Dan Rather's laughable account of what he think he saw in the Zapruder film

[Royell Storing]

 Who claimed that Dan Rather viewed the Z Film more than 1 time before doing his nationwide broadcasts? Nobody did. STOP making stuff up!

[Tom Graves]

Who claimed that Dan Rather viewed the Z Film more than 1 time before doing his nationwide broadcasts? Nobody did. STOP making stuff up!

Storing,

Why are you so paranoiac?

I didn't say that you or anyone else had claimed that Rather had watched the clip more than once when he made his error-filled broadcasts.

Stop making stuff up!

[Royell Storing]

So, I was right -- the poor guy got to see the clip only one time.

No wonder he made so many mistakes -- like saying in so many words, "JBC was clearly shot when he was turned around, reaching towards the President."

At least his syntax, grammar and vocabulary were pretty good.

. . . . . . . . .

Here's his 5:21-long version:

We have just returned from seeing a complete motion picture of the moments immediately preceding, and the moments of, President Kennedy's assassination. The motion picture shows the limousine, carrying in the front seat two Secret Service men, in the middle or jump-seat, Governor and Mrs. John Connally of Texas, and in the rear seat President and Mrs. Kennedy, a single Secret Service man standing on the back bumper. The top of the black Lincoln convertible down. The car made a turn, a left turn, off of Houston Street onto Elm Street on the fringe of Dallas's downtown area, that turn made directly below the 6th floor window from which the assassin's bullets came. After the left turn was completed, the automobile, with only one car in front of it -- a Secret Service car immediately in front -- the President's car proceeded about 35 yards from the base of the building in which the assassin was. President Kennedy and Governor Connally were seated on the same side of the open car, the side facing the building; Mrs. Kennedy and Mrs. Connally on the side opposite the assassin. President Kennedy is clearly shown to put his right hand up to the side of his face, as if to either brush back his hair or perhaps rub his eyebrow. Mrs. Kennedy at that instant is looking away, that is not looking at the president. At almost that instant, when the President has his hand up to the side of his face, he lurches forward -- something in this manner.  The first shot had hit him. Mrs. Kennedy appeared not to notice. Governor Connally, in the seat right in front of the President -- and by the way, the Governor had his suit coat open –- his suit was not buttoned -- perhaps either heard the shot or somehow he knew that something was wrong because the picture shows just after that first shot hit the President, the Governor turned in something this manner with his right arm outstretched back towards the President as if to say “what's wrong” or “what happened,” or to say something, and exposed the entire white front shirt of the Governor to the full view of the assassin’s window, and as the Governor was in this position and President Kennedy, behind him, was slumped slightly over, a shot clearly hit the front of Governor Connally and the Governor fell back, over towards his wife. Mrs. Connally immediately put herself over her husband in a protective position, and as she did so, in the back seat this time with Mrs. Kennedy's eyes apparently [unintelligible], the second shot -- the third shot in all -- the second shot hit the President's head. His head went forward in a violent motion, pushing it down like this. Mrs. Kennedy was on her feet immediately. The President fell over in this direction. It appeared that his head probably brushed or hit against Mrs. Kennedy's legs. The First Lady almost immediately tried to crawl on, and did crawl onto, the trunk of the car, face-down, her whole body almost was on that trunk in something (sic) that all fours position. She appeared to desperately be trying to get the attention of the Secret Service man on the back bumper, or perhaps she was stretching out toward him to grab him, try to get him in, or perhaps even to get herself out of the car. The car was moving all the time; the car never stopped. The Secret Service man on the back bumper leaned way over and put his hands on Mrs. Kennedy's shoulders. She appeared to be in some danger of falling or rolling off that trunk lid. He pushed her into the back seat of the car. In the front seat a Secret Service man with a phone in his hand. The car speeded it up and sped away. It never stopped; it never paused. That's what the film of the assassination showed. The film was taken by an amateur photographer who had placed himself in an advantageous position. Eight-millimeter color film. This is Dan Rather in Dallas.

   BUMP regarding possible Rather repeated Z Film viewing.

[Tom Graves]

BUMP regarding possible Rather repeated Z Film viewing.

Given the high number of gross inaccuracies in his reporting, one would think that he only viewed it once.

Either that, or that oodles and gobs of evil, evil CIA or FBI film alterationists radically changed it to protect the evil, evil "Deep State."

Is that what you believe, Storing?

[Steve M. Galbraith]

In his memoirs (and supported by other accounts of people who were there, e.g., Richard Stolley), Rather explains that he - and the other media representatives who were there - were allowed to see the film *one time* privately before bidding on it. After he saw the film he immediately left before bidding and gave his news report on what he thought he saw. The lawyer mentioned below was Zapruder's lawyer Sam Passman.

Remember that after the assassination Zapruder had the in camera original film developed and then three copies of that made. So there were four films. He gave two *copies* to the government (Forrest Sorrels, the Dallas Secret Service agent) which were then flown to Washington. Zapruder kept the original and one copy. He showed that original to the media on Satur day. This is what Rather and the others saw. At no time was that original in the hands of the government. So there was *no opportunity* for it to be altered before Time/Life purchased it.

Here is Rather:

[Michael T. Griffith]

Yeah, they swear by images and then disregard eyewitness testimony that conflicts with those same images. Personally, I am always astounded at the Missing Images that nobody asks about. Where are there any image(s) of SA Lem Johns jumping out of the LBJ SS Car and then running down Elm St. toward the JFK Limo? Where are there any image(s) of DPD Motorcycle Officer Hargis running across Elm St and then running up to "that wall", "little brick wall"? Those images are missing and nobody questions why we have this Gaping Black Hole. Interestingly, Officer Hargis's "little brick wall" is also where Gordon Arnold claimed he got kicked around by the "No Hat Cop". Images of Gordon Arnold are also nowhere to be found.

And here's another real kicker of a fact: AP journalist James Altgens, who took the famous Altgens photos, said that the head shot he witnessed knocked JFK forward, that he never saw the violent backward motion seen in the Zapruder film, and that he believed the backward motion was an "optical illusion," as I also discuss in "Evidence of Alteration in the Zapruder Film." I quote from my segment on Altgens' telling statements on the subject:

Newsman James Altgens, who was standing near Elm Street to photograph the
motorcade, told CBS in 1967 that when JFK was shot in the head, he was knocked
forward and was dislodged from the seat cushion. Said Altgens,

"And as they got close to me, and I was prepared to make the picture, I had my
camera almost at eye level; that’s when the president was shot in the head. And I
do know the president was still in an upright position, tilted, favoring Mrs.
Kennedy. And at the time that he was struck by this blow to the head, it was so
obvious that it came from behind. It had to come from behind because it caused
him to bolt forward, dislodging him from his impression in the seat cushion. . . .
(David Mantik, JFK’s Head Wounds: A Final Synthesis – And a New Analysis of the
Harper Fragment, Amazon Kindle, 2015, p. 125)

Altgens told JFK scholar and medical researcher Milicent Cranor that he did not see
JFK knocked backward, and that he believed that JFK’s violent backward motion in the
Zapruder film was an “optical illusion” (Mantik, JFK’s Head Wounds, p. 125).

[Tom Graves]

And here's another real kicker of a fact: AP journalist James Altgens, who took the famous Altgens photos, said that the head shot he witnessed knocked JFK forward, that he never saw the violent backward motion seen in the Zapruder film, and that he believed the backward motion was an "optical illusion," as I also discuss in "Evidence of Alteration in the Zapruder Film." I quote from my segment on Altgens' telling statements on the subject:

Newsman James Altgens, who was standing near Elm Street to photograph the
motorcade, told CBS in 1967 that when JFK was shot in the head, he was knocked
forward and was dislodged from the seat cushion. Said Altgens,

"And as they got close to me, and I was prepared to make the picture, I had my
camera almost at eye level; that’s when the president was shot in the head. And I
do know the president was still in an upright position, tilted, favoring Mrs.
Kennedy. And at the time that he was struck by this blow to the head, it was so
obvious that it came from behind. It had to come from behind because it caused
him to bolt forward, dislodging him from his impression in the seat cushion. . . .
(David Mantik, JFK’s Head Wounds: A Final Synthesis – And a New Analysis of the
Harper Fragment, Amazon Kindle, 2015, p. 125)

Altgens told JFK scholar and medical researcher Milicent Cranor that he did not see
JFK knocked backward, and that he believed that JFK’s violent backward motion in the
Zapruder film was an “optical illusion” (Mantik, JFK’s Head Wounds, p. 125).

Griffith,

Do you agree with Storing that the Zapruder film was heavily altered by the evil, evil bad guys?