JFK Assassination Featured on Next METROFOCUS

A new edition of the award-winning MetroFocus premieres in the New York metro area Wednesday, November 6 at 7:30 p.m. on WLIW21 and Thursday, November 7 at 8:30 p.m. on THIRTEEN and at 10:30 p.m. on NJTV.

Check out a preview of the episode here!

The next edition of MetroFocus features analysis of election returns from the metropolitan region with Michael Powell, columnist for The New York Times, Morgan Pehme, editor-in-chief of City & State, and Jarrett Murphy, executive editor of City Limits.

This month marks the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Former co-anchor of the MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour Robert MacNeil joins MetroFocus host Rafael Pi Roman in studio to talk about a new documentary "JFK: 1 PM Central Standard Time" premiering November 13 at 10 PM on Thirteen and about his memories of covering President and Mrs. Kennedy on their trip to Texas in November 1963.

MacNeil, then a correspondent for NBC News, was travelling in the press bus following the Kennedy motorcade through Dealey Plaza when shots were fired. MacNeil made the driver stop and was the only reporter to leave the bus. He raced to find a phone in the nearby Texas Book Depository building where he passed a young man now thought to have been the assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. MacNeil tells Pi Roman he doesn't know if it was Oswald but says, "If the evidence points that way I have to believe it." What matters more to him, he says, is "Why didn't I stop and talk to the people I passed lying on the ground when I ran up the grassy knoll, who a few minutes later gave incredible eyewitness accounts to reporters who had the sense to ask them. I was so fixated on following the police up the grassy knoll that I didn't stop. Why were the police running up there is the question."

And finally, who says seniors can't cross the digital divide? In a solutions segment, multimedia producer Marisa Wong takes us to the Senior Planet, a non-profit technology training center in Chelsea that gets seniors online and back into the workforce. It's the first of its kind in the nation and has long waiting lists for its upcoming classes.

Website: thirteen.org/MetroFocus (full episode available to view after 11/6 broadcast)

Facebook: facebook.com/MetroFocus

Twitter: @MetroFocus

MetroFocus Series Overview

MetroFocus is an award-winning multi-platform news magazine focusing on the New York region. The MetroFocus television program features interviews, in-depth reporting, content from many partners and solutions-oriented reports from the community. Major areas of coverage include sustainability, education, science and technology, the environment, transportation, poverty and underserved communities. MetroFocus.orgamplifies that reporting with daily updates and original stories that also cover culture, government and politics, the economy, urban development and other news in the metropolitan region. More information at:thirteen.org/metrofocus/about-us-faq/

MetroFocus is a production of WLIW21 in association with WNET, parent company of THIRTEEN and WLIW21. For 50 years, THIRTEEN has been making the most of the rich resources and passionate people of New York and the world, reaching millions of people with on-air and online programming that celebrates arts and culture, offers insightful commentary on the news of the day, explores the worlds of science and nature, and invites students of all ages to have fun while learning.

MetroFocus is made possible by James and Merryl Tisch, the Ford Foundation, Cheryl and Philip Milstein Family, Charlotte and David Ackert, Jody and John Arnhold, Betty and John Levin and the Dr. Robert C. and Tina Sohn Foundation. Corporate funding is provided by Mutual of America.

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