Posted on 07/17/2009 5:48:01 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
NEW YORK – Walter Cronkite, the premier TV anchorman of the networks' golden age who reported a tumultuous time with reassuring authority and came to be called "the most trusted man in America," has died. He was 92.
CBS vice president Linda Mason says Cronkite died at 7:42 p.m. Friday with his family by his side at his home in New York after a long illness.
He was the face of the "CBS Evening News" from 1962 to 1981, when stories ranged from the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to racial and anti-war riots, Watergate and the Iranian hostage crisis.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
One of the media Messiahs. He’s on the throne next to Edward R. (chainsmoker) Murrow.
“OK, these things always come in threes... who’s next?”
Carter and Kennedy? AS if!
Corrupted by power/Washington? Early TV work with a program called “The Twentieth Century, “ old newsreels of everything from Ataturk to Mao was a staple on Sunday evenings at our house from the earliest days I can remember (followed by “Man and the Challenge” at least some of those years.) His visit with Eisenhower to the graves at Normandy on the twentieth anniversary was great television. Then he got the idea he should be leading opinion and became a top-drawer media crook.
Maybe Pelosi will have a Botox overdose or something.
Pardon my non-FReeper lack of compassion, but
Worthless Kronkite B!tch will not be missed!!!
I’m a Vietnam combat veteran and I have a freaking right to that sentiment!
Any questions!!!!??
I’m ticked that Fox interupted Laura Ingraham on BOR for this old liberal bag of air.
***
I was kind of surprised that CBS did not suspend its programming. I didn’t see it, but I guess they acknowledged his passing, but not much else. Kinda weird to me that Fox covered his death more than CBS.
I wish him peace, but I’m already getting nauseous over the way the MSM will treat his passing.
I remember many of those, and I have a vivid memory of him sitting in an Army Jeep with Eisenhower looking out over Normandy Beach talking about the invasion. Too bad he went liberal after all of that.
Yes, I know what you mean about his newscasts, and that he tried to be objective. Yes I would prefer more like him to the liberal journalists we have today.
But, there was one big exception to his professionalism. He visited Vietnam and reported from there in a series of broadcasts, if I recall correctly. And those broadcasts were full of opinion from him, which climaxed with his conclusion that the war was unwinnable. He distorted the facts of what happened during the Tet Offensive of early 1968, and falsely reported that the South Vietnamese and the Americans had lost those battles badly. And then he concluded that we could not prevail in the war effort.
President Johnson was quoted at the time as saying that if he had lost Walter Cronkite on Vietnam, that he had lost middle America.
Even thought we were prevailing militarily, his reporting distorted perceptions of what was really happening in Vietnam.
While I agree with most opinions about Viet Nam, I have always been very impressed by his willingness to get his hands dirty in WWII.
There is a story of him going into an assualt in a glider. The glider crashed and as he was crawling away he saw everyone was following him. It turned out when he grabbed a helmet it was that of the CO, so everyone thought he knew what he was doing.
Too bad more in the media are not true journalists Walter Cronkite was. Though he was a bit liberal, it rarely came through in his reporting. He was honest, and a true professional. We may never see another like him.
Cronkite was instrumental in driving public opinion against the Vietnam war, and played a heavy role in the defeat of a free South Vietnam against the aggressors from the North.
I wish I'd have read your post before I posted mine. You state the truth!
For some reason, I always preferred Huntley and Brinkley, young as I was. What a big deal it was when the evening news broadcasts went from 15 minutes to the full half hour.
Say hello to Benedict Arnold.
One of the most amusing incidents involving Walter Cronkite took place during the 1994 elections. Ann Richards was the incumbent Texas governor. She was the darling of the Democrats having given the “silver spoon in his mouth” slur against Bush senior in the 1992 Democrat convention, but she was widely hated in Texas for her anti-property-owner pandering to environmentalists and for her pandering to minorities and NOW. Cronkite was providing commentary for CBS as election returns were coming in across the country. Each time he had returns on the Texas gubernatorial race he would nearly have an orgasm as he intoned the words, “Ann Richards, the most popular governor in Texas history.” The Democrats were taking a shellacking in Congress and George W Bush quickly took a strong lead on wrinkly Ann. Cronkite was incredulous that this was happening, saying that he knew that late returns were in the offing that would push Ann to victory. It was wonderful seeing the dismay on Cronkites partisan face when W beat Ann Richards 54% to 45%!
“I offer prayers to his family...”
Maybe his kids...if they disowned him when they grew up. But others that had a choice, no, sorry - unacceptable. I’ll save my sympathy for people like Charles Manson, who only caused a few deaths, instead of millions.
Mr Cronkite - the moonlanding - well done.
The VietNam war - disaster in his biased reporting.
Presstitution started bigtime under the likes of Mr. Cronkite.
But, I hope he repented and turned to the Lord Jesus Christ before his death.
And, condolences to his family.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.