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Originally, it was believed there were no copies of Pardo reading the first bulletins of the JFK assassination. NBC didn’t have the capability (back in those days) to go live from their newsroom, so an editor grabbed some AP copy and ran to Pardo in the announce booth and told him to read it while an NBC News title card appeared on the air.

Pardo actually read two bulletins on the air before NBC could get Chet Huntley, Frank McGee and Bill Ryan into a small studio and move their cameras to that location.

As someone who spent part of his career slaving over a hot microphone, Pardo’s “read” is very impressive. Imagine being told you’ve got to break a major news story and keep providing updates until the network can get their “journalists” on the air. Pardo delivered the bulletins without so much as being able to preview the copy, and did it in a very straight-forward, professional style.

Imagine if you gave the same AP flash to someone like Shepard Smith or one of the talking heads on CNN or MSNBC. The results would have been much different—and far from professional.