Cronkite - When The TeeVee News Still Mattered

LastStandAtBlackRock
GeezerNetworkVille

Given the timing, it's understandable that most of the post-passing away retrospectives of the life and times of Walter Cronkite have focussed on his space program coverage.

Truth be told, as a kid at least, I always liked Wally Schirra better as a shill for NASA.

But never mind all that.

Because, as our old friend Diamond Bill from Brooklyn reminds us Mr. Cronkite turned around an entire nation, and very likely a president on a much more important issue in the late '60's:

"...One of the ways to understand the profound difference that good television journalism made in Cronkite’s era is to reflect on his coverage of the war in Vietnam. Cronkite was initially a proponent of the American escalation there, and his coverage of the war reflected his orthodoxy for a while. But as his reporters began to bring back stories that contradicted the military and White House perspective on the conflict, Cronkite decided to go see Vietnam for himself. After the 1968 Tet Offensive, Cronkite journeyed to the war zone and saw the protracted civil war for what it was, a stalemate that couldn’t be won by intervening American forces.

As a respected combat journalist, not only did Cronkite’s on-air assessment strike a chord with a broad swath of the American public, but his reportage was apparently pivotal to President Lyndon Johnson, who decided shortly thereafter not to seek re-election in 1968. Johnson told his press secretary, Bill Moyers, that if he had lost Cronkite, he had lost Middle America. Negotiations with the North Vietnamese began shortly thereafter..."

Pretty impressive, eh?

Can you imagine, say, Anderson Cooper or Brian Williams taking such a principled position based on actual experience, knowledge and reason?

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There's something buried within Bill's post that I had forgotten, which is that it was Bill Moyers that was the recipient of the doom-laden realization from LBJ, which is interesting in the extreme given that, in America at least, one could make the case that Mr. Moyers truly is the last of the line of the TV journos that will actually take a principled position on anything.
It was Schirra for his goofy sidekick coverage with Cronkite that got me, but the actual Apollo astronaut I liked best was Buzz Aldrin.....It would appear that even as a 9 year old I had this weird affinity for the underdog and/or a simple twist of fate....And even now, Mr. Aldrin has proven that he won't take crap from anyone.

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