Comments on: RIP Walter Cronkite

By: grackle

grackle — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:30:13 +0000

If you get a chance, see “Absence of Malice” with Paul Newman and Sally Field.

One of my favorite movies. But the only way a movie with such a theme can be produced is if there is no hint of anti-Progressivism. The movie is about the thoughtless expose by a government official of someone whom Newman’s character held dear which led him to fake the collusion of a politician with organized crime, duping the newshounds and getting the government leaker fired. Wilford Brimley’s performance is priceless.

Thoughtful viewers can extrapolate from the plot to MSM prejudice but the general public seems to be not so thoughtful. A movie openly addressing the Progressive bias of the MSM? Never happen in a million years.

By: rickl

rickl — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 16:26:42 +0000

I was five years old when JFK was assassinated, so I don’t remember the live coverage that day. I was ten at the time of Tet and that didn’t make much of an impression on me either at the time.

The thing I will always remember Cronkite for the most was his coverage of the space program in the mid-to-late 60s. I always cut school to stay home and watch the launches, and my mom would always write a note for me to take to class the next day. Some of my teachers understood that I was watching history in the making.

At the beginning of the movie Apollo 13, the astronauts and their families are gathered to watch Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. They turn on the TV and are trying to decide which channel to watch, and people in the room call out “Walter! Walter!” I think that captured it pretty well.

It’s kind of fitting that he died during the observance of the 40th anniversary of the flight of Apollo 11.

By: Wandriaan

Wandriaan — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 15:16:05 +0000

I don’t know how the tv-newscoverage was in the US before 1965, but here in Holland it was far more ‘austere’ than now. There was a strict commitment to present the newsfacts as neutral as possible and this fitted in with the somewhat austere Protestant culture here. Now this has all gone.
Boy, we are all relaxed pals now, aren’t we! We mix it all nicely together, make it smooth, ad some attractive womenfolk in ‘appropiate attire’
and make sure that, even when they are outragiously partial, they smile nicely, in that typical smug, semiseductive way.
When I saw the video of Cronkite announcing the death of Kennedy I remembered the way it used to be here.
I used to welcome the more ‘relaxed’ ways
after the sixties, but now my feelings are far more mixed, to call it mildly.
Since a few years I expressly avoid watching tv-newscoverage because of the brainwashing effect of mixing facts and views. The ‘in your face character’ of tv-broadcasts make the avoiding of being brainwashed far more difficult than when reading news in writing.

By: waltj

waltj — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 10:54:52 +0000

“I also thought that the H-B theme, the second movement of Beethoven’s Ninth, was pure class”.

Yes, it’s hard to beat “Ludwig van” in just about any context. Come to think of it, the H-B theme was probably my earliest exposure to classical music. But not my last, I’m happy to say.

Regarding your 10:29 comment about the low regard we have for journalists, I’d have to say that they brought it on themselves. All they do is tear down people and institutions that they view as targets. They do nothing to uplift.

By: huxley

huxley — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 02:29:00 +0000

For all the Vietnam War and Watergate cred journalists give themselves, they don't seem to notice that they consistently rank in bottom tier of institutions trusted by the American public -- way, way below the military, the police, organized religion, and even the presidency.

By: Richard Aubrey

Richard Aubrey — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 00:56:43 +0000

If you get a chance, see “Absence of Malice” with Paul Newman and Sally Field.
Cronkite said it “savaged” the media, and he was disturbed by that.
He was even more disturbed mentioning that movie audiences cheered when the newspaper got faked by Newman into shafting itself.
He may have had some kind of folksy gravitas, but he was in the bubble for the last thirty years of his life, apparently.

By: Scottie

Scottie — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 22:05:48 +0000

I wasn’t even born when Kennedy was assassinated, so I guess I missed out on the “bonding”. However, I was aware in the late 60′s and early ’70′s of Vietnam.

My perception of the man is based almost entirely upon his words and actions regarding that war – and those perceptions are not positive.

It boggles my mind that this one individual could have had such an impact on the thinking of so many in this country.

By: vanderleun

vanderleun — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 19:22:56 +0000

I’ve linked this in my sidebar where I note,

Regarding Cronkite, I noted yesterday that “We will not see his like again” and that’s true. What’s interesting to me is that we shall obviously not see the like of his era again. It seems to me that we’ve now entered the era (and I understand why) where there is no forgetting or forgiving in our politics. Even in death. I not only don’t like where that leads, I fear it.

By: Gray

Gray — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 18:53:37 +0000

I’m 41. He was always just some hectoring old anti-american dolt to me. It’s another boomer thing….

By: huxley

huxley — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 18:52:48 +0000

waltj: I grew up in a Huntley-Brinkley house too, and when I left home, I stopped watching TV, so I never got the Cronkite mystique.

I also thought that the H-B theme, the second movement of Beethoven’s Ninth, was pure class.

It surprised me to learn later how powerful Cronkite’s commentary was. To me he was just that fusty older guy on CBS.