For my generation, now rapidly becoming grey and paunchy and dazzlingly, nay passionately active against the war with Saddam Hussein, the pictures from Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963, were a shared experience. The common baptism, the loss of innocence, the birth of the media age or anything else you like. A very short while after this electrifying event, we were able to tune in again and witness the world's first live televised murder, as Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald in the guts. The assassination of the assassin: pretty good telly by any standards and also the origin of...