NGC/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNELS/KEN

Working in front of a green screen, Rob Lowe and Ginnifer Goodwin film the shooting scene in the National Geographic Channel's "Killing Kennedy," a dramatization of Bill O'Reilly's book, airing on Nov. 10.

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THE ASSASSINATION of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, not only changed the course of America, it changed the course of television.
The flickering black-and-white glow from tens of millions of TV sets linked the country in shock, disbelief and grief.
So it's fitting that television will look back repeatedly on that terrible moment as we move into the 50th-anniversary month.
All the major networks and news channels will carry retrospectives. Here are some highlights:
Nov. 3 : "JFK: The Smoking Gun," 8 p.m., Reelz. The boldest of the bunch, with Australian investigator Colin McLaren concluding that the fatal shot was accidental friendly fire and the truth has been covered up. On Nov. 4 at 10 p.m. on Reelz, reporter Bill Kurtis questions McLaren and others about his conclusions.
Nov. 8 : "JFK: The Final Hours," 8 p.m., National Geographic. Focusing on his human side.
Nov. 9 : "50 Years of Questions: The JFK Assassination," 9 p.m., Fox News Channel. Bill Hemmer hosts.
Nov. 10 : "Killing Kennedy," 8 p.m., National Geographic. Dramatizing Bill O'Reilly's book on the assassination, with Rob Lowe as Kennedy and Ginnifer Goodwin as his wife, Jackie. O'Reilly accepts that Oswald was the killer and paints a negative picture of Kennedy's "Camelot."


Nov. 11-12 : "American Experience: JFK," 9 p.m., PBS. A typically thorough PBS documentary on Kennedy, with comments from family members and historians.
Nov. 12 : "Capturing Oswald," 10 p.m., Military Channel. An admiring look at the work of the Dallas Police Department, including an interview with Jim Leavelle, the officer who was handcuffed to Oswald when he was killed.
Nov. 13 : "Nova: Cold Case," 9 p.m., PBS. Applying modern forensics to see if there's a better answer to who did it.
CBS PHOTO ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES

CBS News' Walter Cronkite, seen on a TV monitor, announces the President's death. The moment looms large in the Nov. 13 episode of PBS' "Secrets of the Dead," entitled "JFK: One P.M. Central Standard Time."


Nov. 13 : "Secrets of the Dead: JFK: One P.M. Central Standard Time," 10 p.m., PBS. A minute-by-minute account of what happened from the time shots were fired until CBS anchor Walter Cronkite announced the President was dead.
Nov. 14: "The Sixties: The Assassination of JFK," 9 p.m., CNN. Putting the assassination into the context of the times.
Nov. 16 : "As It Happened: John F. Kennedy, 50 Years," 9 p.m., CBS. Hosted by Bob Schieffer, who was in Dallas that day. On Nov. 17, Schieffer anchors "Face the Nation" from Dallas, and Charles Osgood looks at Kennedy's legacy on "Sunday Morning."
Nov. 17 : Tribute and panel discussion on "This Week With George Stephanopoulos," 10 a.m., ABC.
Nov. 17 : "Kennedy's Suicide Bomber," Smithsonian, 8 p.m. An intriguing footnote about an aborted attempt to kill Kennedy before he took office.
Nov. 17 : "The Day Kennedy Died," Smithsonian, 9 p.m. Another minute-by-minute account, using rare film, photos and eyewitnesses. Kevin Spacey narrates.
Nov. 19 : "Frontline: Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald?" Another exploration of the man with the rifle in the book depository.
Nov. 21 : "JFK: The Lost Tapes," 7 p.m., Discovery. Police radio and other tapes recorded the day of the assassination.
Nov. 22 : "JFK: The Day That Changed America," 7 p.m. and "The Kennedy Brothers," 8 p.m., MSNBC. Both hosted by Chris Matthews. Also on MSNBC: "50 Years of Guns," 9 p.m., hosted by Al Sharpton.
Nov. 22 : "JFK Assassination: The Definitive Guide," 8 p.m., History. Overview of the killing and its ramifications.
Nov. 22 : "Lee Harvey Oswald: 48 Hours to Live," 10 p.m., History. A History poll found 74% of Americans think Oswald was set up as the fall guy. This two-hour special looks at his last two days.

James Norwood Wrote:The premiere of the Reelz telecast of "JFK: The Smoking Gun" occurred on the evening of November 3, 2013. In so many of the poorly researched television documentaries on the JFK assassination, the title is a giveaway for shoddy scholarship and research. In the two-hour Reelz program, the "smoking gun" in the title implies that the totality of the evidence will be ignored in favor of focusing on a single, sensational topic.

[FONT=&amp] This ludicrous program recycles the thesis of Bonar Menninger in his 1992 book Mortal Error. Menninger and British private investigator Colin McLaren are the two principal commentators on the program. McLaren has recently published a book with the same title of the documentary. The book is available (only as a Kindle, MP3, or audio book) at amazon at this site:[/FONT][FONT=&amp]http://www.amazon.com/JFK-The-Smoking-Colin-McLaren/dp/1743179537

Menninger and McLaren use the Warren Report findings as their template, then present the unverifiable thesis was JFK was shot accidentally by the Colt AR-15 erratically wielded by SS Agent George Hickey from the follow-up car, as the agent was reacting to the gunfire in Dealey Plaza. The program argues that Oswald fired two shots, but the fatal headshot to JFK came inadvertently from Hickey as the "mortal error."

This program is painfully similar to those documentaries that rely on a computer mock up of the limousine lumbering down Elm Street. The findings of the Bethesda autopsy are taken as gospel. The authenticity of the Zapruder film is taken as gospel. Specter's single-bullet theory is taken as gospel. And, of course, it is taken as gospel that Lee Harvey Oswald is firing off shots from his Mannlicher-Carcano carbine from his sixth-floor perch. "JFK: The Smoking Gun" modifies the Warren Report, suggesting that two shots were fired by Oswald (one "nicking" JFK in the back after ricocheting off the street and the "single bullet" wounding both JFK and Connally, as formulated by Arlen Specter). The third bullet was the fatal shot fired by Hickey. Incredibly, the program never accounts for the known shot that missed the limousine occupants and wounded James Tague!

Any book, film, or documentary that does not include the findings of the ARRB, especially in the area of the medical evidence, as well as the abundant literature from serious researchers of the past decade, is doomed to failure. "JFK: The Smoking Gun" will serve only to add more confusion for viewers interested in learning the truth about the assassination of President Kennedy.


James


P.S. On the Reelz website, there is a link to vote and "share your thoughts" on the credibility of the program. As of 9:30pm on 11/3, the voting results are 72% voting "I believe" in the mortal error thesis and 27% voting "I don't believe": http://www.jfkthesmokinggun.com/[/FONT]

Marlene Zenker Wrote:

James Norwood Wrote:The premiere of the Reelz telecast of "JFK: The Smoking Gun" occurred on the evening of November 3, 2013. In so many of the poorly researched television documentaries on the JFK assassination, the title is a giveaway for shoddy scholarship and research. In the two-hour Reelz program, the "smoking gun" in the title implies that the totality of the evidence will be ignored in favor of focusing on a single, sensational topic.

[FONT=&amp] This ludicrous program recycles the thesis of Bonar Menninger in his 1992 book Mortal Error. Menninger and British private investigator Colin McLaren are the two principal commentators on the program. McLaren has recently published a book with the same title of the documentary. The book is available (only as a Kindle, MP3, or audio book) at amazon at this site:[/FONT][FONT=&amp]http://www.amazon.com/JFK-The-Smoking-Colin-McLaren/dp/1743179537

Menninger and McLaren use the Warren Report findings as their template, then present the unverifiable thesis was JFK was shot accidentally by the Colt AR-15 erratically wielded by SS Agent George Hickey from the follow-up car, as the agent was reacting to the gunfire in Dealey Plaza. The program argues that Oswald fired two shots, but the fatal headshot to JFK came inadvertently from Hickey as the "mortal error."

This program is painfully similar to those documentaries that rely on a computer mock up of the limousine lumbering down Elm Street. The findings of the Bethesda autopsy are taken as gospel. The authenticity of the Zapruder film is taken as gospel. Specter's single-bullet theory is taken as gospel. And, of course, it is taken as gospel that Lee Harvey Oswald is firing off shots from his Mannlicher-Carcano carbine from his sixth-floor perch. "JFK: The Smoking Gun" modifies the Warren Report, suggesting that two shots were fired by Oswald (one "nicking" JFK in the back after ricocheting off the street and the "single bullet" wounding both JFK and Connally, as formulated by Arlen Specter). The third bullet was the fatal shot fired by Hickey. Incredibly, the program never accounts for the known shot that missed the limousine occupants and wounded James Tague!

Any book, film, or documentary that does not include the findings of the ARRB, especially in the area of the medical evidence, as well as the abundant literature from serious researchers of the past decade, is doomed to failure. "JFK: The Smoking Gun" will serve only to add more confusion for viewers interested in learning the truth about the assassination of President Kennedy.


James


P.S. On the Reelz website, there is a link to vote and "share your thoughts" on the credibility of the program. As of 9:30pm on 11/3, the voting results are 72% voting "I believe" in the mortal error thesis and 27% voting "I don't believe": http://www.jfkthesmokinggun.com/[/FONT]

I looked at the poll at the bottom as well it's 73% - 26% now - so sad.