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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
 Posted - 07/17/2009 : 19:14:10
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Walter Cronkite dies
… Cronkite's demeanor inspired the nickname "Uncle Walter" and when he signed off his newscasts by saying, "And that's the way it is," few doubted him.
During his years at the CBS anchor desk, Cronkite was regularly voted the "most trusted man in America" in opinion polls. Senator Robert Kennedy was so impressed he asked Cronkite to run for public office.
"I don't understand my impact or success," Cronkite once said. "That my delivery is straight, even dull at times, is probably a valid criticism. But I built my reputation on honest, straightforward reporting. To do anything else would be phony."
Writing in a blog on www.huffingtonpost.com in March 2006, Cronkite explained his signature "the way it is" signoff by saying: "To me, that encapsulates the newsman's highest ideal: to report the facts as he sees them, without regard for the consequences or controversy that may ensue." |
I am old enough to still miss the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. He was the last of the WWII journalists who were considered by many of us to be the most trusted newsmen in America. That was back when newsmen really were largely trusted, and for good reason. The networks still considered the news departments untouchable loss leaders and held them up as flagships representing the networks overall integrity.
How things have changed. Cronkite got out as the changes were taking place, only to show up here and there on one news special or another. He got out in time.
He and his peers showed us how it should be done. I mourn both the death of Walter Cronkite and the loss of a kind of television journalism that just doesn't exist today…
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Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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marfknox
SFN Die Hard
USA
3739 Posts |
Posted - 07/17/2009 : 19:54:29 [Permalink]
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| The really sad thing is that his death won't get nearly as much attention as Michael Jackson's. But I'm expecting some really wonderful obituaries. |
"Too much certainty and clarity could lead to cruel intolerance" -Karen Armstrong
Check out my art store: http://www.marfknox.etsy.com
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 07/17/2009 : 21:47:36 [Permalink]
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He was the last real TV journalist.
Bummer.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 07/18/2009 : 00:00:09 [Permalink]
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As I was growing up, my family always watched Cronkite's CBS evening news. His tag-teaming competitors, such as Huntley and Brinkley, didn't hold a candle to him.
Walter Cronkite was never a mere talking head. He understood whatever he was reporting about, and even when his understanding did not affect the words he spoke, you could see that understanding in his expression. He did not hide his emotions, but reacted to news as Everyman did, if perhaps with more dignity.
Uncle Walter was everyone's favorite, wise old uncle. He didn't merely act the part. He really wanted us to understand what was happening on -- and beyond -- our planet. Now we have crap reporters who follow the corporate script, read their lines like C-list actors, bring us circuses but no bread, and pretend to care about the insignificant travails of Hollywood celebrities.
How I'll miss Walter.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Chippewa
SFN Regular
USA
1496 Posts |
Posted - 07/18/2009 : 00:34:07 [Permalink]
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| A great man. He was a real newsman. His reports made sense and he witnessed history with an awareness of relevance. He had a good sense of humor too. |
Diversity, independence, innovation and imagination are progressive concepts ultimately alien to the conservative mind.
"TAX AND SPEND" IS GOOD! (TAX: Wealthy corporations who won't go poor even after taxes. SPEND: On public works programs, education, the environment, improvements.) |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 07/18/2009 : 01:16:11 [Permalink]
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Beside Cronkite, today's journalists become as dwarfs in the presence of a giant. He was an example to aspire to.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 07/20/2009 : 10:45:57 [Permalink]
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The rude Pundit, as always, has some succinct thoughts. I cannot say that I disagree....
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 07/20/2009 : 12:15:34 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by filthy
Beside Cronkite, today's journalists become as dwarfs in the presence of a giant. He was an example to aspire to.
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Way to insult dwarves, he makes them look like 5rd grade media students. |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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Walter Cronkite dies.
