Posted on 11/15/2004 10:13:05 AM PST by Conservative Coulter Fan
"If Walter Cronkite was around today," USA Today founder Al Neuharth proclaimed in a speech in South Dakota last week, "I think John Kerry would be President" because of "the trust the people in Middle America had in Cronkite, when he returned from Vietnam opposed to the war, public opposition soon followed." As recounted by the Daily Republic in Mitchell, South Dakota, in addition to boasting of the influence of Cronkite's bias, Neuharth "said he thought if McGovern had won the presidency in 1972, U.S. troops would have pulled out from Vietnam a lot sooner with a lot fewer casualties, the Cold War could have ended sooner and there would have been a compassionate Democratic leadership." Neuharth seriously maintained: "The seeds for ending the Cold War were sown by George McGovern."
FNC's Brit Hume in his Wednesday "Grapevine" segment quoted Neuharth's contentions and I tracked down the local newspaper story with the quotes. An excerpt from the November 10 Daily Republic article, "USA Today founder criticizes national media's political coverage," by Harold Campbell:
The national media took a few hits on election coverage from Al Neuharth, a Eureka native and founder of USA Today, who spoke at Tuesday's annual McGovern Center Conference at Dakota Wesleyan University.
"I think the media often reflects public activities or opinions rather than reports on them," he said.
Neuharth said the national media probably was more unfair to McGovern during his 1972 presidential campaign than to any other candidate he can remember.
"Many (reporters) got caught up in the country's apparent support for Vietnam," he said. "The media often reflects public activities or opinions rather than reports on them. They certainly weren't fair and objective in 1972."
However, he said he thought the presence of one journalist in the 1970s helped shape policy, Walter Cronkite.
Because of the trust people in Middle America had in Cronkite, when he returned from Vietnam opposed to the war, public opposition soon followed,
"If Walter Cronkite was around today, I think John Kerry would be president," he said.
Most of Neuharth's presentation consisted of fielding questions from audience members in the newly dedicated Sherman Center....
He also said he thought the national media was doing a good job of reporting the facts from Iraq.
"The number of troops involved and casualties are facts, and we should report those facts," he said.
"However, in a war, both sides of the conflict are great propagandists, and we have to separate facts from propaganda."
He said reporting the facts could play a key role in public response to U.S. policy in the Middle East.
"People have to ask themselves if this is worth the price," he said....
Neuharth said he has known McGovern for more than 50 years.
He said he thought if McGovern had won the presidency in 1972, U.S. troops would have pulled out from Vietnam a lot sooner with a lot fewer casualties, the Cold War could have ended sooner and there would have been a compassionate Democratic leadership.
"The seeds for ending the Cold War were sown by George McGovern," Neuharth said.
Neuharth is the founder and senior advisory chairman of the Freedom Forum, a non-partisan foundation dedicated to free press, free speech and free spirit for all people.
The Freedom Forum funds and operates the Newseum, the First Amendment Center and the Diversity Institute.
Neuharth was the chairman of the Freedom Forum from 1986 to 1997, and was a trustee of the foundation and its predecessor, the Gannett Foundation, from 1965 to 1999.
He is also the former chairman and chief executive officer of Gannett Co.
END of Excerpt
For the article in full: www.mitchellrepublic.com
Neuharth devoted his Friday USA Today column to similar praise of McGovern, "Is McGovern again ahead of the times?" For the November 12 piece, with a picture of Neuharth: www.usatoday.com
Cronkite is around...and he proved that he's losing it...
fortunately we have Ted Baxter- I mean Dan Rather at SeeBS
Cronkite is around and he spoke out. His statement that Bush put Osama up to making that last video to help him in the election most likely cost Kerry votes.
He was losing it long before he was retired. He's a commie sympathizing fraud. Always has been. Thus, Rather was the perfect choice for his replacement.
"...all this nation truly needs is a Wonko the Sane to erect signs indicating to bewildered Democrats that they have inadvertently wandered into that strange land Outside The Asylum, where people believe in strange things such as God, moral values, personal responsibility and a literal Constitution." --Vox Day, World Net Daily
"If the dog hadn't stopped to sh*t, he'd have caught the rabbit!"
USA Today and Cronkite are part of the MSM, too.
Too bad for them that Al Gore invented the internet!
Maybe if Cronkite were NOT around then, VietNam would be free . . .
These people need to move beyond the 60's and 70's. They need to face the fact that their clothes sucked, their hair sucked, their music sucked, and their greasy faces sucked, too. Its like they're just lying around sucking in air like a dying fish waiting for water to happen.
----Al Neuharth has got one thing right--his description of himself for his book--
Gotta give Al this: if McGovern had won, the Cold War really would have been over sooner. And guess who the loser would have been!
"He said he thought if McGovern had won the presidency in 1972, U.S. troops would have pulled out from Vietnam a lot sooner with a lot fewer casualties, the Cold War could have ended sooner and there would have been a compassionate Democratic leadership."
This maybe true, but like most of the stories in the MSM, he leaves out the most important point: the Cold War would have been won by the other side.
MSM, RIP.
Cronkite would have been shredded by the new media even worse for his lies than Rather.
After all the lies and propaganda Chronkite and SeeBS reported during the Viet Nam war, he and his network have about as much credibility as a screen door on a submarine!
Semper Fi,
Kelly
At least they're not lying about Cronkite being a nonpartisan reporter anymore.
Cronkite didn't have the truth detectors on the Internet to refute his lies about Viet Nam.
If FR was around when cronkite was LYING about the Tet Offensive, he would have been as humiliated as Dan Rather.
Cronkite survived based on NO COMPETITION.
Neuharth is brain-dead. If McGovern won in 1972, he would have taken office Jan 20, 1973. The last American troops left Vietnam on 29 March, 1973. You want faster than that?
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