Walter Cronkite, 1916 – 2009
On a personal note… Aside from the obvious reminder that Cronkite’s death offers about what the news media were once — but no more — all about… I had a brief chance meeting with Cronkite years ago when, in the late 80’s, I was working as an in-store demonstrator for a new board game over Christmas. He was shopping at the great flagship FAO Schwarz toy store on 5th Ave. in New York City.
Even then, some twenty years ago, he seemed surprisingly frail to me. Don’t know whether it was because I’d only seen him on TV decades earlier or not. As I recall, I demo’d the game with him and beat him (I had quickly become an expert at the game for all of the hours I’d spent playing it with shoppers, even beating the inventor of the game when I’d met him one day). Cronkite, if I remember correctly, bought a couple of the games for his grandkids or nephews that day.
Not a particularly insightful story, other than for me, at that time in my life, I felt as if I had been in the presence of greatness. It was certainly the highlight of my holidays that year. He will be missed. So will the once-great American news corp which he left, and which left all of us, too long ago.
UPDATE: For more thoughts along those expressed in the last sentence above, and video, etc. we’re happy to associate ourselves with Jill’s take over at Brilliant at Breakfast.
Cronkite will be missed …has been missed by the media for year’s now. God bless his family and media friends.
He was definetly the Gold Standard of his field. I grew up watching his broadcasts. He was the epitome of the what a great journalist should be.He will be missed.
My sincere regards to his loved ones.
Best part of this ugly, ugly world we’ve made is that people like Walter Cronkite are not sorry to leave it. I bet he went peacefully.
Walter Cronkite’s journalistic integrity provides a stark contrast to most of the current crop of corporate stenographers who parrot only the official reality.
Cronkite demonstrate how real journalism; the ability to speak truth to power, can have a powerful impact on the course of events. After visiting Vietnam and reporting on the Tet offensive, Cronkite informed America of the stalemate that could not be won.
“President Lyndon Johnson is reported to have said, ‘If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost Middle America’.”
Within a relatively brief period, Johnson would announce to the nation that he would not run for re-election.
Also, did you notice? That great American heroes like Cronkite are ignored in the now-controlled media? When I was a kid, I remember seeing specials on great Americans like Cronkite and JFK. Do you see that anymore since the mainstream media was taken over? They want us to forget about great Americans. And forget about what they said, too, more importantly.
Think about how much more important Cronkite was than Michael Jackson.
Related to Ernie’s comment, blogger dcap notes (via email):
I remember the story Cronkite reported on about President Bush using forged documents that he knew were probably not legitimate. Actions like this delegitimate his honorable past and make me not unhappy when phonies like him pass.
Wasn’t that Dan Rather?
This is why the media is useless to us
Obama’s Doctor is “uninvited” to ABC talk on healthcare because he was going to talk about single payer.
Much to my regret because a great journalist, Walter Cronkite has died! Condolences his family!
Growing up in the 60’s with a Father in Vietnam Walter was always on nightly in our house as my Mother scoured the channels on the news of the war. Cronkite, Brinkley and Huntley were a different breed then what we see today
Robert Morales’ comment reflects the wisdom in Mark Twain’s observation that “a lie can make it half way ’round the world before the truth can put its boots on.”
As Big Dan correctly observes, the story alluded to by Mr. Morales involved Dan Rather rather than Walter Cronkite. It pertained to (a) the strings pulled so that George W. Bush could evade service in Vietnam by entering the Texas Air National Guard, and (2) George W’s failure to fulfill his service obligation.
The claim that Rather had relied on “forged” documents is a bogus smear that was launched by the right wing echo chamber immediately after the broadcast.
For those interested in the truth about that broadcast, I would recommend linking to Amy Goodman’s interview of Mary Mapes, the producer responsible for both the Rather “National Guard” piece and the CBS segment that exposed the Abu Ghraib scandal.
In the wake of these broadcasts, CBS, pressured by the Bush regime, fired both Rather and Mapes.
Correction to comment #4. “Cronkite informed America of the stalemate that could not be won.”
The report that President Johnson said, in response to the Cronkite Vietnam “stalemate” report, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost Middle America,” comes from a very reliable source — Bill Moyers, who was then serving as Johnson’s press secretary.
Once again, Glenn Greenwald knocks it out of the park. It is uncanny how he keeps nailing my precise feeling on so many things, and the way he addresses the problem of enduring the fascist media snots eulogizing Cronkite is dead bang on the nail head.
Thank goodness we still have Bill Moyers and BradBlog!
Cronkite’s exposure HAS been minimized as far as I can tell. He had lots of important things he cared about and I’m sure he wasn’t as active as he was when he was younger, but as far as showing up on over-the-air television, he didn’t. I did see him a couple of times, saying how television news had become tainted by profit motives.
This is a day for modern news organizations to reflect on their performance for the last couple of decades.
It needn’t have been so long 99, when it was said in a few words on your link.
Ain’t that the fucking truth
Yes.
Here it is in another short form, Flo.
And, yeah, I strive for a new form of succinctitude and Glenn certainly isn’t looking to do that kind of communication loading, but, as I am regularly reminded, a lot of people need it Glenn’s way. Maybe someday I will have developed my idea well enough to be at least as clear with much less, but, wow, that guy is just rock solid on so much that has gone way into the psychedelic zone out there. I really appreciate it.
Thanks 99 for the excellent links.
Look at my comment #5, and then look at this:
Amazon Kindle users surprised by ‘Big Brother’ move
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jul/17/amazon-kindle-1984
Think about it, it makes perfect sense. How can the media, the way it is controlled now, celebrate Cronkite the right way? They’d be “doing their job”!
Agent 99:
Did you catch Cronkite’s slip of the tongue in your short video? He said the “ruling crass.”
How true!
I had the idea he was used to referring to them that way, and just didn’t catch himself in time. It was fitting….
“The ruling *crass*”
perfect description
[ed note: Comment deleted. You have spammed this “comment” word-for-word all across the intertubes. Please read our rules for commenting before posting again…. –99]