CNN COVERAGE OF THE OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING (TV)
Summary
This compilation covers events of April 19-23, 1995, beginning with the devastating truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, which occurred on April 19, 1995. The bombing ultimately killed 168 people, and injured 500. The disaster is chronicled through CNN's live broadcasts and through footage from local Oklahoma City news stations. The program includes live coverage of the incident by Oklahoma news stations KFOR-TV and KOCO-TV, moments after the explosion; accounts of the explosion given by blast survivors Brian Espe and Susan Hunt; and accounts given by rescue workers who describe the carnage among the ruins of the building. Other scenes include: a press conference with President Bill Clinton, followed by statements from Attorney General Janet Reno; developments in Perry, Oklahoma, where a possible suspect, Timothy McVeigh, is being held; an emotional interview with Edye Smith, who lost her two young sons in the blast, and with her mother, Kathy Graham Wilburn; federal officers' search for evidence in a Michigan farmhouse; and comments by Loretta Ross, of the Center for Democratic Renewal. Lt. Gov. Mary Fallin of Oklahoma, Branch Davidian Clive Doyle, reporter Tony Clark, and former CIA counterterrorism analyst Stanley Bedlington discuss the possible link between the bombing and the raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, in 1993. And the program also considers the recent rise of right-wing militia groups and the deaths of white supremacist Randy Weaver and his wife and child at the hands of ATF agents. The program concludes with CNN reporter Bernard Shaw reading letters that were written by Minnesota schoolchildren to the people of Oklahoma City, followed by a photo montage showing the survivors amid the wreckage and rubble. Commercials deleted.
Cataloging of this program was made possible by The Marc Haas and Helen Hotze Haas Foundation, 1997.
Details
- NETWORK: CNN
- DATE: 1995/04
- RUNNING TIME: 1:00:14
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:43685
- GENRE: News; Public Affairs/Documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: Disaster reporting - 1995; Terrorism
- SERIES RUN: CNN - TV, 1995
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- David Payne … Reporter
- Bonnie Anderson … Reporter
- Bernard Shaw … Reporter
- Greg LaMotte … Reporter
- Ed Garsten … Reporter
- Jeff Flock … Reporter
- Carl Rochelle … Reporter
- Jill Dougherty … Reporter
- Stanley Bedlington
- Tony Clark
- Bill Clinton
- Clive Doyle
- Brian Espe
- Mary Fallin
- Susan Hunt
- Timothy McVeigh
- Janet Reno
- Loretta Ross
- Edye Smith
- Randy Weaver
- Kathy Graham Wilburn