Walter Cronkite dead at 92
posted at 8:29 pm on July 17, 2009 by Allahpundit
I have no reaction aside from the basic human sympathy one would feel for anyone who’s died. But as I said after Jacko passed: If you’re in the habit of watching cable news, you’re in for a very rough, very hagiographic week. Good luck.
Update: He retired as anchor of the CBS Evening News in 1981 at the ripe young age of 64, leaving us with decades of Dan Rather coverage that might not have been. Terrific.
Update: WaPo was ready with its obit. His most controversial moment as a reporter:
Cronkite was often viewed as the personification of objectivity, but his reports on the Vietnam War increasingly came to criticize the American military role. “From 1964 to 1967, he never took anything other than a deferential approach to the White House on Vietnam,” Gitlin said, but added, “He’s remembered for the one moment when he stepped out of character and decided, to his great credit, to go see [Vietnam] for himself.”
In 1968, following the surprise Tet Offensive of the communist North Vietnamese, Cronkite went to Southeast Asia for a firsthand look at the war. His reports on the “Evening News” and in a half-hour special were instrumental in turning the tide of American public opinion against U.S. policy.
“To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past,” he said, casting doubt in the minds of millions of Americans on official versions of the war. Cronkite’s viewers were certain that he would never lie to them, and the White House and the Defense Department did not command that level of credibility.
President Lyndon B. Johnson was widely quoted as having told aides, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost Middle America.”
Update (Ed): I don’t have much to add here either, except to send my condolences to the Cronkite family. I have felt for a long time that both his fans and his opponents made far too much out of Cronkite, who was a good news reader — and a better ambassador for CBS than his successors. Walter Cronkite did not lose us the Vietnam War; that was lost by Congress in 1974-5, after Richard Nixon had managed to put it back more or less to status quo ante years past Johnson’s quote.
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
Comment pages: « Previous 1 2 3 4 5 Next »
I’ve followed Sliwa for a few years in his radio travels
I miss Bob Grant most
blatantblue on July 17, 2009 at 10:07 PM
Ah, Chappaquidick references and Vietnam contretemps. It’s good to see we’re not above being as inane as The Democrat Underground.
AYNBLAND on July 17, 2009 at 10:08 PM
Vietnam? Didn’t click your link, just a guess.
thomasaur on July 17, 2009 at 10:09 PM
He was a decent man. I watched him as a kid and as a young man. He was a lefty, but generally kept his politics out of his reporting. The difference from today is that he genuinely tried to be balanced.
And oh, that voice.
He was a lefty in the days when the left still had a sense of patriotism, of shame, and of intellectual honesty. Those qualities predeceased Mr. Cronkite by a generation.
And that’s the way it is.
RIP, Mr. Cronkite.
Pavel on July 17, 2009 at 10:10 PM
Bob Grant! Now there’s a walk down memory lane.
It’s always irritated me a bit how everyone gives Rush credit for inventing conservative talk radio.
Grant preceded Rush and, having listened to both of them in the early Rush years, it was clear that Rush modeled himself on Bob Grant – minus the snarling. Closest to Grant now is Levin.
guntotinglibertarian on July 17, 2009 at 10:11 PM
Not happy he died and not going to mourn, either. One of the original trailblazers of the Leftist MSM we’re dealing with today and a true friend to the Communists over here and in Vietnam during the late ’60s.
May he rest in peace.
Dr. ZhivBlago on July 17, 2009 at 10:11 PM
I met him once in Florence at the Academia museum. He was very gracious. Rest in peace.
Ted Torgerson on July 17, 2009 at 10:12 PM
Is “closest to Grant” another way of saying “ripped off” Grant?
AYNBLAND on July 17, 2009 at 10:12 PM
I sometimes think that Cronkite gave birth to the MSM as we know it(agenda driven) with his on air statements about Viet Nam. I was in college at the time and we were all shocked.
Whether you were for or against Nam, Cronkite’s giving personal opinions had never been heard before on any major news broadcast.
patrick neid on July 17, 2009 at 10:13 PM
Cronkite set the table for all of the military haters in the MSM for the past 40 years.
We were winning in Nam, he took a junket over there, came back and said we’re losing. Everything mushroomed from there and the rest is history.
Times haven’t change that much since then. I remember when all the reports started coming in from Iraq that the surge ws working. Peter Jennings hopped on a plane and went over there hoping to find news he could report that illustrated it wasn’t. He failed, mostly because of the new media that wouldn’t let him pull a fast one.
Some things never change. The MSM despise our country’s finest, that is why I have such disdain for them.
fogw on July 17, 2009 at 10:13 PM
Poppycock. While we were still bulldozing thousands of Viet Cong corpses out of Hue and the North Vietnamese were considering a trip to the negotiating table, Cronkite – oh, that voice – was dishonoring the sacrifice of our troops by declaring the war lost.
RIP?
Nah, nah, nah, nah! – burn in hell, traitor.
guntotinglibertarian on July 17, 2009 at 10:14 PM
William Amos,
So the Lebanese Civil War really wasn’t a civil war because it involved significant external actors? You’ve got to be joking. Practically every civil war of the latter half of the twentieth century was a proxy war.
Was the Spanish Civil war a proper civil war? People flocked from all over to take part in it.
Even the civil war in Yemen, which had no Cold War significance, was essentially a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Eygpt.
Your higly specific criteria of seeking out a “pure” civil war free of outside influence is unrealistic, doubly so in the 20th century when you consider that the conflicts of the Cold War were carried out by proxies.
Is this an insurrection? What on earth are you talking about?
The Irish War of Independence was an insurrection and lasted three years. The Irish Civil War, which immediately followed, lasted 11 months. The two are obviously politically connected but added together they do not meet your bizarre criteria of five years for an insurgency – even though you claim that insurgencies typically last 10-12 years.
aengus on July 17, 2009 at 10:15 PM
I was in the Mekong Delta at the time and we were a hell of a lot more than shocked.
guntotinglibertarian on July 17, 2009 at 10:15 PM
You could be right, though Levin is more erudite than Bob Grant was.
guntotinglibertarian on July 17, 2009 at 10:16 PM
amen
Jeff from WI on July 17, 2009 at 10:17 PM
With respect, Jennings was dead before the Surge started.
thomasaur on July 17, 2009 at 10:17 PM
I understand that Benedict Arnold was a right nice gentleman, too.
guntotinglibertarian on July 17, 2009 at 10:17 PM
He was the first Olby. May both burn.
Jeff from WI on July 17, 2009 at 10:18 PM
Bingo!
Jeff from WI on July 17, 2009 at 10:19 PM
Grant is the forerunner of con-talk radio
blatantblue on July 17, 2009 at 10:20 PM
You know which orgy of media hagiography I’m dreading?
When that hag Elizbeth Edwards croaks.
guntotinglibertarian on July 17, 2009 at 10:21 PM
My bad …. it was Brian Williams from NBC.
They all come from the same cookie cutter.
fogw on July 17, 2009 at 10:21 PM
Speaking of Bob Grant. I taped about 100 hours of his live shows during the 70s and 80s and play them back whenever I’m down (which is often lately.)My favorite Grantism: “The police need to be better armed. You hit these creeps over the head with a club and the club will break.”
MaiDee on July 17, 2009 at 10:21 PM
Oops, had too many tabs open and posted my comment in the wrong thread…
RightWinged on July 17, 2009 at 10:22 PM
Remember when he got fired for hoping Ron Brown hadn’t survived the plane crash? Magnificent mean-spirited bastard!
guntotinglibertarian on July 17, 2009 at 10:23 PM
Bow to barry Brian… what sphincter.
thomasaur on July 17, 2009 at 10:24 PM
guntotinglibertarian Yes I remember. One of the people responsible for Grant’s firing was former Rino governor Chrissie Whiteman (“axfaced ugly harridan”) to Bob Grant)
MaiDee on July 17, 2009 at 10:31 PM
Yeh, here’s an article about the creep’s visit.
Let me rephrase that. He wanted to find some dirt, trash our troops, rip the president and call the surge a failure.
Never happened. Surge was working. Williams had epic fail.
fogw on July 17, 2009 at 10:34 PM
Cronkite was a lib, but I believe he was honest. He at least tried to not let his bias alone rule his reporting and took seriously his responsibility.
What I most want to remember him for was his stalwart admiration for the space program.
RIP.
wildcat84 on July 17, 2009 at 10:37 PM
Hillbillyjim, I just purchased a t-shirt…very simple: One brown dog, passing gas, and the gas’s name…obama.
HornetSting on July 17, 2009 at 10:38 PM
How many of Cronkite’s nightly CBS broadcasts did you watch from 1967 – 1970?
I’m guessing none. His reporting was chocked full of biased opinions every night. That’s what swayed the sheeple to turn against the war.
Sound familiar?
fogw on July 17, 2009 at 10:43 PM
He may have been a lefty but he didn’t really show it that much on tv except for Vietnam. A lot better than any clowns on tv now.
lavell12 on July 17, 2009 at 10:47 PM
Good riddance to bad rubbish
bill30097 on July 17, 2009 at 10:49 PM
Whatever else anyone may say about him, I’ve always remembered Walter Cronkite mainly for his live broadcasts of the Apollo missions. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, liftoff!
Bigfoot on July 17, 2009 at 10:49 PM
All these names from the past…Giap, Ho. Brings back lots of memories. My high school boyfriend died in Vietnam in ’68…I was 18. Even with the loss os his life, I was never anti-war. Grew up with John Wayne and Victory at Sea.
I lived in Staten Island, NY at the time, and my mother refused to let me go to a little concert called, Woodstock. She said it would be a bad element there, lots of rifraf. I was mad at her for months about it. Didn’t understand it then, sure do now.
luvstotango on July 17, 2009 at 10:52 PM
Look. I remember this time very well (I guess you do too.) Cronkite screwed the pooch on this one. It was a travesty, but it doesn’t mean he didn’t love his country. His reporting was a symptom of the left at the time, not a spearhead. A contemptible Democrat congress – influenced by filthy, lying, cowardly traitors like John Kerry; guys that would sell their country down the tube for political power – had made it unwinnable. That doesn’t excuse it, but it gives it a proper context.
Yeah. RIP.
Pavel on July 17, 2009 at 10:54 PM
What I most want to remember him for was his stalwart admiration for the space program.
guntotinglibertarian on July 17, 2009 at 10:55 PM
Oh, that’s right. Those of us on the ground in Vietnam just lacked a proper context.
During Tet, my battalion inflicted 130 casualties on the VC for every one we sustained. But we just lacked proper context to understand that we had lost.
Uncle Walt was so much wiser.
guntotinglibertarian on July 17, 2009 at 10:58 PM
This reminds me EXACTLY of the MJ threads. You had people reacting to a persons death for what a lowlife he actually was, versus the starry eyed squishy that didn’t care about the fact of the guy.
Jeff from WI on July 17, 2009 at 10:58 PM
facts
Jeff from WI on July 17, 2009 at 10:59 PM
Thanks to the likes of Cronkite we now have a US Congress that includes discrimination against fairies as a hate crime but NOT discrimination against military veterans.
MaiDee on July 17, 2009 at 11:01 PM
Do You Remember Walter? (1968)
Christien on July 17, 2009 at 11:03 PM
MJs welcoming Uncle Walt right not. Kinda warm in there, right Walt?
Jeff from WI on July 17, 2009 at 11:03 PM
I won’t miss him.
old trooper2 on July 17, 2009 at 11:03 PM
not=now
Jeff from WI on July 17, 2009 at 11:03 PM
It is somehow very fitting that Walter Cronkite has left us on the fortieth anniversary of the Apollo ll moon landing. I was a teenager in the late sixties who had become interested in astronomy and the Space Program. Walter Cronkite’s enthusiasm and joy for each launch coverage is something that has stayed with me all these years. Godspeed, Walter…
StarLady on July 17, 2009 at 11:05 PM
Maybe we can wangle an invitation to Ho Chi Minh’s suite…I understand he has air conditioning.
guntotinglibertarian on July 17, 2009 at 11:05 PM
Have you bothered to read any of the posts on this thread?
guntotinglibertarian on July 17, 2009 at 11:06 PM
Okay, I served after Vietnam was over. I can understand your hardon for the guy. He screwed the pooch, but context still matters.
No, this is not like MJ at all. There were actually honorable lefties once upon a time.
Pavel on July 17, 2009 at 11:07 PM
I never trusted him. I found being told how to think offensive.
scrubjay on July 17, 2009 at 11:08 PM
If he had been “honorable”, after the fall of Saigon and the genocide in Cambodia, he would have gone on air and issued a sincere apology for his stupidity.
Crickets.
guntotinglibertarian on July 17, 2009 at 11:09 PM
Lib freak. Thanks for getting our kids killed in Nam.
marklmail on July 17, 2009 at 11:09 PM
+1
bill30097 on July 17, 2009 at 11:10 PM
RIP
kangjie on July 17, 2009 at 11:10 PM
The man who declared the greatest, most demoralizing defeat ever dealt the North Vietnamese, the abject failure of the Tet Offensive, a “draw.” Hanoi might well have negotiated peace that year, if they hadn’t seen how Cronkite turned their utter route–and the slaughter of the best the VC had to offer–into a cause for despair in America’s dewy eyes. The “Most Trusted Man in America” betrayed that trust, and instead chose to become the father of anti-American activist journalism. I’m only saddened that he lived 40 years longer than many Americans who died in southeast Asia (not to many the millions who’ve suffered there since beneath the Communist pall) in no small part due to his ignorant editorialization. I can’t say I take any pleasure in his death, but I do think the world is now at least a slightly cleaner place.
Blacklake on July 17, 2009 at 11:10 PM
100+
guntotinglibertarian on July 17, 2009 at 11:15 PM
Agreed Blacklake. Cronkite was the beginning of journalist manipulation of the facts to fit a communist/socialist agenda. We had ALREADY won the war in Vietnam but Cronkite, Kerry, Kennedy and their Clan saw to it that we lost. He was a despicable man made more so by the level of trust America had in him. Say hi to Michael for me Walt.
Mojave Mark on July 17, 2009 at 11:15 PM
I have a reaction. Rot in Hell
Wolfen on July 17, 2009 at 11:19 PM
Another big name dies under the Obama presidency.
JellyToast on July 17, 2009 at 11:20 PM
Cronkite was one of many so-called journalists who became popular icons. People like Lowell Thomas and Edward R. Murrow manipulated the news while Cronkite and Huntley and Brinkley were merely readers. They all inserted their own bias and I think they began to believe their own press. Being a TV newsperson probably requires as much narcissism as being an actor does.
As for Cronkite, I grew up on his reporting and he always inserted his own opinion into every story. I don’t think anyone questioned him. Unfortunately he kept on giving us his version of what is right even after he retired. I recall he claimed that Karl Rove somehow set up the Bin Laden video tape for the 2004 election. And Cronkite often touted the idea of a one world government and gun control.
He was just another TV hack who happened to luck out and cover the moon landings and make a career out of a war.
Deanna on July 17, 2009 at 11:20 PM
The Brits have it right. They call them “newsreaders”. And if they get too big for their britches, they just replace them with another vacuous, pretty face.
guntotinglibertarian on July 17, 2009 at 11:30 PM
Here is a piece from the americanthinker.com on the not-so-saintly Mr. Cronkite.
From the Article:
Eternity is a long time…
daesleeper on July 17, 2009 at 11:31 PM
We watched Huntley and Brinkley…
D2Boston on July 17, 2009 at 11:34 PM
Rich lefties never have to live with the consequences of their actions.
Only the “little people” do.
guntotinglibertarian on July 17, 2009 at 11:34 PM
I’ll be completely honest: f*ck Cronkite. I hope he suffered to the end. I hope his family suffers.
Cronkite has the blood of millions on his hands, and I see no reason why I should be all weepy-eyed at his passing.
Vic on July 17, 2009 at 11:37 PM
Like many “news reader”s of today, Cronkite believed his own BS. He believed he had a superior understanding of the world and that he stood above everyone else.
This born a confidence in Walter that came across in his delivery of the news and made him very credible.
But, in the end, he was just a news reader. Nothing more, nothing less.
My respects to his family and friends whom I’m sure will miss him.
watson007 on July 17, 2009 at 11:37 PM
RIP Walter.
Could he moonwalk?
mimi1220 on July 17, 2009 at 11:39 PM
Vic on July 17, 2009 at 11:37 PM
guntotinglibertarian on July 17, 2009 at 11:42 PM
The only good anchorman that ever appeared on CBS was Ted Baxter.
Lou Budvis on July 17, 2009 at 11:43 PM
RIP.
Slightly OT: The first broadcast of O’Reilly was bumped to cover the Cronkite story. Now on its 2nd showing, Mom Jeans was mentioned and it looks like a segment is about to air. Anyone able to capture it?
RD on July 17, 2009 at 11:48 PM
Why do you hate America?
Hater.
hillbillyjim on July 17, 2009 at 11:50 PM
I think he was the beginning of the blatant liberal bias on network news, but may he rest in peace. What an historical figure. I didn’t like his politics, but like someone else said, he loved his country.
NathanG on July 17, 2009 at 11:52 PM
Screw you. After the Tet Offensive the US and Allied forces decimated the Viet Cong as any form of organized fighting force and beat division after division of NVA Regulars. They Marines at Khe Sanh suckered them in stopped the bastards from the North dead in their tracks. To which the f@cking journalistic genius of Walter Cronkite proclaimed the war lost. He as much as anyone is responsible for projecting the image that 58 thousand Americans died for nothing and turning American sentiment against the war and their own armed forces. No love loss here I’m afraid. Condolences to all the Americans who were sucked in by his appearance of impartiality in their grief.
hawkdriver on July 17, 2009 at 11:53 PM
Before he made his ‘This Reporter Has Turned Against The War’ statement about Vietnam, I believed virtually everything on the TV news, the papers and newsmagazines.
Appreciate the Intro to MSM 101, Walter.
RIP, Most Trusted Man In America.
TimBuk3 on July 17, 2009 at 11:54 PM
“Vietnam contretemps”? You ignorant cow.
Why don’t you sign up for military service and watch the people closest to you die with the tops of their heads blown off while they look in your eye and struggle to say, “Mom”?
God, I despise you.
guntotinglibertarian on July 17, 2009 at 11:57 PM
Walter Cronkite, do you think in your death throes that you alone should be the conscience of Americe? Yeah, I thought so.
I won’t miss your “objectivity” in your lesser years. Knowing when to quit is sometimes a measure of greatness, which you wholly failed to grasp. The news is no one’s plaything; rather, the news should be no one’s plaything.
hillbillyjim on July 17, 2009 at 11:59 PM
I bet Satin Sticking a fork in walters but.Welcome to hell
traitor.
Denniscat on July 17, 2009 at 11:59 PM
RIP Walter
My condolences to his family.
I will disagree with Ed on one point however. It was McNamara that was the direct cause of the wars “loss”.
F15Mech on July 18, 2009 at 12:02 AM
Personally, I hope his extended family all die of excrutiating cancers. Karma, you know?
guntotinglibertarian on July 18, 2009 at 12:04 AM
Sounding like a Kossack now, bro. Take ‘er down a notch.
Pavel on July 18, 2009 at 12:15 AM
What’s this “we” sh-t, ‘BLAND?
RD on July 18, 2009 at 12:16 AM
Yeah, you’re right. Guess you had to have been there, you know?
guntotinglibertarian on July 18, 2009 at 12:18 AM
You have to understand. Tet was a freaking nightmare. But when the smoke cleared, we believed we had totally broken the back of the VC. And we thought that the NVA wouldn’t dare come down because our political “leaders” would have made the price too high.
But once old uncle Walt declared that we had lost the Tet Offensive, everything changed. Washington was just looking for an exit strategy, while those of us on the ground took the heat.
Because of Chronkite, the North Vietnamese made a major push into the South and thousands of US soldiers died as a result. One of my best friends from ROTC died along with almost every soldier in his company in an NVA ambush that never would have happened had the North gone to the negotiating table as they anticipated after Tet, instead of being emboldened by Walt and his ilk.
So maybe I’m a bit deranged by bitterness. Excuse me.
guntotinglibertarian on July 18, 2009 at 12:26 AM
So how *is* Ted Kennedy preparing to celebrate the 40th anniversary of his brave ’till-death-do-us-part’ commitment to that poor young woman?
Privately with a few friends, or with more of a ‘Chappalooza’ kegger blow-out? (Or would that be ‘Chappapalooza? I’m so not in sync with the last 15 yrs of pop culture…)
RD on July 18, 2009 at 12:31 AM
What did Chronkite do besides read the news and spew leftist propaganda? I don’t think he made anything better in my life. You may think I sound “mean” but I’m just giving him the same respect that Obama gives to “old” people. I didn’t wish him to die, but, the POTUS certainly could care less about the health of older people, so since BO’s such an “inspiring” leader, I’m just following his lead! One less person on Medicare!
Hobbes on July 18, 2009 at 12:36 AM
Make no mistake. You guys won. Just like we have today. Yet we watch as it slowly slips away under another liberial administration who’s more concerned about lifting DADT.
I salute you my brother in arms.
hawkdriver on July 18, 2009 at 12:36 AM
You have some good company sharing your analysis.
Indochina is devoid of decisive military objectives and the allocation of more than token US armed forces in Indochina would be a serious diversion of limited US capabilities.
(Joint Chiefs of Staff, 26 May 1954)
The United States intervened in the Vietnam War on behalf of a weak and incompetent ally, and it pursued a conventional military victory against a wily, elusive, and extraordinarily determined opponent who shifted to ultimately decisive conventional military operations only after inevitable American political exhaustion undermined potentially decisive US military responses. Even had the United States attained a conclusive military decision, its cost would have exceeded any possible benefit. Vietnam was then, and remains today, a strategic backwater. The United States could not have prevented the forcible reunification of Vietnam under communist auspices at a morally, materially, and strategically acceptable price.
(The US Army War College Quarterly, Winter 1996-97)
“Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam.”
(H.R. McMaster, now General H.R. McMaster)
Joe Bloggs on July 18, 2009 at 12:41 AM
Is Obama the luckiest guy in the world??? MJ now Cronkite??? Is this going to
be another 72 hour news cycle of coverage to divert Obama’s destruction of
America? God……I hope the Queen doesn’t die anytime soon!!!!!
xler8bmw on July 18, 2009 at 12:42 AM
Was the bombing of Frankfurt, Dresden, Hamburg, Berlin a morally acceptable price?
Would the eradication of Hanoi and Haiphong have been a morally acceptable price? No? Then why was the waste of 55,000 American lives a morally acceptable price, if we weren’t willing to do what was necessary to win?
guntotinglibertarian on July 18, 2009 at 12:45 AM
A morally acceptable price in a strategic backwater? It wasn’t.
Joe Bloggs on July 18, 2009 at 12:50 AM
If Teddy were to join Cronkite, McNamara and MJ, would DC grind to a halt for a state funeral?
red131 on July 18, 2009 at 12:52 AM
Nazi Germany was occupying half of Europe, and had declared war on the United States, whereas Vietnam had some incursions into ultra backwater Cambodia and a later “dust up” with Red China [sheds tear]. Of course, the outcome of WWII in Europe was basically trading one tyrant occupying half of Europe for another tyrant occupying half of Europe but that is another discussion.
Joe Bloggs on July 18, 2009 at 12:56 AM
AFAIC you’re not even in the same ballpark with the Kossacks or DUpes. And what would help bring some resolution to this and help us move forward is some basic accountability.
Cronkite’s role in affecting the direction and outcome of events on the ground has to be acknolwedged, eventually… and contested if it must, but seriously studied and evaluated, and confronted by media types, not just or swept under the rug or run away from — so ‘we’ can learn from it and know what not to do the next time.
Or else the grievance remains open, and rightfully so.
If these self-appointed sage custodians of the people’s trust will not ‘join the conversation’ willingly, they will have to be compelled to do it, somehow. Maybe they’ll suddenly find the energy & free time once they’re all unemployed & out of business.
RD on July 18, 2009 at 1:01 AM
guntotinglibertarian +others
What books on Vietnam would you suggest for enlightenment?
In HS in the late 80′s my goverenment/history teachers glossed over Vietnam after some verbal arguments became physical altercations because of the mixed class of sons/daughters of vets, asian immigrants when Vietnam was the subject.
My dad is a Korean War Vet and I don’t remember ever asking him his views on Vietnam but I remember him watching Cronkite religiously.
journeyintothewhirlwind on July 18, 2009 at 1:03 AM
I grew up in a conservative Republican home with a political junkie mother who adhered to Spiro Agnew’s nattering-nabobs-of-negativism screed — authored by William Safire and Pat Buchanan — against the MSM. Nevertheless, Walter Cronkite was a regular part of our weekday news viewing until he used his position to advocate against the Vietnam War — at which time we switched to Howard K. Smith and ABC News. Cronkite’s greatest strength was his expert coverage the U.S. space program and he deserves all the credit he received for that reporting.
Until the late 1960s, my mother believed that Cronkite was as fair as a liberal mainstream anchor could be — and the illusion of his pseudo-impartiality benefited by comparison to his CBS News colleagues, Democrat Party shills Eric Sevareid and Daniel Schorr. In retrospect, after becoming a huge David Brinkley fan when he launched his excellent Sunday morning show on ABC, she regretted that we had not watched NBC News all those years.
I add my prayers and sympathy to Cronkite’s loved ones for their loss.
Terrie on July 18, 2009 at 1:06 AM
Another spectacular moment in Hotair Comment History™.
Assholes.
DaveS on July 18, 2009 at 1:08 AM
So what? Am I supposed to be all weepy over mass murderers and their enablers?
Vic on July 18, 2009 at 1:40 AM
Well said. I hope the Founders and the Framers turn their backs on him when he stands before them and God.
Tim Burton on July 18, 2009 at 1:56 AM
WC had a chance to give America a chance to WIN the Vietnam War. He Chose to be a Liberal Hack for the enlightened and report to the masses that America was fighting some poor rice farmers from SE asia. He and GI Jane had peace tea for years to come and he had his balls rolled in gold for the masses.
F U Kronkite. The only RIP I have is for the thousands of patriot heroes you compromised for a story that made you look like the voice of reason. Unintended consequences. I Celebrate. Cold. Yes. Just. Yes
THE CHOSEN ONE on July 18, 2009 at 1:56 AM
Comment pages: « Previous 1 2 3 4 5 Next »