Brinkley? No, he became a bit of a curmudgeon in his later years. One election night in 1996, Brinkley famously said Bill Clinton's victory speech earlier that night was "one of the worst things I've ever heard. It was totally unnecessary, to begin with. Everything in there he's already said."
As Brinkley was signing off from his last election night coverage, Peter Jennings asked Brinkley if he had some final thoughts. He said:
"OK, fine. I'm not going to say much. Among things I admire, almost near the top is creativeness, and everyone in this group has it. It shows in your work, it shows in your thinking, and it shows in your speech, what you do, what you write, what you say."And it's one reason this group is so terrific. Bill Clinton has none of it. He has not a creative bone in his body. Therefore, he's a bore, and will always be a bore."
Brinkley apologized to Clinton on his Sunday morning show the following weekend.
Cronkite and Rather are different stories.
Cronkite is often said to be the reason that public sentiment turned against the Vietnam War after he declared the Tet Offensive to be a failure for America despite it being a military failure for the North Vietnamese.
And Rather? You can't forget about the Texas Air National Guard forged documents story pushed by Rather that eventually got him fired from the network after a distinguished career. Rather would definitely have gone along with a plot.
-PJ
I was in college at the time of the Viet Nam War. Cronkite every night was reporting the casualties. It was impossible not to be against the war by the time of the election.
The media is bought and paid for right now. Maybe those guys were too.