JFK Assassination Forum
The JFK Assassination Discussion & Debate => JFK Assassination Discussion & Debate => Topic started by: John Corbett on August 16, 2026, 02:06:00 PM
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I'm sure every JFKA junkie has heard these words countless times in various documentaries over the decades. I bristle every time I hear it because it is a fraud. This audio clip is from a recreation made by the radio reporter the following day and it is a serious breach of journalistic ethics. It might be hard to believe now but there was a time when news organizations actually adhered to a code of ethics. The reporter who created this audio was fired for his breach of ethics, but that hasn't stopped producers of JFKA related documentaries from using this clip in their productions.
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I'm sure every JFKA junkie has heard these words countless times in various documentaries over the decades. I bristle every time I hear it because it is a fraud. This audio clip is from a recreation made by the radio reporter the following day and it is a serious breach of journalistic ethics. It might be hard to believe now but there was a time when news organizations actually adhered to a code of ethics. The reporter who created this audio was fired for his breach of ethics, but that hasn't stopped producers of JFKA related documentaries from using this clip in their productions.
Producer Nigel Turner used dramatic reconstructions with actors to portray the covertly recorded conversation between right-wing activist Joseph Milteer and police informant Willie Somerset on 'TMWKK' because the original surveillance audio recordings were either inaudible, structurally fragmented, or legally/technically unfit for direct broadcast.
Original 1963 police wire/surveillance recordings of Milteer were muffled, degraded, and difficult for general television audiences to understand clearly without enhancement or re-reading.
Using voice actors allowed the precise, controversial text of what Milteer stated regarding threats against President Kennedy to be presented coherently to the audience.
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Pretty sure John C was referring to Sam Pate's reenactment on the 1963 "Four Days That Shocked the World" album.
Sam Pate Oral History (Oral History Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza) (https://emuseum.jfk.org/objects/26121)
PS: I may have read Duncan's reply too quickly to realize that he was probably just citing another example of this practice to show that it wasn't unique.
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Producer Nigel Turner used dramatic reconstructions with actors to portray the covertly recorded conversation between right-wing activist Joseph Milteer and police informant Willie Somerset on 'TMWKK' because the original surveillance audio recordings were either inaudible, structurally fragmented, or legally/technically unfit for direct broadcast.
Original 1963 police wire/surveillance recordings of Milteer were muffled, degraded, and difficult for general television audiences to understand clearly without enhancement or re-reading.
Using voice actors allowed the precise, controversial text of what Milteer stated regarding threats against President Kennedy to be presented coherently to the audience.
There is nothing unethical about that as long as it is clearly labeled as a DRAMATIZATION.
Likewise, in the early days of covering the space program, the networks would often simulate space maneuvers because the technology did not exist to show the actual event, but they always labeled those as SIMULATION.
ABC's Cokie Roberts was once suspended for her coverage of the State of the Union Address when she did a report wearing an overcoat while standing in front of a picture of the Capitol Building while in the ABC studios. There is, or at least there was, a strict code against faking a news report, even for something as benign as what Roberts did.
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Cokie Roberts was NOT suspended and Sam Pate was NOT fired after the recording he'd made.
ps; something had happened in the motorcade.
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Cokie Roberts was NOT suspended and Sam Pate was NOT fired after the recording he'd made.
ps; something had happened in the motorcade.
Sam Pate was fired by KBOX just days after his reenactment although the station cited the reason only as a "personnel cut" without going into specifics.
My memory of the Cokie Roberts incident was that it was announced she was being suspended although the sources I checked now say it was a reprimand. Either way, it was a breach of ethics for her to fake a report from the Capitol when in fact she was in the studio the whole time.
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Sam Pate was fired by KBOX just days after his reenactment although the station cited the reason only as a "personnel cut" without going into specifics.
Pate left KBOX before making the recording
"The FBI also informed the Commission that the newsman had stated that most of the tape was not recorded in Dealey Plaza at the time of the assassination, but was recorded in a studio several days later after he had been dismissed by his station, KBOX."
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Pate left KBOX before making the recording
In any event, presenting a reenactment of an event as if it were an actual broadcast is serious breach of journalistic ethics. It's called manufacturing the news. It is a fraudulent practice.
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In any event, presenting a reenactment of an event as if it were an actual broadcast is serious breach of journalistic ethics. It's called manufacturing the news. It is a fraudulent practice.
It was a sound bite on a record for entertainment. It wasn't broadcast as news
nobody described as the day it happened
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It was a sound bite on a record for entertainment. It wasn't broadcast as news
nobody described as the day it happened
Every documentary that has used that recording and not identified it as a re-enactment has perpetrated a fraud. The originators of the recording also perpetrated a fraud if they didn't identify it as a re-enactment. It is not a broadcast of an actual event.
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In any event, presenting a reenactment of an event as if it were an actual broadcast is serious breach of journalistic ethics. It's called manufacturing the news. It is a fraudulent practice.
:D It was a record for entertainment purposes
One line. It was not news. True statement
It is not a broadcast of an actual event.
nobody claimed it was.
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:D It was a record for entertainment purposes
One line. Nobody claimed it was 11//22. True statement
nobody claimed it was.
When it is presented whether in its original form or reused in a documentary and not identified as a re-enactment, it is a fraud. Failure to do so implies it is an actual recording made during the assassination. For years, I believed it was a recording of the actual event and I would bet most people who heard it believed the same thing. I would be a lot of people still believe it to be a recording of a live broadcast. That makes it a fraud.
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When it is presented whether in its original form or reused in a documentary and not identified as a re-enactment, it is a fraud. Failure to do so implies it is an actual recording made during the assassination. For years, I believed it was a recording of the actual event and I would bet most people who heard it believed the same thing. I would be a lot of people still believe it to be a recording of a live broadcast. That makes it a fraud.
:D Oh, so painful