A critique of Walter Cronkite
Posted: August 01, 2009
1:00 am Eastern
© 2009
It seems to many of us that if we are to avoid the eventual catastrophic world conflict we must strengthen the United Nations as a first step toward a [one] world government patterned after our own government with a legislature, executive and judiciary, and police to enforce its international laws and keep the peace.
– Walter Cronkite
Walter Cronkite, the legendary TV anchorman, died on July 17. To most Americans over the age of 50, Cronkite was the always-invited guest at the dinner table as the family sat down to eat in the 1960s and 1970s, the heyday of CBS News. As a young boy, I remember watching Walter Cronkite with my father every evening at 6 p.m. I remember his silver mane, his deep, gruff baritone voice and his trademark authoritative mannerisms that commanded respect. He seemed to me like the General George Patton of network news.
The American public believed that if Cronkite reported it, it must be true. If it wasn't true, then when Cronkite reported it, it became the truth. That was how a 10-year-old kid viewed Cronkite. Multitudes of politicians, activists, journalists, academics and ordinary Americans who mourned his death expressed that same singular belief in Cronkite's omniscience regarding any news event he reported on.
Yet, can we separate the man from the myth?
more
1:00 am Eastern
© 2009
It seems to many of us that if we are to avoid the eventual catastrophic world conflict we must strengthen the United Nations as a first step toward a [one] world government patterned after our own government with a legislature, executive and judiciary, and police to enforce its international laws and keep the peace.
– Walter Cronkite
Walter Cronkite, the legendary TV anchorman, died on July 17. To most Americans over the age of 50, Cronkite was the always-invited guest at the dinner table as the family sat down to eat in the 1960s and 1970s, the heyday of CBS News. As a young boy, I remember watching Walter Cronkite with my father every evening at 6 p.m. I remember his silver mane, his deep, gruff baritone voice and his trademark authoritative mannerisms that commanded respect. He seemed to me like the General George Patton of network news.
The American public believed that if Cronkite reported it, it must be true. If it wasn't true, then when Cronkite reported it, it became the truth. That was how a 10-year-old kid viewed Cronkite. Multitudes of politicians, activists, journalists, academics and ordinary Americans who mourned his death expressed that same singular belief in Cronkite's omniscience regarding any news event he reported on.
Yet, can we separate the man from the myth?
more
posted by Phil Smith at
11:54 AM
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