JFK Assassination
By Abbie Hovis
Who, What, When, Where and why.
JFK was assassinated on November 22nd, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. Police believed that Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed him, but others believed that there was more than one person involved. There were three bullets fired, one killed JFK, one killed Governor Connally and the last is considered to be the magic bullet. They don't know where the bullet ended up or even if Oswald shot it.
Media Portrayed Perspective 1
One way that the media looks at this is that its just another assassination, as if there isn't anything different or special. Some newspapers viewed this as if it was the same as MLK or even President Lincoln. The Warren Commission found that Oswald acted alone, and that's what many wanted to believe.
Media Portrayed Perspective 2
Some forms of media view this as a conspiracy because they feel that Oswald didn't act alone and that the CIA was involved. One specific theory is that Oswald was working on behalf of Castro because the CIA tried to assassinate him. The United States House Select Committee on Assassinations found that there were two shooters, though they did not identify anyone.
Media Bias
I've found that the medias is biased towards the fact that there must have been only one shooter involved. No one wants to believe or hear that there could have been a conspiracy involved in the shooting of the President. Others, though, do in fact believe that there was someone else involved in the production of his assassination.
Criticism 1
Historical criticism affects the viewpoint of this because during the time period that this happened, many people only believed what the newspapers said. Different newspapers mostly said the same thing, but others did not. The video of the assassination also influenced what people believed. If this would've happened more towards this time period, now that we are more technologically advanced, history probably wouldn't have played such a big role in how people determined what they believed happened.
Criticism 2
Cultural criticism played a huge role in this as well because it wasn't just some regular person who was killed. It was the President, who was in fact a respected man in the country whether people liked him or not. Cultural criticism does involve politics, and politics played a huge role in the media bias and portrayal of this event.