The country was very lucky to have him in that seat as anchorman, Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace said, in paying tribute. The networks had never been singled out by elected officials in this way, and they werent happy about the scrutiny. 1717 K Street NW And I have a feeling that it could tilt the election a bit. The offensive was an attempt . Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters, Cronkite denied charges that CBS brass ordered newscasters to go soft on Nixon., Douglas Brinkley's sweeping and masterful biography, Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion. Moonves was able to sleep that night, he recalled, because "Walter said it was OK.". Looking back, Cronkite's virtual immunity as a public figure is troubling. Although the protesters believed media coverage would create sympathy for their cause, a substantial majority of Americans including Paul Simpson sided with the police. Newsweek media critic Howard Kurtz, for example, writes that in reading Cronkite, by the historian Douglas Brinkley, he came to realize that the man who once dominated television journalism was more complicated and occasionally more unethical than the legend that surrounds him. Cronkite was America's most trusted reporter at the time, and his broadcast has come to be seen as a turning point in the war the "Cronkite moment" when the attitude of many Americans toward the war changed irreversibly. In 1939 Cronkite became a news editor for United Press (UP; see United Press International). Although Jenkins isn't a drinker, Byers persuades her to have a glass of wine. Cronkite came to regret handing the anchor reins to Dan Rather in 1981. It was very cozy; all that was missing were hard-hitting questions. He distinguished himself with his coverage of the 1952 and 1956 political conventions and as narrator of the documentary series The 20th Century. We can agree on that," Ben Carson said of longtime CBS anchor Walter Cronkite. [1], In addition to his biased reporting on the war, FBI documents, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act by Yahoo news, evidence that legendary CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite collaborated with anti-Vietnam War activists in the 1960s, going so far as to offer advice on how to raise the public profile of protests and even promising that CBS News would rent a helicopter to take liberal Senator Edmund Muskie to and from the site of an anti-war rally. They may not accept gifts, tickets, discounts, reimbursements or other benefits from individuals or organizations covered (or likely to be covered) by their newsroom. Cronkite was determined to use the U.N. and its treaties to inhibit the ability of the U.S. to act in its own national security interests. "". Cronkite and a colleague went to an infamous topless bar, and he was later spotted dining with a go-go dancer in a miniskirt and plunging neckline. He told his audience that we must strengthen the United Nations as a first step toward world government, with a police force able to enforce its international laws and keep the peace. Cronkite called for the ratification of several U.N. treaties, including one that would create a criminal court to arrest and prosecute Americans. We now wonder how many other world government advocates are working at the networks. American broadcast journalist (19162009), Cronkite School at Arizona State University, Memorial at Missouri Western State University, (digitised online by Google Books online). Claiming that his circumstances had changed, a reference to him leaving journalism, Cronkite went on to say that he was going to speak his mind. In such a homogeneous media universe, it was easy for someone like Cronkite to assume that whatever he passed along to Mr. and Mrs. America would be accepted as unvarnished truth, free of any bias or spin. Brinkley's book will undoubtedly tarnish the Cronkite legacy. Cronkite?s association with the World Federalists has been known for years, but in this speech he discloses that he was asked 50 years ago to be a Washington lobbyist for the group. In his two-part interview, Cronkite outlines his early experience in journalism, including positions with various radio stations and the United Press. These weren't occasional drinks, but flights to remote and luxurious vacation spots around he world for him and his friends and family, courtesy of now-defunct airline Pan Am. When Bennett resigned in 1986, a national search was conducted for a new director of the school. Some of his main coverage were World War II, combat in the Vietnam War, the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Beatles musician John Lennon and many more. Walter Cronkite Biography Reveals His Dark Side. As the two women are introducing themselves to each other and the audience, Byers speaks the play's title while reminiscing about the good old days gone by. Cronkite published his autobiography, A Reporters Life, in 1996. The viewers have to be willing to accept what they're seeing on stage or on screen really could happen, at least in the world where the story is set. The Board of Regents approved a change in the name to the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Telecommunication. The encounter might have ended with the two storming to opposite corners of the bar in a huff, but instead they bond over a shared familiarity with the "Looney Tunes" theme song. During Goldwater's speech at the 1964 convention, some conservatives fed up with the networks gave Cronkite the finger. In the heated atmosphere of 1968, it was enough to fuel suspicions of media bias. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. Peace Process / Normalization / Abraham Accords, New Jersey Couple Ages 101 and 97 Arrive in Israel on Aliyah, President Herzog Again Calls for Calm as Israels Ground is Burning, Netanyahu: Freedom to Demonstrate is Not Freedom to Create Anarchy, Whats the Real Obstacle to Building the Temple? Omissions? For many years, I did my best to report on the issues of the day in as objective a manner as possible. On that occasion, President Clinton sent a note to the gathering wishing them future success., Cronkite said we would achieve world government by giving up some of our sovereignty. He said, That would be a bitter pill. Fired by MSNBC in 2003 for telling a caller to the show that he was a "sodomite" who should "get AIDS and die.". What a stunning contrast to the corrosive distrust of the news business today. That's just the way it was. Except for . "Nobody wanted to go after Walter Cronkite," Brinkley says. Four years later, after Cronkite had belatedly turned against LBJ's Vietnam War, he met privately with Robert Kennedy. He wasnt necessarily wrong: Cronkite, who enjoyed his reputation as the most trusted man in America, did detest Goldwater and was liberal in his politics. I got to know Cronkite after his anchoring days as a charming, hard-of-hearing, slightly stodgy spokesman for old-fashioned news values against the encroachment of tabloid entertainment. I am shaking my head at the spectacle of a network anchor secretly urging a politician to mount a White House campaignand then interviewing him about that very question. Soon after Cronkite took over from his predecessor Douglas Edwards, the then 15-minute broadcast was expanded to 30 minutes, making it the first half-hour nightly news show on American network television. But Cronkite's denial was misleading. Another network, Agnew announced, showed virtually the same scene of violence from three separate angles without making clear it was the same scene.. Operating as they did with government licenses, they saw Agnews speech as intimidation. Simpson also believed that television news unfairly blamed President John F. Kennedys assassination on the conservative atmosphere in Dallas, and he recalled with particular disgust a 1967 network interview with psychologist Timothy Leary, who was encouraging young people to try LSD. 75. And we can't always pick the people who we'll be sitting next to. It is firmly set in a bar at Reagan National Airport just outside of Washington, D.C in Sept. 2010 . June 12, 2009, 8:34 AM. In that far-off time, Americans watching television had to settle for the Big Three networks and a smattering of local stations. . Walter Cronkite Interview Walter Cronkite spoke with independent producer George Colburn about President Dwight Eisenhower 's military and political career. Had Cronkite engaged in some of the same questionable conduct today he secretly bugged a committee room at the 1952 GOP convention he would have been bashed by the blogs, pilloried by the pundits, and quite possibly ousted by his employer., Kurtz also notes that in 1968 Cronkite secretly met with Robert Kennedy and urged him to run in the Democratic primaries that year against President Lyndon Johnson. As Brinkley writes, "There he was, a civilian broadcaster, dressed in the full uniform of a U.S. Marine colonel, narrating gobbledy-gook about the 'Red Threat.'". They all told him that they werent available they only saved their broadcasts for about two weeks because it was too expensive to preserve them. 50 Years Ago, Walter Cronkite Changed a Nation TV star led a country against the Vietnam War. Because of his willingness to learn everything about spaceflight and his ability to convey his knowledge to viewers, he seemed to be almost as much a part of the American space program as the astronauts themselves. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. They saw themselves as above politics. Cronkite was broadcast journalism's king during a day when there were three networks and BROADcasting was also king. Walter Cronkite was born on November 4, 1916, in St. Joseph, Missouri. In what would likely be deemed a firing offense today, Cronkite blatantly manipulated an interview with LBJ shortly before Johnson died. Examining ABC, CBS or Fox segments requires a trip to Nashville. Media studies scholar Heather Hendershot on Walter Cronkite, Mayor Daley, and coverage of the Chicago Democratic Convention . Karl Rove, anxiously pondering the latest tracking polls, puts in a call to bin Laden, hiding in a cave somewhere in scenic Afghanistan, and asks him to give Bush a boost by releasing a video. LBJ saw a rough cut and pronounced it "dirty pool"; I would call it a video version of lying. Simpson sent the tape to Patrick Buchanan, a Nixon speechwriter who shared the presidents deep distaste for the media. Even if one thinks Simpsons perception of deliberate political bias was misguided, his insistence on preserving the evening news in order to study and analyze its presentation was an extraordinarily important contribution. For entertainment purposes, we allow ourselves to be transported to fantasy lands where superheroes are real, people can train and ride dragons, and former NFL quarterback Tom Brady is beloved. By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. Nancy, the couples' daughter, reported to the New York Post that Cronkite never got over his beloved wife's death: "I don't think Dad ever really recovered. Walter Cronkite That's right: A red stater and a blue stater sharing the same air, and eventually a bottle of wine, for a full hour and a half. For decades, many families ate their evening meal watching Walter Cronkite on CBS or the Huntley/Brinkley Report on NBC. The CBS anchor is remembered as a media giant who gruffly championed hard-hitting journalism. It was Cronkites good fortune that his heyday came and went in the era prior to the arrival of cable news, talk radio and the Internet. John F. Kennedy in 1963 to the Apollo 11 Moon landing in 1969. But that's not what I am. And they will clearly take things that you have said and distort them or overblow them. In 1964, he wrote to CBS to complain about Walter Cronkite's coverage of the Goldwater campaign. "I had real faith in something more than myself," Byers said of the experience. I am shaking my head at the spectacle of a network anchor secretly urging a politician to mount a White House campaign and then interviewing him about that very question. It was 40 years ago on March 6 that news anchor Walter Cronkite signed off "The CBS Evening News" for the final time, stating his tag line, "That's the way it is.". Thomas Alan Schwartz, Professor of History, Vanderbilt University, 2023 Smithsonian Magazine The British writer Christopher Hitchens once remarked that political partisanship makes us stupid. Cronkite also covered the invasion of North Africa. OpinionReflections on the importance of a free press, OpinionThe show mustn't go on: Performing arts venues struggle to outlast COVID-19, OpinionFort Pierce's Sunrise Theatre can and should rise again. Perhaps he simply reflected his times, when some journalists and politicians quietly collaborated, when conflicts of interest were routinely tolerated, when a powerful media establishment could sweep its embarrassments under the rug. That is a dictionary definition of liberal. Richard M. Nixon, and the historic peace negotiations between Egyptian Pres. Suite 900 Mr. Cronkite had been with the wire service for 11 years. Barry Goldwater distrusted him from the start, and with good reason. I don't think it's a great issue, though, in 1960. Widely regarded as authoritative, he was known as "Uncle Walter". I remember watching him with the newly elected Jimmy Carter near an Oval Office fireplace, serving as master of ceremonies as he fielded radio calls. Unfortunately, he was a liberal-progressive and failed to see the threat of international Communism. Such was the modest beginning of what Rutgers University historian David Greenberg has called the preeminent video resource for scholars of TV news.. Amazingly, CBS stated it would destroy the Vanderbilt tapes if it won in court. Ready to fight back against media bias? The Tet Offensive of 1968 was a coordinated series of North Vietnamese attacks on more than 100 cities and outposts in South Vietnam. Being left of center is another thing; it's a political position. Unbeknownst to the millions who tuned in religiously to the CBS Evening News, Walter Cronkite cut a deal with Pan Am to fly his family to vacation spots around the world. Had Cronkite engaged in some of the same questionable conduct todayhe secretly bugged a committee room at the 1952 GOP conventionhe would have been bashed by the blogs, pilloried by the pundits, and quite possibly ousted by his employer. Yet, his misreporting helped create the conditions for a premature U.S. military withdrawal, leading to the loss of the lives of 58,000 Americans in vain, not to mention the millions of additional deaths caused in Vietnam and Cambodia by the Communists. Over the years its been used by researchers to study topics as diffuse as political bias, gender stereotyping and even the evolution of television advertising, since the commercials during the news broadcasts are also recorded. America was fortunate to have escaped his pernicious influence. His health was certainly exacerbated by this terrible, terrible blow.". "I think being a liberal, in the true sense, is being nondoctrinaire, nondogmatic, non-committed to a cause - but examining each case on its merits. This page was last modified on June 20, 2021, at 03:28. Phone: (202) 670-7729 Along comes Patti Jenkins, a loud and brassy Tennessean portrayed by Rosemary Knight, who's waiting on a flight to London. 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