plain Dealer in Cleveland before retiring in 2007, is also encouraged by the non-profit journalism model, but cautions it only fills part of a need. `` Those sources’’ Clifton wrote in an email, ``don't seem able to replace the dollars that for-profit enterprises used to apply to investigative journalism. The non-profit groups may be able to partially fill a void on a temporary basis but the long-run answer is a new model for the traditional media. ‘’

Clifton is now involved with The Vermont Journalism Trust, whose goal is to produce the kind of hard-hitting journalism that for profit news organizations are finding too costly to produce amid staff reductions and shrinking budgets.

With newspapers folding, other newsroom employees falling like dominoes as more and more newspapers downsize through buyouts and layoffs, what worries Young the most is ``that their won’t be enough people [reporters] left in regional markets to connect the dots’’ when a major investigative project or aggressive reporting is sorely needed.

Even if investigative reporting isn’t your area of expertise, Young shared with me examples of former P-I colleagues of hers who are now doing exactly what they love to do in their respective fields, such as Gene Stout, the former Post-Intelligencer music critic who has started his own site , as have Rebecca Denn, former writer and restaurant critic for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer with ``Eat All About It’’ ,  and for breaking news, The Seattle Post Globe was launched by former P-I. reporters, photographers, and copy editors, including Sally Deneen who contributes environment stories, Kathy George, a public interest lawyer and former government and politics editor at the Intelligencer, Grant Haller, a photographer who worked at the Intelligencer for 35 years, and John Hickey who spent the better part of two decades covering West Coast baseball.

For those laid-off, downsized and left for dead--let’s just hope that those reporters, writers, bloggers, photographers, page designers-whatever their medium may be-will one day be properly compensated for staying the course and pursuing their passion.

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]

How Do Laid-Off Journalists Reinvent Their Careers?

 
It’s not exactly breaking news to report how the newspaper industry has suffered immeasurable damage during the rapid migration to the Internet, made all the worse by the Great Recession, with lost advertising revenue translating into the shedding of jobs at an alarming rate.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, newsrooms have lost 9,700 jobs from 2001 through 2009, representing a 17 percent decline from 56,400 to 46,700.

With stacks of newsroom employees having been laid-off or forced to accept buyouts from their companies; a large restless battalion of reporters, copy editors, layout editors, and news researchers find themselves out of work, looking for new careers or ways to reinvent themselves in a new competitive technology-based environment without knowing which way to turn.

It can be a frightening, to be sure, not knowing what the future holds in a labor market with unemployment stuck at a grim 9.7 percent, with limited jobs available, especially within the media industry.

Typically, the sage words given to newsroom employees on their way out the door is to find a way to reinvent yourself.

Splendid advice. But unless you’re Houdini or David Copperfield, it can be quite the challenge for someone in their late 40’s 50’s, or even 60’s for example, to find ways to reinvent themselves.

But before raising the white flag and crying uncle, there are plenty of resources available online, offering video tutorials, webinars, and career tips to those out of work newspaper employees’ trying to acquire new skills and become more marketable.

The Poynter Institute, a school and resource depository for journalists, located in St. Petersburg Fla, offers a variety of journalism courses through their News University website from journalism basics to photo journalism, producing news with your mobile phone, and variety of other ways to develop new skill sets.

Many of these offerings, moreover, are free. And during the coming year, Poynter will begin offering entrepreneurial courses for journalists and citizens interested in creating their own startups.

An often overlooked organization that offers a treasure of training tools is the Special Libraries Association (SLA), a professional organization for librarian information specialists working in media, government, law and non-profit organizations.

Membership is $185 for those making between $34,000-75,000 a year. However, if you are unemployed or underemployed, and make less than $18,000, an SLA membership is only $40.000. Membership then gives you access to SLA’s online programs, which offers a number of online tutorials, including social networking training, how to create podcasts, setting up your own Wikipedia, converting your articles and text into Adobe, and searching public records.

One major hurdle many former newspaper employees are finding by going it alone on their own websites and personal blogs is they are without many of the handy tools they had in the newsroom, such as Nexis and Factiva. Searching through Google News and the New York Times historical archives, can only carry you so far.

If you are under a tight budget, buying a subscription to Nexis is practically out of the question.

Thankfully, however, there are some options worth pursuing.

LexisNexis and MediaBistro have partnered to offer access to Nexis’ archives, a perfect tool for independent journalists. Once establishing a membership with AvantGuild, Nexis archives, which includes thousands of national and international sources, are available to members for $59.00 a month.

Even if this package is still too rich for your blood, a spokesperson from Nexis said the company ``will work with independent journalists directly to try and put together a package that makes sense for their unique needs.’’

Aside from offering Nexis archives, MediaBistro also features a variety of online courses taught through their ``On Demand Video’’ section, which offers hundreds of tutorials on using social media platforms or building a media business through user content and engagement.

Yet another alternative available to independent journalists and news researchers looking for news articles is through NewsLibrary,  where millions of full-text articles nationwide are available for $19.95 a month or $2.95 per article.

And for those hard to find news articles, Newsbank Inc. additionally offers News in History, featuring news articles from all 50 U.S. states published from 1800 through 2000 and searchable through a single database. The subscription is $9.95 a month or $69.95 for an annual membership.

But even with all these new online searching tools, photo gadgets, and social media platforms saturating journalism, and being embraced by newspapers, seasoned professionals caution that news professionals shouldn’t neglect the basics of being a good reporter or a sound news researcher.

Contacted on her cell phone, Dana Canedy, a senior editor at The New York Times, whose job responsibilities also include recruiting, tells me ``despite the painful time the industry is going through, we shouldn’t forget that whatever the medium and whatever kind of delivery system, whether it be through the Internet or print publications, the same principles apply, the same skills sets still apply.’’

While all the bells and whistles of the new journalism (twittering, social networking, capturing images with your cell phone are certainly an added bonus to any newsroom); Canedy thinks they are only part of the package of what most newspapers are looking for from their newsroom staff.

It was reporters fluent in French, Canedy points out, that became indispensable to editors with the Haiti earthquake; and strong vivid concise reporting skills that led to staffers being dispatched to Iran that became important, more important than podcasts and social networking.

Colleen Eddy, Director of the Career Center at Poynter, tells me the most common attributes editors’ tell her they are looking for are those individuals who are ``adaptable to change, able to learn on the fly, have technical savvy, and know the value of teamwork and collaboration.’’

And for those out of work journalists, who think they are being pushed aside by a younger breed of tech journalists, Eddy says, forget about age. Instead, focus on your value by getting a career coach who will help you list your most transferable skills and market yourself. ``Network, network, network! and stay young at heart’’ Eddy stresses.

Who can argue with staying young at heart?

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]

Time Magazine Overlooks Google Founders Again

 
I can’t say I was surprised, but then again I’m still baffled that the finalists for this year’s Time Magazine Person of the Year didn’t include the founders of Google: Larry Page and Sergey Brin for their pioneering projects, whether it was for ``good or ill.’’

This year’s recipient will be named on the ``Today Show’’ Wednesday morning by Time Magazine’s managing editor Rick Stengel.

It’s hard getting through a week, month, or even a day without some mention of Google in your everyday conversation; whether it’s how they’re adding new translators in 41 languages, the buzz created of a story you just read  on``Google News’’, getting directions through Google maps or in the absence of a dictionary-finding the correct spelling of a word.

When you begin your search for information, any information, such as facts about global warming or how long the The Peloponnesian War lasted, chances are you will begin with Google, not Bing, not Yahoo.

 Google has become so prevalent in our everyday lives; they even named a verb after it. ``To Google’’ (to search for information on the Internet) made its way into the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary in 2006.

 Taking nothing away from some of this year’s finalists, among them Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, President Barack Obama, or even the Chinese workers-- all worthy newsmakers to be sure, but all falling short of the criteria Time Magazine has used in selecting recipients since settling on Charles Lindbergh in 1927; which is: ``the person who influenced the world the most in the past year, for ``good or for ill’’

 Of all the finalists, Gen. Stanley McChrystal appears the strongest choice; the coming months ahead, based largely on the bronze star general’s judgment, convinced President Obama to commit 30,000 additional troops in Afghanistan in a mission that will go a long way in determining whether the war on terrorism will be won or lost.

 As far as Bernake, Pelosi, and the Chinese worker are concerned; I put them only in being in the right place at the right time category; none of their individual contributions alone (not yet anyway) has impacted the world to such a degree as to merit being named Time Magazine Person of the Year. The feds impact on the economy, and to what extent tbe Speaker of the House (even if she is the first woman) has had in crafting new health care legislation is still developing and yet to be determined. The Chinese worker as a recipient is too hazy and ill-defined to be considered in my book.

Why President Obama (last year’s winner) made the cut at all is a mystery with unemployment having climbed above 9 percent, health care reform looking weaker by the day; and a foreign policy that has yet to make a significant impression. I can only assume that the editors of Time Magazine are also on The Norwegian Nobel Committee.

 It’s hard to take issue with Steve Jobs as Time Magazine Person of the Year finalist. Apple Computers, after all, has been on the cutting edge in the digital revolution with the iphones and now the company is making a strong pitch to TV networks that would deliver television programs through its multi-media software for $30 a month.

Now that’s revolutionary; and fits Times’ conditions as the person who has impacted the world the most.

 But so have the founders of Google, which is why I’m puzzled they haven’t been considered.

 Look at what Google done in this year alone.

 Back in March, The White House held its first online Town Hall meeting using the Google Moderator,  a voting box used by online users to determine which questions should be answered.  The President’s video message was additionally broadcast on YouTube, a property of Google.

A month later, Google launched the first ever YouTube symphony from Carnegie Hall, which included works from Gabrieli, Bach, Mozart, and Brahms performed by over 90 musicians from more than 30 countries

Both novel and revolutionary and both significant events of what the future holds for online users; and how powerful the Internet has become in disseminating information to millions of people in a blink of an eye.

More significant still, was the recent announcement that a couple of newspaper giants have decided to work with Google in order to showcase their product, rather than vent their frustration that the search engine has eaten their lunch.

Earlier this month, for example, The New York Times and The Washington Post collaborated on the Living Stories Project, an experimental project in which select  stories from both of these newspapers are grouped under categories, like health care or Afghanistan.

The award winning PBS Newshour has also joined forces with Google in which its nightly reports will be broadcast on YouTube ; with exclusive web-original videos from its own online correspondent.

It seems that no matter which direction the information highway is moving, Google has an answer. With the rise of social media sites in 2009, Google now informs us they have unveiled new search tools that pick up results from Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace with updates every few seconds.

And in the latest groundbreaking venture; anticipating the future in wireless computer devices, The Wall Street Journal reports that Google plans to begin selling a new cellphone directly to consumers, to be called Nexus One, beginning the early part of next year.

If you take just 30 seconds to consider all the ways Google, for ``good or ill’’, has embraced our daily lives, maybe then you will appreciate my confusion of how the editors of Time Magazine continue to overlook, year after year, Google as worthy recipient.of Time Magazine Person(s) of the Year.

-Bill Lucey
[email protected] 

 

46th Anniversary Q & A Guide: The JFK Assassination

 

 

He had come a long way to this
blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it.
He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.
-F. Scott Fitzgerald
    The Great Gatsby

   One week from today, marks the 46th year anniversary of the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

In remembrance, The Morning Delivery has compiled some historic facts about the assassination, the legacy that the 35th president of the United State left behind, along with some of the major issues facing the nation nearly 50 years ago.

****

The Assassination: November 22, 1963: Questions and Answers

What type of gun was used to kill Kennedy?

It was a 6.5 millimeter Mannlicher-Carcano: Serial No: C2766

Where is the rifle now?

It is stored at the National Archives in College Park, Md., along with Kennedy's suit, shirt, the original windshield of the limousine, and the wrapping used to support his back.

Where is the limousine today?

It is at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.

What was the limousine License Plate No?
The Presidential limousine was assigned SS 100X; license plate no: GG300 D.C. License Plate

How many passengers were in the limousine?

6.
The driver was Secret Service agent Bill Greer, age 44. Seated next to him was Roy Kellerman, 48, special agent in charge of the White House Detail; behind him was Texas Gov. John Connally and his wife Nellie; and in the back was President Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy.

How many of those passengers are living today?

None.

How long did the shooting last?

4.6 seconds.

How long did it take to take to transport Kennedy to Parkland Memorial Hospital?

6 minutes

What happened when Kennedy entered the hospital?

He was assigned to Trauma Room No. 1

How many doctors examined Kennedy?

3.
Charles J. Carrico, a second year surgical student, was the first to examine him followed by Marion T. Jenkins, chairman of the hospital's department of anesthesiology. Kennedy was pronounced dead by Dr. William Clark.

Which was the first network to announce Kennedy had been shot?

At 12:36 CST, Don Gardiner of the ABC Radio network interrupted Doris Day's recording of "Hooray for Hollywood’’ to make the stunning announcement. The CBS television network followed at 12:40, when Walter Cronkite broke into the soap opera: ``As the World Turns''; NBC didn’t go live with the tragic news until 12: 45, when they broke away from a fashion show.

Who administered the last rites to Kennedy?

Father Oscar Huber of Holy Trinity Church in Dallas recited the words: ``Si capax ego te absolvo a peccatis tuis, in nomine Patris, et Filii et Spiritus Sancti, Amen'' (``If it is possible, I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father and the son, and the Holy Ghost, Amen'')
Jacqueline Kennedy followed with the words: ``And let perpetual light shine upon him''.
NOTE: Father Huber died on January 21, 1975

How many Pulitzers were awarded for the Kennedy Assassination?
2.
Merriman Smith of UPI, who was riding in the White House press pool car; and Robert H. Jackson of the Dallas Times-Herald for his photograph capturing Jack Ruby plugging bullets into the chest of Oswald.

How many books have been published on the JFK Assassination?
440, as of November 11, 2009, according to Bowker’s Books in Print database.

How many Secret Service Agents were there in 1963?

There were 320 agents worldwide. 41 were assigned to White House detail.
NOTE: Today, there are over 3000 Secret Service agents worldwide.

What became of the Texas School Depository Building in Dallas?

The Texas School Book Depository Company moved out of the building in 1970 and relocated to North Dallas.

Opened to the public in 1989, The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza is today a thriving repository of approximately 35,000 items, including photographs, film and video footage, documents and artifacts, related to the assassination and legacy of President John F. Kennedy.

What happened to Jack Ruby?
He died on January 3, 1967, in a Dallas hospital from lung cancer. He was 55.

What was the name of the $3.01 an-hour laborer who dug JFK's grave and became the subject of a Jimmy Breslin feature story that appeared in the New York Herald Tribune on November 26, 1963?

Clifton Pollard.

Who were the members of the Warren Commission charged with investigating the assassination of JFK?

Chief Justice Earl Warren, Chairman
Senator Richard B. Russell
Senator John Sherman Cooper
Representative Hale Boggs
Representative Gerald R. Ford
Mr. Allen W. Dulles
Mr. John J. McCloy
J. Lee Rankin, General Counsel

How many of those members are living today.

None.

Who were the original cabinet members of the Kennedy Administration?

Secretary of State: Dean Rusk
Secretary of Treasury: C. Douglas Dillon
Secretary of Defense: Robert S. McNamara
Attorney General: Robert F. Kennedy
Postmaster General: J. Edward Day (1961-63); John A. Gronouski, Jr (1963)
Secretary of the Interior: Stewart L. Udall
Secretary of Agriculture: Orville L. Freeman
Secretary of Commerce: Luther H. Hodges
Secretary of Labor: Arthur J. Goldberg (1961-62); W. Willard Wirtz (1962-63).
Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare: Abraham A. Ribicoff (1961-62).
Anthony J. Celebrezze (1962-63)

How many Kennedy cabinet members are still living?
2: Stewart L. Udall; and W. Willard Wirtz

***
Other Kennedy's who have died since November 22, 1963:

Robert Francis Kennedy: Died: June 6, 1968
Joseph Patrick Kennedy: Died: November 16, 1969
David Anthony Kennedy: Died: April 25, 1984
Stephen Edward Smith: Died: August 19, 1990
Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onasis: Died: May 19, 1994
Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy: Died: January 22, 1995
Michael LeMoyne Kennedy: Died: December 31, 1997
John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr: Died: July 16, 1999
Carolyn Bessette Kennedy: Died July 16, 1999
Rosemary Kennedy: Died January 7, 2005
Patricia Kennedy: Died September 17, 2006
Eunice Mary Kennedy: Died August 11, 2009
Edward Moore ``Ted’’ Kennedy: Died August 25, 2009

***
Select minute-by-minute timeline of the assassination (eastern standard time) as recorded in William Manchester's Book: ``The Death of a President''

1: 30 p.m. Lee Harvey Oswald shoots JFK from the 6th floor of the Book Depository
1: 34 p.m: First UPI flash
1: 38 p.m. Parkland Memorial Hospital admits case ``24740'' described as a white male suffering from ``gunshot wound''.
1: 57 p.m. Father Huber arrives at hospital
2:00 p.m. JFK is pronounced dead
According to poll conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC), 75 million Americans knew of the assassination at this time.
-Robert McNamara summons the Joint Chiefs
-Washington phone system breaks down.
2: 05 p.m: Robert Kennedy learns his brother is dead.
2: 32 p.m.: UPI quotes Father Huber: ``He's dead...''
2: 33 p.m.,: LBJ boards- Air Force One
2: 40 p.m: Oswald enters a Texas movie theater: ``War is Hell'' is showing.
2: 50 p.m: Oswald is arrested
3:06 p.m: LBJ phones lawyers in an attempt to locate the oath of office
3: 14 p.m. The Associated Press erroneously reports a Secret Service Agent was killed
3: 38: LBJ is sworn in as the 36th President of the United States.
4: 15 p.m. Networks report Oswald has been arrested.
8:00 p.m: Autopsy on JFK commences.
8: 50 p.m Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of John and Jacqueline, is informed of her father's death by Miss Shaw.

***

Kennedy Years: Legislative Scorecard

87th Congress

1961: President Kennedy submitted 355 legislative proposals. 172 were approved by Congress, giving him a 48.4 percent approval score
1962: President Kennedy submitted 298 legislative proposals. 133 were approved by Congress, giving him a 44.6 percent approval score.

88th Congress

1963: President Kennedy submitted 401 legislative proposals. 109 were approved, giving him a 27.2 percent approval score.

Source:  Congressional Quarterly tabulations

***
1963: A Look Back
Major News Events:

April 1, 1963: New York Newspaper strike ends

April 12, 1963: Martin Luther King Jr., along with 60 others, are arrested in Birmingham Ala., after leading an anti-segregation drive.

May 12, 1963: President Kennedy sends 3,000 troops to Birmingham to maintain order.

June 3, 1963: Pope John XXIII dies at age 81 during the 5th year of his reign.

June 11, 1963: When confronted by National Guardsman, Gov George Wallace of Alabama allows two black students to enter the University of Alabama.

June 19,1963: President Kennedy proposes aggressive civil rights legislation.

June 19, 1963: Two Soviet cosmonauts, one being a woman, launches into space.

June 26, 1963: President Kennedy delivers historic ``Ich bin ein Berliner'' speech in West Berlin.

July 8, 1963: The United States bans financial dealings with the Castro regime.

July 25, 1963: The United States, along with Great Britain and the Soviet Union, reach agreement on a test ban treaty, which calls for the end of nuclear testing on land, in space, and under water.

August 27, 1963: Congress passes a bill prohibiting a national railroad strike when it imposes compulsory arbitration, the first time such an act was imposed in U.S. history.

August 28, 1963: 200,000 persons make a peaceful pilgrimage to the nation's capital to push for civil rights legislation.

September 15, 1963: A bomb exploded in an Alabama church, killing four black girls.

September 20, 1963: In a speech before the U.N. General Assembly, President Kennedy proposes a joint U.S Soviet expedition to the moon.

October 13, 1963: Hurricane Flora kills over 1,000 persons in Cuba.

November 1, 1963: President Diem along with his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu are assassinated when a military coup uproots the government of South Vietnam.

November 18, 1963: The Baath regime in Iraq is overthrown.

***

News Magazine Cover stories that never went to press due to the Kennedy Assassination

• Life Magazine originally planned a cover splash on Navy quarterback Roger Staubach, including 22 pages of text and pictures.

• Time Magazine discarded their cover feature on jazz musician Thelonious Monk

***

1963: Demographics

• Federal budget reaches nearly $100 billion
• National Debt: $315 billion
• Employed: 69.8 million as of October 31, 1963
• Unemployment Rate: 5.5 percent or 3.4 million as of October 31, 1963
• Per capita annual income: $2,500
• Gross National Product: $600 billion
• Defense Spending: $52 billion
• Two-thirds of the world’s automobiles are in the United States
• First class postage stamps increased to five cents an ounce.
• Cost of a Drive-in movie? $1.50 per car
• A pound of Maxwell House coffee cost 38 cents.
• A four bedroom house in North San Bernardino, Ca. was selling for $17,100
• A subway token was 15 cents.
• A Royalite typewriter, including a carrying case, standard keyboard pica or elite was selling for $49.95.

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Odds and Ends

• Church attendance in 1963 stood at 46 percent, according to a Gallup poll
• In the November 22, 1963 issue of Time Magazine, Republican presidential front runner Barry Goldwater was quoted from a speech he had given at the Better Business Bureau Banquet in Chicago as saying: ``The New Frontier has produced 1,026 days of wasted spending, wishful thinking, unwarranted intervention, wistful theories and waning confidence''.
• The Best Selling Book listed on Time Magazine's Best Selling List in the November 29, 1963 issue was Victor Lasky's: JFK: The Man and the Myth.

NOTE: Immediately after the JFK assassination, Macmillan Co., cancelled the promotion and distribution of Lasky's book due to its critical assessment of the Kennedy administration.

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1963 Footnotes:

• Sidney Portier wins the Academy Award for Lilies of the Fields, a film that cost $250,000 to make and was filmed in just 14 days.
• Richard Nixon plays the piano during his appearance on the Jack Paar show in March.
• William Faulkner wins the Pulitzer for fiction for ``The Reivers''
• Cincinnati Reds 2nd Baseman Pete Rose is named Rookie of the Year
• There were 4, 200 computers (all large main frames) in the U.S.

-Bill Lucey
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