Posted on 11/09/2004 8:47:03 PM PST by Paul Atreides
Walter Cronkite, who once remarked that Dan Rather, his successor as anchor of the CBS Evening News, should have been fired after he walked off the set in 1987 when his newscast was delayed by a tennis broadcast, has enlarged upon his previous criticism of Rather's discredited report on George W. Bush's National Guard service. Asked in an interview in the upcoming edition of Details whether he had ever come close to making a mistake like Rather's, Cronkite responded: "Fortunately, I don't know about the close times, and I'm sure there must have been some. But I never had a failure quite like that, where my sources actually turned out to be wrong, or not the sources they claimed to be."
Cronkite lied in his teeth night after night about the Tet Offensive and everything else we were doing in Vietnam. He's got his nerve slamming Rather. They're two peas in a pod and if the internet had been around when Cronkite was still anchoring, his lies would have been exposed to the world too.
Glad to see somebody else remembers Douglas Edwards. Not very glamorous, but straighforward and no-nonsense. Seems to me Cronkite maneuvered him out of the anchor chair at CBS back in the early 1960s.
Did you hear the excerpts of Carol Simpson, on Rush's program, today? The woman is a blathering, blithering moron. She was talking about how she is of the generation that got into journalism to "change this country."
Considering that "the most trusted man in America" was strongly suggesting that Karl Rove manipulated bin-Laden - in some unknown nefarious way - to make a tape strongly in favor of Kerry a few days before the election, there's no telling what else ol' Walt made up. In his post-retirement auto-biography, he confessed that "he had always been a liberal at heart."
Nah! Who'd a'thunk it?!
Help me. I only remember him as a kid, but somewhere I read that Frank Reynolds of ABC was a straight-shooter, if not conservative. I remember him almost weeping on-air about the (false) reports that James Brady had died from John Hinkley's bullet. Where are the "honest" reporters in the main stream media?
I think Reynolds leaned toward liberalism, but he at least made an effort to be honest. Plus he could not stand working with Barbara Walters, so he has that in his favor. Chet Huntley was also a liberal, but he also tried to report it straight. But honestly, liberalism has dominated TV news since the 1950s, became thoroughly entrenched by the 1970s, and since then has moved more and more into the realm of fiction to serve its agenda.
Ummm, why is Walter Cronkite still around. Someone should send him away to the glue factory.
WHAT'S THE FREQUENCY, WALTER???
(Time for Walter to meet the gom-jabbar.)
Bingo! How right your are.
Thanks for relaying your experience. I agree wholeheartedly with you. Cronkite could not get away with his lies today. People were more naive about TV news in those days. Cronkite did as much as any single individual to portray Vietnam as a lost cause and thereby contribute to undermining the US position. Plus, I had forgotten how close in time the TET and Pueblo incidents took place.
Liar.
It's much like the pot calling the kettle "heavy".
You can say that again...Cronkite isn't any better than Rather!
Yes, I heard about Carol Simpson's comments...what a freaking moron. She can't stand it that young people get their news from the internet and talk radio, and not from that Canadian Gas Bag Peter Jennings or from her on the weekends!
"There is no telling what ol' Walt got away with, in the days before the Internet and Talk Radio."
You said a mouthful there. That rat bastard has been a party to lies since at least the mid sixties. Some came apart, most never were discovered. There is a goldmine of scandal waiting for anyone who can get access to the CBS archives.
I'm glad someone else is old enough to remember Douglas Edwards (Cronkite's predecessor). At that time the nightly news was 15 minutes, Edwards was very deadpan and only had time for just the facts.
Harry Reasoner did the news on weekends at CBS (prior to his stint at ABC) and had the same humorous skeptical approach to Washington poobahs that Brinkley did. Brit Hume seems to have inherited their mantle.
"Frank Reynolds of ABC"
ABC had Howard K. Smith also. As good a pair as there was, and better than most, for accuracy and impartiality. Never got the celebrity treatment though. America's loss.
Cronkite is the guy who started the biggest lie ever told on network news: that we were losing the battle during the VC/NVA Tet Offensive, when in reality we were beating them to to a pulp.
Remember this: American forces NEVER lost a battle above company size during the entire Vietnam war. Not ONCE.
Bump...
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