Walter Cronkite: 1916-2009
By Gordonskene Saturday Jul 18, 2009 5:45am
(Despite the overused cliche, he really was the most trusted man in America)
The idea of Walter Cronkite not being among us, even at the age of 92, is a hard concept to grasp. Those of us of a certain age who grew up with him every night, glued to our TV's during every defining moment of our history - hearing the words of calm and conscience, we came to expect he would always be around - maybe not nightly as he was until 1981, but in some form, some presence of the man we trusted - always there, always observing, always the witness.
But life doesn't work that way, and now we're left with moments of time, places in history we associate with Walter Cronkite.
Tributes the past day have been largely flashes of moments in history - the Moon landing, the JFK assassination.
I thought I would add something a little different to the mix - maybe not as earth shattering as a tragedy or a walk on the moon, but the postmortem of an election - November 7, 1968, when Nixon won by a narrow margin. The exhaustion of staying up most of the night to report returns up to the final moment when Nixon was declared winner. It's not a milestone moment, but it was typical of the eloquence, the thoughtful reflection on a night in a troubled time.
Those nights we turned to Walter Cronkite the most.
“There’s a great deal of talk tonight of Richard Nixon, not by his own admission a loveable figure, succeeding without a clear mandate, to the leadership of a divided nation. These, to put it mildly, are negative thoughts. President-elect Nixon has said his first job will be to try and unite the nation. There’s no one who can say tonight, including Richard Nixon, whether he can do that job. Who can restore the hope of the American spirit, to all our people, black and white, rich and poor. But there is one thing that should be abundantly clear, the President-elect, whether it was Nixon or Humphrey or Wallace or the candidate of the Prohibition Party, could not do that job alone. The leaders of the opposition including Dick Gregory in a particularly Statesman-like concession called for unity. Their followers can do no less than to give the new man a chance. This is Walter Cronkite, CBS News election headquarters – good night.”
And that's the way it was.
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we had two local radio stations that went off the air at 6pm and two tv stations in other cities.
CBS came in the best and Walter was the news.
RIP, Walter, and that's the way he was.
Cronkite totally supported the "single bullet theory" and was the military industrial complex's most useful tool. You laud him like some kind of savior. Ha!
he knew they were hiding the ballistic evidence from the Kennedy assassination on the moon. The ultimte irony. Why do you think we have never been back to Tranquility Base?
I thought they were hiding the ballistic evidence in that studio in New Mexico where they set up the faked moon landing. My bad. Where is Michele Bachmann and Glenn Beck when we really need them. And hell...let's throw Alan Keyes in there, too. We might as well go for The Trifecta.
... Bill O'Reilly?
Will he assume the mantle of credibility? He has already stated that he knows more about the media than anybody, and that with Walter Cronkite still around.
I kind of wished awhile back that people like Cronkite and Brokaw had been more outspoken about rightwing hate stations.
FOX was beating the war drums the entire time Bush was in the WH.
Now their mission has 'evolved' to destruction of the President.
Under Bush's Patriot Act, that's T-R-E-A-S-O-N.
Cronkite was respected and could've had simps like O'Reilly driving a cab in Harlem.
throw o'liely UNDER THE CAB and drive around a while ;>)
I'm not kidding. how many of his buddies can we drag around with him
Obama also voted for the patriot act...what a coincidence!!!
Deprogram thyself
Ban Brainwashing!
!!!!
Cronkite did the owl voice during the "Bohemian Grove" neo druidic sacrifice passion play. Video here.
Oh, that's OK, at least we have people like Dobbs and Bill'O to fill Cronkite's shoes.*
*I'm being snarky of course, neither Bill or Lou can figure out how to get their heads into Cronkite's shoes.
they have to get their heads out of their ass.
which shoe for them to try.
the kennedy assassination.
But I have forgotten the secret so I don't have the burden of carrying it to my grave.
...with the CIA operative E. Howard Hunt?
apparently Hunt, (very much like you exept not so forgetful) did not want "the burden of carrying it" to (his) grave. so he confessed.
http://www.saintjohnhunt.com/testament.html
http://www.saintjohnhunt.com/testament.html
...for a "new world order".
He was very good at (not) communicating his "bias" when he was a newscaster but after he retired, he confesses his true beliefs, very clearly in this video!
he warns that Americans will have to yield up some of our soverignty, and that it will be a bitter pill to swallow...
he was a friend of the international "Corporatists and Banksters"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqTwce_ZLDw&NR=1
...but I'm getting tired of all this canceling of the news to report on someone who, after all, didn't actually make the news, but only reported it. It's a case of self-adulation by the media. It's discouraging to tune in to both Maddow and Olbermann, only to find that, aside from the death of a 92-year-old man (quelle surprise!), nothing happened today.
Rip Cronkite you will be missed
Goodbye to one of the last real reporters, We wont see your like again.
Cronkite, with his photogenic puss and mellifluous voice, was a media creation and a corporatist shill. He was a balm for the lazy, baby-boomers who sat idly by while Truman's CIA and the IKE/JFK military-industrialist gears were put into motion to lead a cold war that was totally unnecessary. If you want to experience true journalism, check out Morrow and I.F. Stone for starters, A little Hersh would top it off well.
You seem to think Russia, Cuba and Red China weren't players in the cold war. You are wrong.
LOL . . nice guy but so 20th century . . why are we still thinking in the 20th century anyway?
The future can't be that grim.
Most of you geniuse Conkrite bashers are too young to even know a thing about him and have no clue , automatically he was the establishment ... the corporate shrill , the military complex tool . If you don't know what the hell you are talking about can it alright ? Conkrite was one reason the Vietnam war finally ended , he came out and said that we were in an endless quagmire , Johnson himself said if I lose Cronkite I've lost the war . If there were news organizations like those days and men like Cronkite running them today this country and the world would be a lot better off , this country would not be in the state it is in that's for damn sure .
A technical point but not trivial by any stretch. Cronkite should have known that the US incursion into Vietnam was the invasion of a 3rd world agrarian sovereign nation in the throes of a civil war by a superpower that dropped 9 million tons of bombs and 48 million litres of dioxin on the country. There was no Vietnam war as Congress did not declare it to be so. Cronkite was likely well aware of that significant distinction. And if you thank that the illegal invasion was stopped because of what Cronkite said, then ... well, what does one say?
The Vietnam war for all practical purposes had been going on long before the US got involved , the North Vietnamese Communists were trying to take the South and no , it was not a "civil war" , foreign nations were involved , the Chinese as well the Soviet Union ( Communists ). What we did there was horrible and a disgrace but it was not an Iraq style "illegal invasion of a sovereign third world country " by the US . Also did I say the Vietnam war was stopped because of what Cronkite said ? You might want to read what I wrote again . The moral and ethical high horse you are riding is admirable but not real world , neither is your assessment of what I wrote . Cronkite was a good man , he was exceptional and we sure could use more like him today . Like i said if you don't know what you are talking about ... p>
9 million tons of bombs and millions of deaths do noty make a war. Only a Congressional declaration can do that.
Let us not forget, he warned us of soon-to-be president Reagan and the Great Communicator's particular relish for racist jokes.
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