>> seemed like it was almost a sort of willful respite from the stuff that was going on out in the world and in real life. >> here is a bulletin from cbs news. there's been an attempt, perhaps you know now, on the life of president kennedy. he was wounded in an automobile driving -- >> until the early '60s, television used, by and large, seen as something of a back water to print journalism and even to radio. but the kennedy assassination was the moment that television journalism came of age. >> we'll continue full-day coverage of the presidential funeral and final procession. >> more and more people were depending on television to give them the headline news of the day. >> 330 americans were killed in combat last week in vietnam, but the number of wounded, 3886 was the highest number. >> most of the 1960s, the contrast between what you saw on entertainment and what you saw on the news was, you know, planetary. >> never has this descent been