It may be the most famous tear ever shed on live television and Wednesday will be its sixtieth anniversary.
It was noon hour on the East Coast with viewers watching the popular soap, As The World Turns when suddenly Walter Cronkite, jacketless and sitting at a makeshift setup in the CBS newsroom in New York, broke in and read what he’d been handed:
Cronkite would become the most respected news anchor in North America. But in a little-remembered part of that day’s television history, that emotion, that tearing up on Cronkite’s part, apparently didn’t sit well with his bosses. They pulled him for a few hours to compose himself. It was the only time in Cronkite’s brilliant career (spanning from D-Day to the moon landings, through Watergate and the Iran hostage crisis) that anyone tried that again.
I was fifteen that day in 1963. When I got home from school, my mother had the CBC on, which had simply switched its feed over to CBS or NBC and viewers followed the story through American eyes. The arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald, his eventual murder in the basement of the Dallas police station by Jack Ruby, and the state funeral for President Kennedy have stuck with me forever. Having consumed dozens of books, movies, and interviews on the subject (and its related conspiracy theories) over the years, I’ve gone back and forth on what I believed about November 22, 1963. By the fiftieth anniversary in 2013, I’d concluded that there was no conspiracy and that Oswald acted alone.
It was on that anniversary that I was invited to give the keynote speech at the opening night of the Halifax Security Conference. I was honoured to do it, and the organizers asked me to talk about how the Kennedy assassination had changed our world. I did my best and was rewarded with a nice ovation.
As I stepped down from the podium, I could see one person among those standing, right along the path I would take back to my table. It was Arizona Senator John McCain.
I had always followed McCain’s personal story and admired him for several reasons, mainly because of his bravery and courage as a US Navy pilot shot down, captured, and tortured in North Vietnam. Now there he was standing for me of all people, and not only that, but he was also signalling he wanted to talk.
He put his hand on my shoulder, and said “That was a great speech, son.” “Wow,” I thought, “John McCain praising me!” Then reality hit. He moved closer and almost whispering said, “But how do you explain Oswald being in the Soviet embassy in Mexico City just weeks before Dallas?”
I was fully aware of that story as it had been around for years, always explained away as another Oswald attempt to get a visa to head back to Russia where he’d met his wife. McCain didn’t buy that.
“Not you too, Senator… you’re a conspiracy theorist?”
“You’re damn right I am, and I’ll stay one till someone gives me a real explanation as to what the hell Oswald was doing with the Soviets in that embassy. No one ever has.”
And I don’t think anyone ever did. Senator John McCain died in 2018.
So here we are ten years later and now at the sixtieth anniversary of the assassination, the theories just keep on coming.
If you’re into that kind of stuff, sit back, relax, and try this out from Scott Sayare in New York Magazine:
How a dogged journalist proved that the CIA lied about Oswald and Cuba — and spent decades covering it up.
Is the carbon tax in trouble in Canada?
While the policy has never been overly popular, Pierre Poilievre has made “axe the tax” a common political phrase and some of the government’s actions of late have resulted in shifting attitudes. Angus Reid has been in the field and here’s what their number crunching is telling us about where Canadians stand on the carbon tax today:
Carbon Tax: Perceptions of insufficient rebates, cost of living concern & questions over efficacy send support plummeting
November is Financial Literacy Month
Financial literacy is an essential life skill and an important part of overall financial well-being. Canada’s banks support several programs to help Canadians strengthen their financial knowledge, skills and confidence, including the Canadian Bankers Association's free seminar programs, Your Money Seniors and Your Money Students.
The next time you are in the downtown area of any Canadian city take a good look around at the office towers.
You’ll be surprised at just how often you see no sign of anything. They’re still empty from the work-from-home pandemic days. And for some, they may never have office workers in them again. Karen Pauls and Paula Duhatschek decided to check this out:
Office workers still aren't back in full force, so what's next for Canada's downtowns?
The other day, the Committee to Protect Journalists published a sobering statistic.
In the first forty days of the Israel-Hamas war, 42 journalists had been killed, almost all of them in Gaza. And while that figure pales in comparison to the civilian deaths that have taken place on both sides of the border, it is a horrible number and raises the question of how you report from a war zone. David Ignatius is one of the best journalists covering defence matters in the world. He works for the Washington Post and was in Gaza this week:
A silent desperation on the slow march out of Gaza City
This may have been my favourite story of the week because it brought back memories for me.
Dustin Patar of the Globe and Mail was high in the Arctic on board the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Amundsen. Every winter the ship is up north, way north, studying the seascape and ecosystem. A bit of flag-waving for Canadian Arctic sovereignty:
On this Arctic icebreaker, researchers check in on a changing climate
Having trouble keeping track of the different trials faced by Le Grand Orange (remember when that could only mean the late Rusty Staub?)?
The Buzz is here to help point you to this very helpful, worthy of pinning to the fridge, guide to the former leader of the free world’s court cases by The Atlantic:
The Cases Against Trump: A Guide
Before I wrap it up for this week, an optional visit to the Mansbridge archives.
As we approach the sixtieth anniversary of the JFK assassination, I thought I’d post this link – it’s the mini-doc I did with cameraman Dave Rae, editor Claude Panet Raymond and producer Lara Chatterjee. We called it 72 Hours That Changed America.
Now, second, back to December of 2007 and my trip on board the icebreaker Amundsen.
It was one of the early climate change research voyages as the vessel was overwintering in the high Arctic. We flew in, landed on the ice, snowmobiled to the ship, and did the National for a few nights from there. One of the sidebar stories I did was a tour of the vessel as a tribute to the Canadians who go to geographic extremes to serve their country:
Look for the next edition of The Buzz in your inbox seven days from now.
You can always catch me on The Bridge on weekdays at noon Eastern on SiriusXM Ch 167 or your favourite podcast platform. And Friday’s Good Talk episode is also available on YouTube.
And look for my new book, co-authored with Mark Bulgutch, How Canada Works as it is released this coming Tuesday. Published by Simon and Schuster, it's available at bookstores everywhere or online.
Alright, that’s enough self-promotion. Have a great weekend.