Dan Rather's JFK special debuts

Dan Rather, one of the great anchors of television history, covered the assassination of President John F. Kennedy for CBS News in 1963, though he would not officially join the network (in the Washington bureau, where he'd make some more history of his own) for a year. As such, Rather was present at the founding, as it were -- the founding of modern television journalism, when a major breaking story necessitated coverage that would last wall-to-wall as it were for days.

I have a couple of clips, on the jump, from his AXS TV special on that day, which airs Monday night. "My Days in Dallas: A Remembrance With Dan Rather, an exploration of the shooting on Nov. 22, 1963," will air at 8 p.m. (AXS is not carried on Cablevision, but it is available through DirecTV, channel 340; Dish, 167; Verizon, 568; and AT&T U-verse, 1106.)

Rather relayed a story about the Zapruder film during a conference call last week -- it's slightly edited for content, as the saying goes. He made no mention of the request, actually demand, that Don Hewitt made of him that day -- that he was to track down Abraham Zapruder, slug the guy, steal his tape, and return it after everyone at CBS had seen it. Hewitt called Rather back an instant later, realizing just how insane the request was, telling him to stand down.

Here are Rather's recollections:

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  And the clips. Newsday app readers please go to Newsday.com/tvzone to view ...