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Abc news constructs lie to backup warren commission { October 27 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/10/27/entertainment1555EST0649.DTLhttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/10/27/entertainment1555EST0649.DTL
ABC News reconstructs Kennedy assassination, confirms Warren Commission conclusion
DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer
Monday, October 27, 2003
©2003 Associated Press
(10-27) 14:01 PST NEW YORK (AP) --
ABC News has conducted an exhaustive investigation of the Kennedy assassination, complete with a computer-generated reconstruction, which irrefutably confirms that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, the network said Monday.
A two-hour special on the event is scheduled to air Nov. 20, two days before the 40th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's killing.
"It leaves no room for doubt," said Tom Yellin, executive producer of the special, narrated by Peter Jennings. He called the results of the ABC's study "enormously powerful. It's irrefutable."
The conclusion that Oswald alone shot Kennedy during a motorcade in Dallas mirrors that of the Warren Commission, the official government inquiry into the assassination. Even today, public opinion surveys find that less than half of Americans believe there was more than one shooter, said Gary Mack, curator of the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza in Dallas.
But that reservoir of doubt, largely fed by government secrecy and Oliver Stone's movie on the assassination, is important to address, Yellin said.
ABC News worked with an expert who created a computer-generated reconstruction of the shooting based on maps, blueprints, physical measurements, more than 500 photographs, films and autopsy reports, ABC said.
It enables a person to view the scene from any number of perspectives, including what Oswald saw from the sixth floor of the former Texas school book depository, Yellin said.
"When you do that, it's chillingly clear what happened," Yellin said. He dismisses theories that there was another gunman. Through interviews and other documentation, ABC News also concludes that Jack Ruby, who later killed Oswald, acted simply out of his love for Kennedy.
The computer-generated technology, only available for the past few years, is now frequently used in criminal investigations, Yellin said.
While Stone's movie raised doubt in many people's minds about the Warren Commission, it also led to the release of many government documents that had previously been kept hidden and fueled conspiracy theorists, Yellin said.
None of the documents offer significant evidence refuting the conclusion that Oswald acted alone, Yellin said.
Still, much of Americans' cynicism about their government can be traced to Nov. 22, 1963, making further investigation important even 40 years later, he said.
"I think it's very hard for people to accept the fact that the most powerful man in the world can be murdered by a disaffected person whose life had been a series of failures up to that point," Yellin said.
It's hardly foreign territory for news organizations. CBS News, in fact, has done six separate specials on the assassination, including a two-hour, "CBS Reports: Who Killed JFK, the Final Chapter," that was broadcast 10 years ago. That investigation also concluded that Oswald acted alone.
Both Yellin and Mack admit that no matter what evidence ABC News lays out, it's not likely to quiet people who believe otherwise.
"The history of this subject is pretty clear," Mack said. "No matter what information comes out, people are going to believe what they want."
©2003 Associated Press
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