The sad passing of television news icon Walter Cronkite is only the latest passing of yet another legend within the last few weeks. Cronkite was a real giant in the field of television journalism, and brought CBS news a great sense of dignity and trust for as many years as he covered important news events such as the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy or the 1969 landing on the moon. Cronkite seemed to have near universal trust among both liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, because he was a political moderate and a political independent who never tried to use his news position to make a case for one side or the other, even though some Democrats once made a really good effort to urge him to run for office.
For someone who dropped out of college in 1935 to pursue a life as a journalist, Cronkite went through a series of jobs at newspapers covering both news and sports. However, during WWII he was able to land an important role as a war reporter, joining the ranks of some like the legendary Ernie Pyle. Cronkite joined the Army Air Force in bombing missions over Germany in B-17 "Flying Fortress" bombers. It was a dangerous job for sure, with many lost during the war. But CBS legend, Edward R. Murrow, was so impressed with Cronkite that he helped to recruit him to the station in 1950. Cronkite began duties covering political conventions, as well as the TWENTIETH CENTURY and the CBS Sunday weekend news. By 1962, Cronkite was elevated to host the CBS EVENING NEWS, and continued in that role until 1981. Even after giving up that important post, Cronkite seemed to cast a big shadow over that news that no anchor reporter seemed to ever really fill. Cronkite was probably far and away the best news anchor of his time and generation.
CBS News seemed to really struggle after Walter Cronkite gave up the anchor role. Dan Rather looked to be a promising choice for many years, with folksy sayings spicing up his election coverage. However, during the 1984 election, a controversy swirled around some documents related President Bush's national guard service, where some supporters of Bush believed the documents to be fakes. Dan Rather and some other staffers were forced to resign by CBS, although Rather and fired story producer Mary Mapes have continued to present evidence that the documents were authentic over the years to defend their reputations. Some Bush supporters claimed the sort of type machine was not yet invented that produced the documents confirming that they were fakes, while Mapes has published a book attempting to prove otherwise. However, rather than stand by their reporters ability to cover news, CBS was quick to cave-in for political reasons and lost a lot of credibility over journalistic integrity as well with the whole controversy. And a high priced move to lure NBC's Katie Couric to CBS to anchor the news quickly failed as ratings quickly tumbled and viewers fled. CBS News has been absolutely unable to capture the magic it once had with Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite.
Make no mistake about it, Walter Cronkite was simply a one of a kind journalism icon such as will never be witnessed ever again.
Permalink | Linking Blogs | Digg this! | FARK It!
Filed under:
Walter Cronkite
Tags: Walter Cronkite
Comments (5)
Wow, another famous person ... (Below threshold)1. Posted by sri | July 18, 2009 1:21 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Ww, nthr fms prsn t lv. Wltr (rfrrd t s "ncl Wlt") ws grt mn tht knw hw t dlvr nws. wsh ths nbs nwds hd sch sklls. Prrs t Wltr's fml nd frnds. n hs mmr, fr hs fns hv cllctd sm grt sts nd rtcls (mr thn 200) t knw ll bt Wltr Crnkt. f r ntrstd tk lk t th blw lnk
stop spamming1. Posted by sri | July 18, 2009 1:21 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on July 18, 2009 13:21
2. Posted by Rich Fader | July 18, 2009 7:29 PM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
2004. It was 2004. '84 was the first election I ever voted in, and believe me, George W.'s Guard service was not a topic of discussion.
And I don't doubt there were commercial typesetters in the Seventies that could maybe produce the documents that CBS had. I'm just highly skeptical that a Texas Air National Guard unit was using one of them for normal paperwork, rather than a normal old typewriter.
2. Posted by Rich Fader | July 18, 2009 7:29 PM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on July 18, 2009 19:29
3. Posted by JLawson | July 18, 2009 11:25 PM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Paul -
Re the TANG documents - during my 23 years I had to do a stint as an admin specialist, and I can guarantee you that the supposed document never saw a military typewriter, wasn't formatted properly re margins, AND wasn't even on the right sized paper. (Back then, they used 8"x10.5", not 8.5"x11") Also, you wouldn't type a letterhead like that, you'd use preprinted letterhead paper with the unit info.
The kicker was when someone typed that document up in Word and shoved it out on an HP Laserjet on 8.5x11 using straight, solid, stock default settings. It was EXACTLY the same formatting and same font, and overlaying that on an image of the supposed memo produced very little difference - a couple pixels at most. And since all we had were copies of the originals, that's identical as far as I'm concerned. It was done in Word, using the default fonts and margins, and printed on a laser printer - none of which they had in '73, even in Area 51.
For something like this, I run on the '3-legged stool' theory of proof. If you need X number of verified/verifiable facts to support your contention, and all you have are X-1 - (or in this case, X-4, Word defaults, Font, Printer, and Paper Size) your stool has insufficent legs for support and will fall over. Most conspiracy theories require at least one suspension of disbelief - therefore the leg's missing before they even try to call it a stool. And as far as the media goes, they're really bad about checking to make sure there's a proper number of legs.
Funny thing is, you'd think a major news agency would be able to find some retired military folks somewhere who would verify that something was 'authentic' - after all, they'd know the system better than anyone else, wouldn't they? Fonts, paper sizes, formatting...
Yet they never did. I wonder why?
3. Posted by JLawson | July 18, 2009 11:25 PM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on July 18, 2009 23:25
4. Posted by Falze | July 20, 2009 8:41 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
How is this "wizbang pop"? Blue has gone undercover, I guess. Confirmed by the "Limbaugh undercover gay, show all about gay bashing" post later.
Kevin didn't swamp out the basement enough.
4. Posted by Falze | July 20, 2009 8:41 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on July 20, 2009 20:41
5. Posted by Paul Hooson | July 21, 2009 1:08 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Falze, I personally thought that the tabloid story about Limbaugh was silly myself. But it was a front page tabloid story, and since Wizbang Pop deals with all things media, it was worthy to mention that story was currently running. You can check that story at any supermarket checkout line if you wish. In fact, the same tabloid also made similar gay claims related to First Lady Michelle Obama.
I also have nothing but respect for the gay community myself. And I did find the tabloid story silly on that level as well. But the story was news. So I covered it here. There was no intent to make any political point, except that the story fuels new rumors about Limbaugh possiby being a bit of a hypocrite.
I also disturbed that you feel that Kevin's role should be to suppress speech. That's not the way I see him at all. He's given me pretty good freedom here to write some pieces here to spice up Wizbang Pop and drive up the ratings.
5. Posted by Paul Hooson | July 21, 2009 1:08 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on July 21, 2009 13:08