Cronkite's rant

Washington Times ^ | 9/11/02 | Greg Pierce

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

Former CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite, in an appearance on CNN's "Larry King Live," blamed the September 11 attacks on errant U.S. foreign policy and world poverty, the Media Research Center's Brent Baker reports at www.mediaresearch.org.

"Cronkite said he believes 'very definitely that foreign policy could have caused what has happened,' before he asserted that anti-U.S. terrorism is caused by 'this great division between the rich and the poor in the world.' The people of the world 'who don't have adequate housing, don't have adequate hospitalization, don't have adequate medical care, don't have adequate education,' Cronkite warned, 'are not going to live forever in the shadow of the riches that we display constantly.'

[FryingPan101]

LOL uhhh.....noooo.

[RonF]

Many considered, and rightly so, Falwell’s remarks inappropriate, but Cronkite should be the last person to be involved in a vicious attack on his freedom of speech affirming that Falwell’s remarks in regards to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as "the most abominable thing I've ever heard," and told TV Guide columnist Max Robins, "It makes you wonder if [Falwell and Roberson are] worshipping the same God as the people who bombed the Trade Center and the Pentagon."

How is critizing Falwell's comments equivalent to attaching Falwell's freedom of speech? Did he call for Falwell to be muzzled? Did he call for Falwell's right to speak to be taken away? No, so Cronkite didn't attack Falwell's freedom of speech, he critized the content of Falwell's speech, which is entirely proper.

Where was Cronkite’s wrath when a professor in New Mexico lamented that the whole Pentagon was not destroyed or the elementary school teacher who lamented to the students that the President was not killed?

Cronkite's criticism of Falwell and of anyone else stands alone. It's validity doesn't stand or fall on who else he may or may not have critized. If you have to criticize everyone to criticize anyone, then no one would be able to criticize anyone.

And, practically, comments (if they were actually made, and not some urban legend) such as are described have limited circulation, and haven't got nearly the impact as Jerry Falwell speaking on a national form such as the "700 Club". Thus, his comments are worthy of more note.

[colorado tanker]

Looks like Cronkite doesn't have the frequency either.

[NativeNewYorker]

Yep. Dem rich folk shore nuff had it comin' to 'em. Yesirree.

[Conservative4Ever]

Thank you your Highness....you said all I was going to say.

Red

[pepsionice]

Cronkite misses the entire point. We got to this point, as a nation. We did not allow religion to get in the way of the operation of the government or the business world. All of these middle eastern countries...and to a lesser degree...European and Asian countries allowed religion to hinder their development. Even Colombus might have been halted if the Catholic church had been on the ball at the time. For some idiot to come up in 2002 and say that we owe the world something...why? We paid for our development and we suffered in our own fashion. We owe no one for our position.

[Dick Bachert]

"Cronkite warned, 'are not going to live forever in the shadow of the riches that we display constantly.'"

WALTER, BABY, WHEN YOU SELL THAT BEAUTIFUL YACHT OF YOURS, DIVEST YOURSELF OF YOUR SEVERAL LOVELY HOMES, GIVE THE DOUGH TO "DA POOR" AND LEARN TO LIVE ON SOCIAL SECURITY, I MAY LISTEN TO YOUR RANTS.

Until then, Walter, GO TO HELL, OK???

Have a WONDERFUL DAY, moron!

[Dick Bachert]

Hey, ease up.

Walter misses JUST ONE THORAZINE dose and THIS is what happens.

Jeezz.

[moneyrunner]

Dittos Dick

[Paul Ross]

Cronkite's Ignorant Rant Against Christians: ""It makes you wonder if [Falwell and Roberson are] worshipping the same God as the people who bombed the Trade Center and the Pentagon."

If atheist Cronkite knew anything, then he would know that the Islamicists expressly disavow that they are worshiping the same god. Why should we not take them at their word? They are clearly worshiping Satan. But as an atheist, it's unlikely Cronkite has studied religious teachings close enough to know the difference...until now anyways as he poses the rhetorical question. And on whose side conclude to be abominable? The Christian? So Cronkite is more sympathetic to the 'poor' Osama Bin Ladens of the world and their Religion of Peace. TM. Typical communist cadre member.

[Paul Ross]

Bump.

[Charles Martel]

I've seen that picture many times before, but I'd never before noticed the "highlighted area". I refuse to believe that Hillary caused that, so...

[RonF]

I think that Cronkite's remarks about Falwell and Osama worshipping the same God were misguided. But his making them didn't attack Falwell's freedom of speech, and the fact that he didn't in the same breath criticize other people doesn't invalidate, in and of itself, any criticisms he made of Falwell.

How do you know Cronkite is an atheist? Has he said this himself?

[leprechaun9]

Who gives a fiddlers fart what Cronkite thinks or says? He is another Kennedy idolizer, like Doris Kearns Goodwin and Chris Matthews (host of Whiffleball)!

[cubreporter]

They never want to give up "THEIR RICHES" though, do they?

[farmfriend]

CLASSIC VERSION:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

MODERN VERSION:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others less fortunate are cold and starving.

CBS, NBC and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so? Kermit, the Frog, appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing "It's Not Easy Being Green."

Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house, where the news stations film the group singing "We shall overcome." Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.

Al Gore exclaims in an interview with Peter Jennings that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and calls for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his "fair share".

Finally, the EEOC drafts the "Economic Equity and Anti-Grasshopper Act", retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government. Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal judges that Bill appointed from a list of single-parent welfare recipients. The ant loses the case.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in (which just happens to be the ant's old house) crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it. The ant has disappeared in the snow. The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.

[Barnacle]

Was that the view through your periscope?

[PatrioticAmerican]

Wlater always has been a bleeding-heart commie.

[hoosierskypilot]

"...terrorism is caused by 'this great division between the rich and the poor in the world...."

Hog wash! According to Cronkite's logic, Osama was poor. Wrong! OBL was worth $30 mil last I heard. (Well, that was before the U.S. military turned him into a greasy spot somewhere in the Afghan mountains. NOW he's poor.)

How about Arafat? After all, he wrote the book on terrorism. Is he poor? Nope. He's worth $1.5 billion.

Or the Saudis, some of the chief supporters, sponsors and co-sponsors of terrorism. Are they poor? Hardly.

And at least one of the pilots of the doomed planes on 9/11 was the son of a wealthy businessman.

Cronkite made a general statement that betrays the man's ignorance of the facts. As an elitist liberal, that's how he exists: in his own fabricated world of make-believe and lies.

These people (terrorists) are not motivated by money, ideology or power. It doesn't matter if you're talking about the Saudis, the Taliban, Arafat, or the Greenies.

They are evil. Period. Theirs is a barbaric, Neolithic, ignorant mindset that rewards absolute evil. They run the same program as "dabblers" in satanism: all they know is inflicting pain on innocent people. Muslims, Jews, Christians. No matter. Everybody screams the same.

Sorry, Cronkite, they don't need a reason. All they need is an excuse.

[Howlin]

'this great division between the rich and the poor in the world.'

Fact: ALL the countries of the world are richer than they were ten years ago, except one in Africa, which one, I cannot remember.

Not rich enough for Walter, I'm sure.......but still...