August 26 – August 29, 1968…Chicago Convention Riots
August 26 – August 29, 1968…Chicago Convention Riots
To go a bit deeper into a story I posted here earlier today on the NBC color mini cameras…here are some of the unforgettable images from that gathering 46 years ago this week. I watched this all live as a 17 year old. Where were you?
At the clip liked below, you can see Dan Rather’s manhandling as it was broadcast on CBS, but first let me comment on the embedded clip from NBC.
We start with John Chancellor on the floor reporting on the ejection of a delegate and at times, you can see Dan Rather on the right side of the screen trying to get to the action. At 3:30, things get more intense at uniformed police are brought in. At 4:30 we can see a CBS Norelco PCP 70 on the scene. At 5:00, Chancellor is joined by Edwin Newman and at 6:40 we can see the NBC color camera shooting them. At 7:00 we go outside the hall to the riots in the streets. All three networks were using Norelco PC 60s and 70s as stationary cameras.
By the way, this was not the first time television newsmen were in peril at the political conventions. John Chancellor was arrested in 1964 at the Republican conventions for blocking the aisle with an interview. At the 1:55 mark on this NBC tribute to him, you can see that footage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TI1RW_9G7Q
Enjoy and share! – Bobby Ellerbee
Coverage from inside and outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
was working @ WLCY TV Ch. 10.( now wtsp)
It’s been pointed out before (NBC’s Reuven Frank, in his memoirs) that the tape from the outdoor disturbances was just that, tape. No live coverage from mobile units, due to a strike by those who controlled microwave and/or land line transmission from the units on Michigan Avenue back to the convention hall. All tapes were couriered back to either the convention hall (or in NBC’s case its Merchandise Mart Chicago HQ) and fed out then.
My dad was there. He did not have a good time.
I remember watching this coverage as it was happening, trying to make sense out of it. Only much later did I realize – this was the Democratic convention. This was the American “left” of the era!! American at the time was enormously more “centrist” than it is now – the space between a moderate Democrat and a moderate Republican was a question of nuance. Now, the ideological – or should we say, the dogma divide – is exponentially greater. I mention this as i would never have thought Democrats would engage in this kind of bullying, fascistic behaviour, but they did. But this was nothing compared to what the “Democratic” mayor of Chicago and his police force was wrecking outside the convention.
I remember all of this in Chicago. It was an embarrassment that RIchard Daley and his strong-arm police tactics made an already volatile situation even worse. That year was a major black eye for our country.
When I, as a dumb teenager, became politically aware.
What a crazy convention. Over on CBS, Walter Cronkite was referring to the security people as “a bunch of thugs!”
Was in U.S.Navy boot camp at Great Lakes; we were restricted while demonstrators were outside the gates; couldn’t go near the gates or off base.
Was in Vietnam at the time.