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USA Today's Rem Rieder has an all-too-accurate (almost depressingly accurate) piece imagining what it would have been like if President Kennedy had been assassinated in today's media environment. A sample:
• Twitter is overwhelmed with reports that Johnson has been hit, that Connally was shot. Apprehension about the fate of the First Lady mounts, and the hashtag #whathappenedtojackie blows up.• People begin retweeting tweets from the Dallas Police feed: "Investigation underway. No information at this time."
• Someone starts a Storify.
12:45 p.m.: Dallas Police tweet a description of the suspect. Retweets immediately follow. The description is widely shared on Facebook.
• Parkland Hospital tweets: "The patient is being treated. We have no other additional information at this time." Speculation that the president has died appears on Twitter and other social media venues.
• Detailed discussions of bullet wounds to the head appear on a Reddit thread. Someone starts a Reddit ELI5 discussion (Explain Like I'm 5): What happens if the president is in coma for a long time?
12:50 p.m.: Twitter tweets of a system failure because it is overloaded.
12:55 p.m.: A local radio station tweets the president is dead. The tweet is instantly and widely retweeted.
• Many news organizations hedge their bets: "REPORT: President Kennedy is dead."; "Unconfirmed reports say President Kennedy is dead."
1 p.m.: President Kennedy is declared dead.
1:05 p.m.: The White House press secretary and JFK's Twitter account issue an official statement that the president has died.
• Reddit launches a search for the killer, complete with photos of people at Dealey Plaza.
1:15 p.m.: Mainstream media outlets erroneously report the number of shooters and their identities. The mistakes are quickly knocked down by authorities.
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