From Zapruder to smartphones: assassination footage reshapes America’s view of political violence
Former Bush official Tevi Troy says immediate availability of violent political footage is 'not good for your soul'
By Jamie Joseph Fox News
Published September 14, 2025 8:00am EDT
When President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, it took more than a decade before Americans saw the infamous Zapruder film.
Today, the killing of conservative firebrand Charlie Kirk can be replayed in dozens of high-definition clips across social media, reshaping how the nation confronts political violence in real time.
"You’ll never have an assassination again that we don’t have footage of," presidential historian and former Secretary of Health and Human Services under the Bush administration, Tevi Troy, told Fox News Digital.
"I have an image in my head of what Lincoln’s assassination might have looked like, but every assassination since the Kennedy era, or even assassination attempts, there’s generally going to be footage about it now, and that’s just a very difficult thing," he said.
The Zapruder footage of Kennedy's assassination remained largely unseen by the public until 1975, when it aired on national television more than a decade after his death. Its grainy frames shocked viewers. Americans, at the time, were "much more dependent on what the caretakers of the culture would put on TV," Troy said, and if a broadcast was missed, there was often no second chance to see it.
Troy added, "The gatekeepers controlled what you saw."
In the minutes after Kirk was shot in the neck on his "American Comeback Tour" at the Utah Valley University on Wednesday, graphic video clips captured by bystanders using phones flooded social platforms like X, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.
Traditional outlets held back from airing the moment of impact, but social media users shared multiple angles—including real-time replays and slowed-down segments—many without content warnings or editing.
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https://www.foxnews.com/politics/from-zapruder-smartphones-assassination-footage-reshapes-americas-view-political-violence
