{"id":20277,"date":"2020-04-09T22:11:11","date_gmt":"2020-04-09T22:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=20277"},"modified":"2020-04-11T15:29:04","modified_gmt":"2020-04-11T15:29:04","slug":"bob-dylan-brings-links-between-jfk-assassination-and-coronavirus-into-stark-relief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/bob-dylan-brings-links-between-jfk-assassination-and-coronavirus-into-stark-relief\/","title":{"rendered":"Bob Dylan brings links between JFK assassination and coronavirus into stark relief"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aniko Bodroghkozy<\/a>, University of Virginia<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Over the past few weeks, the coronavirus has turned the country\u2019s cultural spigot off, with sports suspended<\/a>, museums closed<\/a> and movies postponed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the virus hasn\u2019t stopped Bob Dylan, who, on the evening of March 26, released \u201cMurder Most Foul<\/a>,\u201d a 17-minute long song about the Kennedy assassination.<\/p>\n

Many have<\/a> pondered<\/a> the timing. So have I. I\u2019m a Kennedy scholar<\/a> writing a book about how television handled coverage<\/a> of the Kennedy assassination over a traumatic four-day \u201cblack weekend,\u201d as it was called. I\u2019ve also explored<\/a> how Americans responded to the sudden upending of national life with the murder of a popular and uniquely telegenic president.<\/p>\n

NBC News anchor David Brinkley, as he signed off that first night, called Kennedy\u2019s death<\/a> \u201cjust too much, too ugly and too fast.\u201d The coronavirus crisis may also seem too much and too ugly, though it\u2019s unfolded much more slowly. While a global pandemic is certainly different from a political assassination, I wonder if Dylan sensed some resonance between the two events.<\/p>\n

Inscrutable as always, he\u2019s unlikely to ever explain. And yet it\u2019s hard to ignore the poignant similarities in the ways Americans have responded to each tragedy.<\/p>\n

Stuck at home<\/h2>\n

As Americans hunker down in their homes during the current crisis, they might assume that, during other crises, people took solace in gathering with others in shared public space.<\/p>\n

But that didn\u2019t really happen after Kennedy\u2019s assassination. Most businesses and schools abruptly closed early Friday afternoon following news of the noontime shooting in Dallas. Monday was declared a day of mourning, with Kennedy\u2019s state funeral in Washington. There wasn\u2019t anything for most Americans to do over that long weekend.<\/p>\n

So what did they do? They sat at home and watched nonstop television coverage. Over 90% of Americans parked themselves in front of their television sets for an average of eight to 10 hours a day, according to A.C. Nielsen statistics<\/a>; one-sixth of households had their television sets on for even longer. Social scientists<\/a> noted that television accommodated people who needed to grapple with the trauma alone, as well as those who wanted to be with family and friends.<\/p>\n

Glued to the news<\/h2>\n

What did viewers get from their voluminous viewing? Besides occasional actual news, they mostly found comfort. Over and over, in the hundreds of letters sent to NBC in the wake of the assassination coverage, viewers described how emotionally connected they felt to the newsmen, whom they saw as companions in mourning.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring this time of personal loss,\u201d wrote one Lubbock, Texas man<\/a> to NBC anchor Chet Huntley, \u201cI have come to you as an old friend looking for answers to questions, explanations, and even consolation. I have not been disappointed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Many Americans felt a profound emotional connection to news anchors Chet Huntley (left) and David Brinkley.<\/span>
\nHulton Archive via Getty Images<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TV viewers today might not describe network anchors as \u201cfriendly neighbors who drop in to chat and discuss events in our fast changing world\u201d \u2013 as a California letter writer<\/a> did on Nov. 24, 1963 \u2013 but in recent weeks, they\u2019ve turned to NBC, CBS and ABC nightly news in record numbers. According to The New York Times<\/a>, amid the uncertainty of the moment, traditional nightly network news shows \u2013 not the 24\/7 cable news \u2013 seem to be providing comfort. The paper quotes NBC anchor, Lester Holt, who compared the network nightly news to comfort food \u2013 \u201ca broadcast that you remember growing up with as a kid that your parents watched.\u201d<\/p>\n

After JFK\u2019s assassination, Americans spent their long days indoors in some of the same ways their contemporaries are doing today, like by baking bread<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 1963, a woman who described herself as \u201cjust a Kansas City housewife\u201d wrote to David Brinkley and Chet Huntley<\/a> about her inability to tear herself away from the TV to go grocery shopping. So she ended up simply baking her own bread: \u201cI took the task of baking rye bread rather than going out to the store, as I was in need of bread, but I really didn\u2019t want to get out of the house.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others felt overwhelmed by the constant stream of news and updates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI walked around the block because I felt if I didn\u2019t I was going to scream,\u201d one Minneapolis man told two communication scholars<\/a>. \u201cI thought I could get away from it for awhile, but [the TV] was like a magnet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Americans in 1963 also used television to do what people today have been doing with Zoom: participate virtually, from afar. Ninety-six percent<\/a> of Americans watched the networks\u2019 ceremonial coverage of Kennedy\u2019s state funeral, and letter writers marveled at their sense of \u201cbeing there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI, from my home in Cincinnati, was permitted to be there by way of television,\u201d one high school student wrote to David Brinkley<\/a>. \u201cI was present at the scene of his death. I walked to the cathedral with Mrs. Kennedy and the famous dignitaries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back to normal?<\/h2>\n

In the weeks after the assassination, social scientists confidently asserted that the country would bounce back to stability and quick social recovery. Wilbur Schramm<\/a>, one of the founders of the field of communication studies, declared, \u201cThis crisis was integrative rather than disintegrative.\u201d<\/p>\n

They were wrong, of course.<\/p>\n

The \u201cnightmare on Elm Street,\u201d as Dylan calls the assassination \u2013 after the name of the street where Kennedy was shot \u2013 continues to haunt many baby boomers. Oliver Stone\u2019s 1991 movie \u201cJFK<\/a>\u201d and Stephen King\u2019s 2011 novel \u201c11\/22\/63<\/a>\u201d both portray it as a pivot point that spurred national disaster, decline and unfulfilled dreams.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s impossible to know the social, cultural and political legacy of our current crisis. Some officials<\/a>, including the current occupant of the White House<\/a>, suggest we\u2019ll bounce back stronger than ever. Things, they say, will go back to normal \u2013 whatever that means in these already turbulent times.<\/p>\n

But Dylan\u2019s evocation of the Kennedy assassination at this moment suggests something more ominous. In the middle of the song, he declares<\/a>:<\/p>\n

 The day that they killed him, someone said to me, \r\n \"Son, the age of the Antichrist has just only begun\"\r\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
Let\u2019s hope Dylan isn\u2019t the oracle of this new age that\u2019s unfolding.<\/p>\n