NOT MY MOST TRUSTED MAN
The obit for legendary newsman and nightly news anchor Walter Cronkite portrays him as "the most trusted man in America".
One of the key reasons is his famous "coming out" against the Vietnam war on February 27, 1968, just 33 days before President Johnson announced his decision to give up the Presidency due to recognition the war was a failure. Johnson is famously reported to have said that Cronkite's speech showed him that he had lost Middle America when he lost Cronkite. If so, Cronkite earns a justly deserved historical footnote in helping end the war even though it took seven more years to witness our sad helicopter liftoffs from the US Saigon embassy with stragglers being pushed off the landing gear.
Unfortunately, Cronkite's reputation is partly what is wrong with America. We don't need a newsreader, no matter how magical their on screen personality, to inform us how to think about clearly unwinnable and horribly unjust wars. Starting college in 1963 it only took me a few hours of study to determine what it took Cronkite four and a half more years to conclude. The only difference besides the time was the additional 22,000 more US soldiers and a million or so Vietnamese who were killed.
Sadly, I ended my sixth decade watching Cronkite's illegitimate heirs fawning over the approach and initial glory of our made up, criminal war in Iraq. Except for a few courageous skeptics like Keith Olbermann, they still don't get it.
We can best honor Cronkite by understanding that when it comes to war, newsreaders are programmed to parrot the party line of whatever administration is in power, in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Originally published in USA Today, July 22, 2009
One of the key reasons is his famous "coming out" against the Vietnam war on February 27, 1968, just 33 days before President Johnson announced his decision to give up the Presidency due to recognition the war was a failure. Johnson is famously reported to have said that Cronkite's speech showed him that he had lost Middle America when he lost Cronkite. If so, Cronkite earns a justly deserved historical footnote in helping end the war even though it took seven more years to witness our sad helicopter liftoffs from the US Saigon embassy with stragglers being pushed off the landing gear.
Unfortunately, Cronkite's reputation is partly what is wrong with America. We don't need a newsreader, no matter how magical their on screen personality, to inform us how to think about clearly unwinnable and horribly unjust wars. Starting college in 1963 it only took me a few hours of study to determine what it took Cronkite four and a half more years to conclude. The only difference besides the time was the additional 22,000 more US soldiers and a million or so Vietnamese who were killed.
Sadly, I ended my sixth decade watching Cronkite's illegitimate heirs fawning over the approach and initial glory of our made up, criminal war in Iraq. Except for a few courageous skeptics like Keith Olbermann, they still don't get it.
We can best honor Cronkite by understanding that when it comes to war, newsreaders are programmed to parrot the party line of whatever administration is in power, in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Originally published in USA Today, July 22, 2009
posted by Walt Zlotow at 6:14 PM
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