Mrs. Paine. Yes; I consider it to be—violence to be—always harmful to the values I believe in, and just reserve the right to, as I have said, appraise each situation in the light of that initial belief.
Mr. Jenner. Mrs. Paine, you have read a number of newspaper articles and also various magazine articles dealing with the tragedy of November 22, 1963, and the Oswalds, and even of yourself. Do you have an overall reaction of any kind to those articles and newspaper stories, particularly with respect to their accuracy, you knowing what you do as to what the actual facts were and are?
Mrs. Paine. There are several things I might say in reply to that.
First, I have thought about someday teaching a course in high school on the subject of newspaper and magazine accuracy, using this particular story of the assassination of President Kennedy as source material.
I have been impressed with both the inaccuracy of things I have read and my inability to judge inaccuracy when they do not—when the story does not refer to things I personally know about.
On the whole, my feeling has been that the press has been pretty accurate in reporting what I have said. I have by no means seen all of what was reported of what I said.
I might say in this connection, but in a slightly different department, that you will see a large stack of newspapers on a table in my house when you come. They represent the newspapers I have not yet——
Mr. Jenner. Perused?
Mrs. Paine. More than that—not yet found courage enough to read. They are the newspapers of late November and of December. And while I have tried to read them, I usually end crying, and so I have not gotten very far.
I might say, just to be perfectly clear, that my problem is my grief over the death of the President. That is what brings me to tears—much more than my own personal touch with the story—although this just makes more poignant my grief.