We Interrupt This Broadcast

Friday, December 14, 2012. It was a clear, crisp, and trouble-free start that morning at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Classrooms filled with kids excited for Christmas, just 11 days away. The school day started, as they always had, with a comforting routine. 9 A M, children settling into their classrooms. 9:10 A M, the pledge of allegiance. 9:15 A M, outside doors…locked. Then came 9:30 A M, when the day and the children’s innocence was shattered. On this 10th remembrance, Brian Williams shares the story as you’ve never heard it before. Told by the by the journalists who covered it, and the parents who suffered through it.

Contributors:

Chris Jansing, anchor for MSNBC

Chris Hansen, former correspondent for Dateline NBC

Connecticut U S Senator Chris Murphy

Ali Velshi, MSNBC anchor, former correspondent for CNN

Nicole Hockley, parent of first grader, Dylan Hockley. Co-founder of Sandy Hook Promise Foundation

Mark Barden, parent of first grader, Daniel Barden. Co-founder of Sandy Hook Promise Foundation

Michael St. Peter, former news director at WVIT TV, NBC Connecticut affiliate

Liz Dahlem, former filed reporter for WVIT TV, NBC Connecticut affiliate

John Senecal, news cameraman for WVIT TV, NBC Connecticut affiliate

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On April 19, 1995, two years to the day following the U.S. government’s botched raid on the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, a rented truck pulled to the curb in front of the nine story Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. Inside the building, about 500 federal employees, and several hundred visitors were beginning their workday.  Then, at 9:04 a.m., came the explosion which would alter the American social and political landscape.

Contributors:

Jerry Bohnen, former KTOK News director

David Bohrman, former executive producer of special events for NBC News

Beth O’Connell, former Senior Producer, Today Show

Stewart Dan, former Chicago-based producer, Today Show

Tony Clark, former Dallas Bureau Chief and CNN Correspondent

Trace Ready, former CNN cameraman

Chris Hansen, Investigative news reporter

Stephanie Becker, former Los Angeles-based producer, NBC

Broadcast audio licensed from CNN/WarnerMedia, CBS News, NBC News.

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He was an extraordinarily gifted athlete, the premier football player of his time, a California golden child who emerged from abject poverty to win the Heisman trophy in college and set records as a pro football running back. Effortless grace and a ready smile eased his transition from ex-athlete to corporate-backed celebrity. All of that changed on the night of June 13, 1992, when his ex-wife Nicole Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman, were found brutally murdered. Evidence gleaned from the murder site suggested that her executioner may well have been O.J. Simpson. But when police decided to arrest Simpson two days later, an even more surreal tableaux unfolded - live on national television in front of 95-million viewers. 

Contributors:

Hannah Zoey Tur, an independent helicopter reporter in Los Angeles.

Carl Stein, video journalist for KCBS, Channel 2 in Los Angeles

Diane Dimond, the investigative crime reporter for the television show Hard Copy

Steve Futterman, Los Angeles-based reporter for CBS News Radio.

Broadcast audio licensed from:

NBC News

ABC News

Los Angeles News Service

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The Space Shuttle Challenger flew nine missions into space. But its fateful tenth mission, which lasted only 73 seconds, ensured its tragic place in history. On the morning of January 28, 1986, a crew of seven boarded the Challenger, including a New Hampshire grade school teacher named Christa McAuliffe, representing the aspirations of so-called ‘ordinary’ citizens to journey into space. It was an adventure vicariously shared by millions of Americans through television, as the Challenger lifted off at 11:38a.m. from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and hurtled majestically into the sky. But less than two minutes later, horror struck in full view of all who watched.

Contributors:

John Zarrella, former CNN Miami Bureau Chief

Tony Clark, former national correspondent for CNN

Beth O’Connell, former coordinator for the NBC Boston Bureau

William Harwood, CBS News space analyst

Steve Nesbitt, the voice of NASA Mission Control

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Pandemonium reigned in downtown Dallas on the afternoon of November 22, 1963. An assassin's bullet had murdered President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Within an hour, police had arrested their lead suspect Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine and accomplished sharpshooter. On Sunday morning, November 24, with TV cameras in place, and NBC airing it live, Oswald was led through the department's basement for transport to the county jail. And, for the first time, the nation watched an historic national news event - as it happened.

Written by Joe Garner and Brian Williams

Contributors:

Gary DeLaune, formally a reporter for KLIF Radio Dallas

Bill Lord, formerly a producer for ABC News

Ike Pappas, formerly a reporter for WNEW Radio New York

Bob Huffaker, formerly a reporter for KRLD Radio and television and the CBS affiliate in Dallas

Fred Rheinstein, formerly the field director for NBC News

Chad Hagan, formerly a producer for NBC News

Homer Vinso, formerly a cameraman for NBC News

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“War of The Worlds” is a phenomenon of a bygone era, and of a medium a hundred years old, yet its lessons resonate to this day. It’s the original “deepfake of 1938.” A radio drama about an alien invasion but presented as “breaking news,” scared the daylights out the nation. On the evening of October 30, 1938, radio listeners across the U.S. heard a startling report of mysterious creatures and terrifying war machines moving toward New York City. But the hair-raising broadcast was not a real news bulletin—it was Orson Welles' adaptation of the H. G. Wells classic. This episode goes behind the scenes of the making of Welles' famed radio play and its impact. Welles's broadcast became a major scandal, prompting a different kind of mass panic as Americans debated the bewitching power of the radio and the country's vulnerability in a time of crisis. When the debate was over, American broadcasting had changed for good, but not for the better.

Written by Joe Garner and Brian Williams

Contributors:

A.Brad Schwartz, broadcast historian and author of BROADCAST HYSTERIA: Orson Welles’s War of the Worlds and the Art of Fake News (Hill & Wang, May 2015)

Orson Welles

Howard Koch

John Houseman

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As long and vast as the history of our country may seem to us, the right of women to vote is shockingly new. Many of us had parents or grandparents who were born before women’s voting rights were codified. In fact, you just heard the famous suffragette Alice Paul report the news: The State of Tennessee ratified the 19th Amendment to the Constitution by just ONE VOTE.. and that deciding vote was cast on August 18th of 1920.

Cast:

Alice Paul, the Suffragette News Network (SNN) is played by Jillian Lee Garner

Representative Harry Burn is played by Jason Marsden

Anti-suffragist J.B. Sanford, Chairman of the Democrat Caucus in California is played by Wally Wingert

Suffragette Carrie Chapman Catt is played by Jennifer Cihi

Tennessee House Speaker Seth M. Walker is played by anonymous.

Rep. Joseph Hanover is played by Paul Bahr

Laura Jones, SNN correspondent is played by Michelle Schulman

Carol Tilson, SNN anchor is played by Kourtney Bell

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A 31-year-old enslaved man named Nathanial “Nat” Turner, who was both literate and a preacher in the Virginia slave community, led a bloody two-day uprising in Southampton, Virginia. Known as both “preacher Nat” and “general Nat” to his followers, Turner and six other hatchet-wielding disciples began their rebellion by killing Turner’s own master, Joseph Travis, along with his wife, nine-year-old son, and a hired hand -- all as they slept in their beds. They secured guns and horses and set off across the countryside in a murderous rampage. His initial group, along with an estimated 75 followers, murdered at least 55 citizens in the area. After the insurrection, Nat Turner was on the run for over 6-weeks, a fugitive from the authorities. While they were searching for him and his accomplices, the terrible details of the insurrection came to light through news reports and witness statements.

Cast:

Nyah Pierson, reporter for the Liberator News Network (LNN) is played by Nyah Pierson

William Lloyd Garrison, Founder & Publisher of the The Liberator (newspaper) is played by Wally Wingert

Johnny Dixon, news reporter from One Virginia News (OVN) is played by Beau Bridgland

Mary Blackford is played by Jillian Lee Garner

Nathaniel "Nat" Turner is played by Gregory Eagles

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September 11, 2001 dawned crisp and blue in New York City. The gathering hum of a seemingly ordinary workday began taking shape in lower Manhattan. Then the ‘ordinary’ was shattered by the extraordinary. The world changing event that unfolded that morning was unimaginable and unprecedented. It was a sneak attack of epic proportions on American soil, terrifying the nation while thrusting the news media into uncharted territory. Not even the most seasoned news director or reporter at the time had anything in their arsenal of experiences that could have prepared them for their task that day.

Broadcast audio licensed from CNN/WarnerMedia, NBC News, and courtesy of WINS and WOR Radio.

Contributor(s):

• Tom Brokaw, Former anchor for NBC News (Courtesy of the Television Academy Foundation Interviews. See the full interviews at TelevisionAcademy.com/Interviews.)
• Dan Rather, Former anchor for CBS News (Courtesy of the Television Academy Foundation Interviews. See the full interviews at TelevisionAcademy.com/Interviews.)
• David Bohrman, Former executive producer at CNN
• Aaron Brown, Former anchor for CNN (Garner Audio Archive)
• Ari Fleischer, Former Press Secretary to President George W. Bush
• Marcy McGinnis, Former Senior Vice President, Special Events News Coverage, CBS News
• Shelley Ross, Former Executive Producer of Good Morning America
• David Bernknopf, Former CNN Vice President, News Planning, 1980 – 2001
• Mara Rubin, Former Assistant News Director and reporter for WOR Radio New York
• John Montone, Former reporter for 1010 WINS, New York
• Beth O’Connell, Former Executive Producer, NBC News Special Events.

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It was the election that did not decide the presidency, and the biggest media debacle since “Dewey Defeats Truman.” The 2000 campaign between presidential candidates George W. Bush and Al Gore was shaping up as a cliffhanger. Pundits predicted that its outcome would hinge on results from a few key states - Ohio, Michigan, and most of all, Florida. On election night, television news organizations staged a collective drag race on the crowded highway of democracy, recklessly endangering the electoral process, the political life of the country, and their own credibility.

Broadcast audio licensed from CNN/WarnerMedia, CBS News, NBC News

Contributors:

• Tim Russert, Washington Bureau Chief and Senior Vice President at NBC News (Garner Audio Archive)
• David Bernknopf, Former CNN Vice President, News Planning, 1980 – 2001
• Marcy McGinnis, Former Senior Vice President, Special Events News Coverage, CBS News
• Bill Schneider, CNN senior political analyst
• Beth O’Connell, former Executive Producer, NBC News Special Events

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