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.'

[BenLurkin]

Walter Cronkhite: BARF!

[FryingPan101]

Cronkite is nuts. Nobody in my family has constantly displayed "riches." If a person thinks we're rich because our toilet flushes, then they're nut cases too.

[Blue Screen of Death]

If a person thinks we're rich because our toilet flushes, then they're nut cases too.

I am sitting at home today waiting for a plumber to show up to replace my toilet which will not flush. I have a feeling the plumber will be richer and I will be poorer by the end of the day. However, I plan no terrorist attacks on the plumber or his family.

[FryingPan101]

LOL I appreciate your situation. I've been there.

[jlogajan]

Cronkite is right, but in an uninteresting way -- if we'd all been muslims this never would have happened -- first, jet planes would never have been invented -- second, materials science would still be building structures out of mud -- third, muslims would need to kill other muslims except for pleasure.

[fhayek]

If "errant foreign policy" means our alliance with Israel, I would submit to Mr. Cronkite, that we cannot allow a group of thugs to dictate to us who we can and cannot be friends with. If he wants to cede that determination to others, then we will have yielded a major part of our sovereignty to our ENEMIES.

[Cardenas]

THE AYATOLLAH CRONKITE.

By: Jesus J. Chao

October 1, 2001

Walter Cronkite’s hysterical attack on Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson shows to the world the lack of respect by the semi-gods of the U.S. elite media for the First Amendment Rights of those who do not share their ideology.

Falwell’s crime; the evangelist alleged that the attacks were divine retribution on American for "pagans, abortionists, feminists, homosexuals, the American Civil Liberties Union and the People for the American Way."

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."

It is preposterous to equate Falwell’s commentary with the terrorists’ abominable actions. Mr. Cronkite’s remarks are more appropriated for a fundamentalist Ayatollah than for a U.S. media demi-god. 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?

It is clear that the elite media does not worship the same God than the rest of us. Cronkite is one of the demi-gods of the media’s Olympus, where he shares with Walter Duranty, Louis Fisher, and other, who were also media luminaries, the paeans of their worshipful comrades.

Certainly the elite media's idols are made of clay.

[hoosierskypilot]

Typical ivory tower liberal. This is guy doesn't have clue as to what most people think. He hobnobs only with the rich and famous liberals and goes home to his gaited community and he thinks he has a clue. Not!

[itzmygun]

Oh, the liberal spew... It's time to call these morons what they are - traitors. I'm all for free speech, and goodness knows I've ranted about our government and country many times. I don't, however, believe in free lies, especially when the truth is so obvious and so dangerous. Of all the hijackers, I didn't see one who looked poor, and I know the people who sent them had to have plenty of money.
Those attacks were the result of people who simply hate America and all we stand for - just like Walter Cronkite, apparently.

[princess leah]

I saw this and was screaming at Walter Cronkite through the TV - "You idiot - you just don't get it do you" They hate us because we support Israel, a DEMOCRACY, a FREEDOM loving people that promotes individuals to achieve all they can and be successful...not robots or slaves chained to a terrorist regime! I hate LIBERALS!

[skeeter]

Please, somebody slip this goofy old fart a sedative.

[FryingPan101]

Thanks for your post. IMHO, our country no longer has idols which is why Cronkite balks at not being able to influence anyone. No idols means the country will require leadership of its leaders. No idols explains a genuine love for GW and an expectation of leadership...not a blind following such as enjoyed by Slick and company.

[Monty22]

The hell? Oh how the barf flows from the collective mouths of most Americans at this old coot..

When will he bite it already?

[Diogenesis]

THIS JUST IN: CBS NEWS' Cronkite suggests future co-hosts
for CBS News to be Castro and Rather, consistent with
CBS corporate policy.

[cubreporter]

I was flipping channels and when I got to Larry King and saw Cronkite I IMMEDIATELY changed channels again. The man is out in left field.

[cubreporter]

Is Walter Cronkite poor??????????????????????????????

[RooRoobird14]

....ah yes, a blast of flatulence from Cronkite.....and then he speeds of to Newport Rhode Island on his yacht........

Definite Threatcon Delta Barf Alert required here.

[Malcolm]

And to think that millions of Americans listened to this man for years and years. Probably explains why this country is so messed up now.....

[RonF]

There is certainly no question that tolitarian governments around the world use the fomentation of anger against the U.S. as a masque for their own activities, convincing their people that their ills are due to the U.S. oppressing them, instead of their own government.

There is also no question that destitute populations are the breeding and recruiting ground for terrorists.

The U.S. has dealt with many such governments in the past, and will continue to do so in the future. They are the governments of those countries, and we have no choice in many cases but to deal with them. Embargoes don't seem to work, and it's beyond even our capabilities to lead armed rebellions in all of them. It is to our shame that misguided policies of the U.S. in the past have helped create a few of such governments. But in the main, such governments are self-generated. Corruption, tolitarianism, and theocracies were all well-established before the U.S. was founded, and will be with us for years yet. Their shortcomings are their own, and have to be solved by their own people.

Jealousy of our accomplishments and our material poessessions is a normal human reaction. And you can see plenty of examples in America of people, well-fed and well-off, who will blame anything bad that happens to them on anyone else but themselves, so it shouldn't be surprising that people to whom flush toilets truly are riches would do the same, especially when they have the encouragement of the only government, the only churches, the only newspapers, and the only radio and TV stations that they have any access to.

We can't just sit here and say, "Oh, these people are fools." They are what they are. They aren't going away. In my opinion, we have to beef up our defenses, modifying them in a way to best combat the new type of wars. We also need to do a better job of identifying who our friends and enemies are. We need to ensure that our enemies understand that the gloves are off. We need to ensure that our friends understand that they are our friends, that we will work with them, but that they can't sit on the fence.

We need to strip down our aid to oppressive countries and modify it so that instead of lining the pockets of corrupt officials with cash, we deliver aid, in the form of goods, materials, and services not readily convertible to limousines, palaces, or swiss bank accounts directly to the people we wish to aid, and plaster the American flag all over it so that the people eating it know who it came from. We should consider doing so as agressively as we would prosecute a war; few such governments would be in a military position to keep us from providing aid if we were determined to do so.

Finally, we should use our undeniable technological superiority to communicate directly with these people. All they see about us much of the time are the propaganda their governments spew, and the cultural excesses of popular American television "dramas". We should be setting up ships, satellites, and land-based stations broadcasting news and information of all kinds 24 hours a day.