Broadcasting: Covering a Massacre

When Charles Whitman began his 96-minute reign of death last week, it was 11:48 a.m. Within five minutes, Austin's TV and radio station KTBC aired the first bulletin on what turned out to be the biggest Texas news story since the Kennedy assassination.

Because the station, owned by Lady Bird Johnson and her daughters, is affiliated with all three major networks, KTBC initially found itself responsible not only to the community but to the nation as well. Seconds after the first bulletin, the station tipped off U.P.I to the story, then readied...