Perspectives; Walter Cronkite

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Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (1916 – 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years (1962–1981). During the heyday of CBS News in the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as “the most trusted man in America” after being so named in an opinion poll. He reported many events from 1937 to 1981, including bombings in World War II; the Nuremberg trials; combat in the Vietnam War; the Dawson’s Field hijackings; Watergate; the Iran Hostage Crisis; and the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, civil rights pioneer Martin Luther King Jr., and Beatles musician John Lennon. He was also known for his extensive coverage of the U.S. space program, from Project Mercury to the Moon landings to the Space Shuttle. He was the only non-NASA recipient of an Ambassador of Exploration award. Cronkite is well known for his departing catchphrase, “And that’s the way it is,” followed by the date of the broadcast.
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“Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation.”

“America’s health care system is neither healthy, caring, nor a system.”

“In seeking truth you have to get both sides of a story.”

“I felt that I had been driven from the temple where for nineteen years, along with other believers, I had worshiped the great god News on a daily basis.”

"The first criteria of a responsible newspaper … is going to be that which their readers need to know about their world that day — those developments that in one way or another might affect their health, their pocketbooks, the future of themselves and their children. The first criterion of the tabloid is that which “interests” its readers — gossip, sex, scandal.”

"Grandfather was an old-fashioned pharmacist who never ceased venting his resentment at the growing number of retail items the drugstore had to carry, and he would go into periods of fearful rage when the subject of chain stores was raised."

"We all have our likes and our dislikes. But… when we’re doing news – when we’re doing the front-page news, not the back page, not the op-ed pages, but when we’re doing the daily news, covering politics – it is our duty to be sure that we do not permit our prejudices to show. That is simply basic journalism."
 
It’s hard to separate the individual newscaster from the corporation, in terms of “prejudices”, which is what other people have. Our own prejudices we refer to as priorities or commitments.

CBS network was fairly conservative in the 1940s and 50s, with a few exceptions, such as Edward R Murrow, coverage of McCarthy. (In today’s climate Murrow would be considered a mild conservative).

About the time Cronkeit became anchor, CBS became more liberal, maybe that’s one reason Douglas Edwards was replaced by Cronkeit.

During Cronkeits time as anchor the media began making the news rather than just reporting it. I don’t know if Cronkeit agreed with that, but he certainly went along with it, did not resist it to my knowledge. If he had, he would have been eased out.
 
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Will there ever again be truly objective journalism in our nation?
 
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