Editing Warren Commission (section)

==Death of Lee Harvey Oswald==
In response to Jack Ruby's shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald, the Warren Commission declared that the news media must share responsibility with the Dallas police department for "the breakdown of law enforcement" that led to Oswald's death. In addition to the police department's "inadequacy of coordination", the Warren Commission noted that "these additional deficiencies [in security] were directly related to the decision to admit newsmen to the basement".<ref name="The New York Times 1964 l934">{{cite news| title=Press and Dallas Police Blamed for Confusion That Permitted Slaying of Oswald |url-access=subscription  | website=The New York Times | date=September 28, 1964 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/09/28/archives/press-and-dallas-police-blamed-for-confusion-that-permitted-slaying.html | access-date=April 15, 2024 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240416190800/https://www.nytimes.com/1964/09/28/archives/press-and-dallas-police-blamed-for-confusion-that-permitted-slaying.html |archive-date= Apr 16, 2024 }}</ref>

The commission concluded that the pressure of press, radio, and television for information about Oswald's prison transfer resulted in relaxed security standards for admission to the basement, allowing Ruby to enter and subsequently shoot Oswald, noting that "the acceptance of inadequate press credentials posed a clear avenue for a one-man assault." Oswald's death was said to have been a direct result of "the failure of the police to remove Oswald secretly or control the crowd in the basement."<ref name="The New York Times 1964 l934"/>

The consequence of Oswald's death, according to the Commission, was that "it was no longer possible to arrive at the complete story of the assassination of John F. Kennedy through normal judicial procedures during the trial of the alleged assassin." While the Commission noted that the prime responsibility was that of the police department, it also recommended the adoption of a new "code of conduct" for news professionals regarding the collecting and presenting of information to the public that would ensure "there [would] be no interference with pending criminal investigations, court proceedings, or the right of individuals to a fair trial."<ref>{{cite book|last=Fixx|first=James F.|title=The Great Contemporary Issues: The Mass Media and Politics|year=1972|publisher=Ayer Co. Publishing|location=New York, NY|isbn=978-0405012914|pages=82–83}}</ref>