Crush Liberalism

Walter Cronkite’s legacy

Walter Cronkite died this past weekend at the age of 92.  My sympathies go out to his family and friends, and I pray that God’s healing hand extends to them in this time of loss and grief for them.

But why does everyone feel the need to rewrite someone’s legacy and history after that person dies?  Cronkite’s legacy is not one of which to be proud.

Yes, for the earlier part of his career, Cronkite was a trustworthy and competent journalist and anchor.  However, on one fateful day in 1968, right after the successful Tet Offensive that could have turned the tide in the Vietnam War, Cronkite did the unthinkable (and to many, the unforgivable).  He stepped out from behind the journalist podium and took the unprecendented step of allowing his commentary (i.e. his opinion) to be reported as fact.  He declared the Vietnam War unwinnable, despite the Tet Offensive and other evidence to the contrary.  Because Cronkite had been “the most trusted man in America”, people immediately embraced his opinion as fact and public opinion turned against the war.  LBJ famously remarked thusly: “That’s it.  If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost middle America.”

This brazen abuse of media power should have been roundly denounced by the media establishment.  Instead, it emboldened his like-minded liberal allies in the MSM to begin “coming out of the closet” and infusing their own commentary into the “news”, blurring the line between editorializing and reporting.  Cronkite’s betrayal of media ethics (today an oxymoron) paved the way for his replacement, Dan Rather, a man whose legacy will be remembered as tainted (see Memogate), as well as a host of other “advocacy journalists” who infect the news cycle to this very day.  Media credibility has been gradually eroding ever since then, to the low depths we see today.

So while the humane side of me mourns the loss of a human being who many people loved and respected, the truthful side of me will not whitewash his shameful media legacy.

July 20, 2009 - Posted by crushliberalism | media bias