Posted on 07/18/2009 6:14:28 AM PDT by moneyrunner
Walter Cronkite is dead and I extend my sympathy to this relatives and friends who grieve. As for me, I cannot find it in myself to mourn his passing. I watched his version of the news constantly, recalling his famous closing line “and that’s the way it is.” The problem is, as I learned later, that’s not the way it was.
Walter Cronkite was labeled ...“the most trusted man in America.” He, and many others, used that trust to create an aura around the news business that it has taken literally decades to reveal as a false front. At a time when information was one-way and media outlets were severely limited in number, the version of reality that was reflected by Walter Cronkite shaped public opinion so massively that opposing opinions stood no chance. That is why it was Walter Cronkite who ended America’s quest for victory in Viet Nam.
In mid-February, in the immediate aftermath of the Tet Offensive, both Gallup and Harris noted a surge in American support for the war. Both pollsters said 61% of Americans favored a stronger military response against the North Vietnamese Army. 70% of Americans favored increased bombing of North Vietnamese targets, which was up from 63% in the previous December.
Then came Cronkite's February 27 commentary.
In early March, just a few days later, 49% of Americans said it was a mistake to have entered the Vietnam conflict. Only 35% believed the war would end within two years. 69% now approved of a phased withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam.*
(Excerpt) Read more at moneyrunner.blogspot.com ...
A Founding Member of the Main Stream Media.
History is Written by men who would hang heros
Cronkite was a history writer how many men hung because of his socialist views ?
I just figured out, with your article, why I hate it so much.
Cronkite's jingle “and that’s the way it is" was used to kill any other opinion or viewpoint, he was the "truth sage" to many viewers. He definitely wasn't.
I could not agree with you more.
Listening to Cronkite is like listening to the Kenyan of Jim Jones.
The weak minded people who follow them are the liberal fodder.
The entire time he was the “unbiased” reporter of the news, Uncle Walter was an advocate of economic leveling to be accomplished by a tyrannical government. In other words, he was advocating the same kind of policies that drove the Soviets and the Red Chinese, in comforting yet authoritative tones. An American, he covered the Vietnam War from the perspective of Ho Chi Minh and Mao, and what he said was taken as gospel. QDEP, but I do not look back on this career gratefully. What is sad is that it was years before the country was told what he was up to.
Cronkite declared the war lost several months before I entered Navy flight training. The loathing we felt for this traitor was deep and wide. It still is.
Then, once off the set, he'd go sailing on his multi-million dollar yacht and return to his Martha's Vineyard mansion. What a bum.
Cronkite deserved a Walter Duranty award for his reporting.
I completely agree. If for no other reason, and there are plenty,than the praise heaped on him by Barack Obama. Cronkite did as much to tear down America in his time as Obama is doing now. It is no wonder that he was so greatly admired by leftists.
A stranger stood at the gate of Hell
And the Devil himself answered the bell
He looked him over from head to toe
And said “My friend, I’d like to know
What you have done in the line of sin
To entitle you to come within?”
Then Franklin D. with his usual guile
Stepped forth and flashed his toothy smile.
“When I took over in ’33,
A nation’s faith was mine”, said he
“I promised this and I promised that,
And I calmed them down with a fireside chat.
I spent their money on fishing trips
And I fished from the decks of their battleships.
I gave them jobs on the WPA
Then raised their taxes and took it away.
I raised their wages – then closed their shops,
I killed their pigs and buried their crops.
I double-crossed both young and old
And still the folks my praises told.
I brought back beer and what do you think?
I taxed it so high they couldn’t drink.
I furnished money with good loans
When they missed a payment I took their homes.
When I wanted to punish people, you know,
I put my wife on the radio.
I paid them to let their farms lie still
And imported foodstuffs from Brazil.
And curtailed crops when I felt mean
And shipped in corn from the Argentine.
When they started to worry, stew and fret,
I’d get them to chanting the alphabet.
With the AAA and the NLB
The WPA and the CCC.
With these many units I got their goats
And still I crammed it down their throats
While the taxpayers chewed their fingernails.
When the organizers needed dough
I signed up plants for the CIO.
I ruined their jobs and I ruined their health
And I put the screws on the rich man’s wealth.
And some who couldn’t stand the gaff
Would call me up and how I’d laugh!
When they got too hot on certain things
I’d pack up and head for Warm Springs.
I ruined their country, their homes, and then
Laid the blame on the ‘nine old men’.”
Now Franklin talked both long and loud
And the Devil stood with his head bowed.
At last he said “Let’s make it clear,
You’ll have to move, you can’t stay here.
For once you’ve mingled with this mob
I’ll have to hunt myself a job.”
After the fall of the Soviet Union, and a lot of the old KGB records came to light, did Wally show up on any of their payroll lists?
“because Rush and FreeRepublic weren’t around...”
Well said. When I was growing up (60’s and 70’s) we only had 3 channels on TV. Also, IIRC, it never really occurred to most people that the News people would lie to us. If Cronkite, Huntley or Brinkley said it - it was assumed they were telling the truth, and being fair in their reporting.—JM
So this lying leftist phony finally hit the silk, huh. GOOD!
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