The Camera Never Blinks by Penn Jones

              PENN JONES T H E
CONTINUING
INQUIRY
VOLUME V, NUMBER 1
The Camera Never Blinks *
by Penn Jones
The recent promotion of well-known newsman,
Dan Rather, by CBS prompts this further
study of his actions and statements on the
day President John F. Kennedy was assassin­ated
in Dallas.
Rather had been assigned to Dallas for several
months prior to the assassination, but had
been promoted to New York. He was back in
Dallas to be in charge of CBS coverage of the
Presidential v i s i t.
The ever busy Rather was unusually so on Nov.
22, 1963. He went to Uvalde, Texas (without
#^mentioning how he got there) to have break-
H^fast with former Vice President John Nance
Garner.
Uvalde is more than 250 air miles south of
Dallas, yet Rather was back in Dallas "by
mid-morning'> * Garner must have had break­fast
ready when Rather arrived.
On his return to his base at the CBS station,
KRLD, Rather finds the final, and most im­portant
film drop position was not manned.
He grabbed an orange colored bag (easy to
identify, he notes) "walks four blocks" to**
his position (not even a cab after the flight
to and from Uvalde!)
But it is not four blocks. It is eight blocks.
Rather positioned himself "on the other side
of the railroad tracks, beyond the triple
underpass, thirty yards from the grassy
knoll..."**
According to Rather, he "heard the shots
and went up on the railroad overpass"
not a word as to what happened to the film
^ h e was supposed to catch.
Rather then went "on a full run, f i ve
blocks (not four) back to the Times Herald
station. Guess he was running so fast he
couldn't count the blocks. We feel that if
AUGUST 22, 1980
• T i t l e of Bather's book
** Quotes from Kather's book
he were actually running, he would have
estimated i t as fifteen blocks instead of
f i v e.
There are just too many holes in Rather's
story to be believed. More l i k e l y Rather
had a car available to him - - at network
expense - - . In fact THE CONTINUING INQUIRY
of September 22, 1978 contained a Dallas
News story by Earl Golz detailing the strange
story of Tom G. Til son, a retired Dallas
Policeman. Tilson and his daughter arrived
near Dealey Plaza just after the President
had been shot. Tilson's car was turning
east onto Commerce Street from Industrial
Boulevard when he heard on his radio that
the President had been shot. "And I saw
a l l these people running to the scene of
the shooting... But here's one guy coming
from the railroad tracks. He came down that
grassy slope on the west side of the t r i p le
underpass, on the Elm Street side. He had
a car parked there, a black car. And he
threw something in the back seat and went
around the front hurriedly and got in the
car and took off."
Did Dan Rather have a car available to drive
back to Herald Square, or did he actually go
at a " f u l l run"?
In his book. Rather goes
he starts explaining his
Abraham Zaparuder film,
in our opinion, would be
on the defensive when
involvement with the
Of prime importance,
to know how Dan was
chosen to be the only newsman to narrate the
famous film—especially since Rather did such
dishonest narration.
On national television. Rather referred to the
impact direction of the President's head as:
"His head went forward with considerable vio­lence."
(See: No conspiracy!)
The President's head went to the l e f t rear at
the rate of 106 f t . per second. Millions of