The American Spectator : And That's the Way It Is

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And That's the Way It Is

By Reid Collins on 7.20.09 @ 6:07AM

We've lost Walter Cronkite.

They quote President Lyndon Johnson as saying: "If I've lost Cronkite. I've lost Middle America."

He was referring to the time in 1968 when CBS's anchorman Walter Cronkite dropped all pretense at objectivity and declared the Vietnam War to be unwinnable. He had spent a couple of weeks surveying the region following the communist Tet Offensive and returned to declare his opposition to the war. At the time, said Tet Offensive was generally described in the media as a victory for Hanoi, a belief later moderated if not reversed once cooler assessments had been made.

Nonetheless, America's most-trusted public figure had joined the outcry to "get out of Vietnam," and the path was all but chosen. Tens of thousands of Vietnamese would be "re-educated," those who couldn't swim or helicopter to departing ships. And the names of 58,000 American war dead would be inscribed on a wall dug into the ground of the D.C. Mall. To the end, at least at a news conference in 2006, Cronkite was quoted as saying, "The editorializing that I did on the Tet Offensive I'm…proudest of."

Howard Kurtz, the Washington Post's media mensch, says there can never be another Cronkite because Americans will never again trust journalists how they trusted him. "That," writes Kurtz, "is a healthy thing. Every journalist should be challenged and fact-checked, as now happens roughly every second of every day." Why? "Cronkite's liberal views emerged in his latter years as a syndicated columnist, proving that no sentient being can practice journalism without forming opinions that they then strive to keep out of their work."

Cronkite's unhappiness with the manner in which he was ousted from the CBS anchor chair seemed to grow along with his liberality. Six months before his retirement age he was replaced by Dan Rather, whose agents, the story goes, told CBS management unless Rather got the job pronto they were moving him to ABC News. Walter was given a million a year, a seat on the directors' board, and on March 6, 1981, he signed off, saying "I'll be away on assignment."

He reported for his final assignment in the early evening of Friday, July 17, 2009, at the age of 92.

About the Author

Reid Collins is a former CBS and CNN news correspondent.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (45) | Leave a comment

Skip Engle| 7.18.09 @ 5:36PM

Cronkite was the template for biased news reporting. His heirs are the over-the-top whackjobs at MSNBC. In his day, there was no alternative media. Today, we have Rush; Laura; Michelle; Steyn, and the gold-standard AmSpec.
RET and Wlady, your next assignment awaits. Cry "Hope", and let slip the dogs of war.

Solo| 7.18.09 @ 6:25PM

Walter Cronkite was a feckless propagandist!

It amazes me that anyone in this day and age would even attempt to invent history and try to tell it any differently.

Are we still in 1968? This was when people had no other means of verifying facts. No one 'fact checked' these left wing bastards and they most certainly took advantage of that fact.

Generations of us were lied to repeatedly by these bastards and I refuse to "celebrate' the career of the worst liar of them all, Walter Cronkite!

There will be no more "Walter Cronkites" because we will never go back to being so naive and dependent on so few sources of "news".
That bastard wouldn't make it today in the news business any better than did his successor Dan Rather-Biased with his "fake but true" news.

Good riddance, you Marxist pimp!

wayfaring stranger| 7.18.09 @ 6:28PM

Just thinking … I hate to be the skunk in the room while so many media types are trying to elevate Uncle Walter as some kind of plaster saint. But in Collins’ own words, America’s most trusted newsman “dropped all pretense at objectivity.”
Sorry, but the newsperson who drops his or her objectivity becomes just another propagandist. That’s why today’s mainstream media is such a mess.
I don’t know if it was the same Walter Cronkite, but someone by that name addressed the United Nations a few years back. He declared that if we were to avoid catastrophic nuclear war in the future, America would have to “yield up some of her sovereignty.”
I guess our founders establishing America as one sovereign nation is no longer good enough. Or the Reagan policy of peace through superior firepower.
It’s tragic to witness the death of an icon, but the statism he represented is toxic to what America was founded to be.

J. Kelley| 7.18.09 @ 6:55PM

Before being stationed in Viet Nam 1967-1968, I always assumed that News reported in Newspapers and TV was true. But I have never believed anything from that time foreward. Always check everthing for truth. Our news people had their story before getting there, and reported it to fit the story. The main story line was we were bad and killed Women and Children. We lost soldiers because we were so careful about not involving civilians. And the Tet Offensive was a big victory for the US military. Because the enemy was finally out in the open. This was a black mark on our news media. We could not have won World War II with todays media.

Michael L. Hauschild| 7.20.09 @ 6:30AM

I reached exactly the same conclusions, for exactly the same reasons, in exactly the same place the only difference was the time frame 1969-1970. The carnage, loss of life, and the setback to freedom and democracy that this man perpetrated on America and our valiant military is still telling. I sincerely hope the last "assignment" Collins refers involves brimstone and old uncle Walt is eventually joined by the current cancer of dishonest, agenda driven, emulators. Throw Fonda in with him.
And that's the way it is!

Melvin| 7.20.09 @ 7:17AM

It should be of no surprise that Walter Cronkite could hoodwink millions with his trusting, fatherly, grandfatherly demeanor. Joseph Stalin used this tactic with great success with millions of trusting followers calling him, "Uncle Joe."
Walter Cronkite was a brilliant actor in promoting the socialist cause. He promoted a cause that promised a Utopian world free from capitalistic greed, a classless society where every person should contribute to society to the best of his ability and consume from society in proportion to his needs, regardless of how much he has contributed.
Walter Cronkite went to his death believing in the creation of this utopia, but even as he passed to that great socialist nirvana in the sky, his socialist vision may come to pass because the United States is standing on the precipice of, "Change" that will forever alter the United Sates forever.

JP| 7.20.09 @ 7:43AM

Walter Cronkite was once a very good reporter. That was always his strong suit. What got to him was TV. Like most of his generation (including the acclaimed Theodore White and William Shire), the stardom and hype went to thier heads. It was this kind of journalistic conceit that was thier own undoing. I can still remember watching very old JFK Press Conferences where the WH reporters were treated like some kind of royalty by Jack Kennedy and Bobby. This was the MSM at its appogeee of power. Like FDR, the Beltway Media kept quiet about JFKs destructive sex life, and in return they were treated like one of the "Team".

Things slowly began to go South for the MSM with LBJ and accelerated with Nixon. Nixon and Johnson's failings were not covered up, and the MSM harbored a visceral hatred for Nixon that went back to 1946.

Walter Cronkite should be remembered for his war reporting most of all. In that sense, he was a true patriot. A human yes, but still a patriot.

frost| 7.20.09 @ 7:51AM

We've "lost" Walter Cronkite? Nah, I think not.
And the fact that ASU named its journalism school for him...?
Whew.

P. Aaron| 7.20.09 @ 8:12AM

from Cronkite to Rather. From bad to worse.

Michael Tomlinson| 7.20.09 @ 9:39AM

McNamara and Cronkite dead within a couple of weeks of each other. One can only imagine the grief in communist Vietnam at the loss of these two heroes of their "revolution."

Mike| 7.20.09 @ 9:40AM

Ah yes! The Fox News crowd discussing Walter Cronkite's objectivity. This is hypocrisy at its very best.

Howard| 7.20.09 @ 9:41AM

I do not remember Cronkite being a flaming lefty. It seemed back then that both parties were closer politically. The consensus was closer to "Middle of The Road" I think it later years Cronkite became more of a lefty. I was especially appalled at his opposition to the Cape Wind project. He just seemed like any other rich guy who didn't want his property values effected. The times were much different then, so I am giving Cronkite more rope than a snake like Dan Rather, who was a biased crack pot.

British Rightie| 7.20.09 @ 9:47AM

Cronkite was not biased - he just KNEW he was right, and any opposition was wrong-headed at best and sinister at worst. Such types cannot conceive that any right-thinking person could possibly think differently to them. Our own BBC suffers from a very similar malaise.

Steve| 7.20.09 @ 9:57AM

I cannot pass up an opportunity to spew additional venom on the utterly loathsome, shallow-witted, Martha's Vineyard liberal puke known to the world as Walter Cronkite. He managed to combine the effortless arrogance of an illiterate English aristocrat with the cozy demeanor of a defrocked priest. What a piece of work.

Turk| 7.20.09 @ 10:09AM

After days of listening to tripe venerating kronkite(or crankcase as Conservatives of the day referred to him) it was exhilarating to read the substantive comments about this evil man. JP had to go and screw it up with his "a patriot" nonsense, but the collection that proceeded it, left me greatly cheered to know that America is not COMPLETELY brain dead.

My recollection of LBJ's remark after kronkite's perfidy in announcing defeat in the face of victory was "If I've lost k--------- I've lost the war" Maybe the term WAS 'midwest' but can't you just see McNamara and LBJ giving up because of this communist sympathizer? Remember how he showed the same C-130 being blown up ad nausem from numerous different angles, over many days of his despicable "newscasts".

One must correct Mr Collins in his grudging admission that the "Tet offensive" was a devastating defeat for the n viet regular army (not viet cong). Allegedly, later, the fact of defeat was "modified". But no necessity to wait for later existed, except for sympathizers of the communist vietnamese--in the street; in LBJ's administration and in the halls of CBS et al. The n viet army never recovered and only traitorist dogs kept up and still today with the drumbeat that we "lost" that war. Like Hauschild above, God help me ---may this scumbag burn in hell.

As an aside, doesn't todays media remind us all of this propagandist for the left??

Anthony| 7.20.09 @ 11:05AM

Indeed, we won't be fooled ever again. Oops, strike that, we won't be fooled ever, ever, again, after Obama, that is. Assuming we survive, right, Senator Franken??

Jeff| 7.20.09 @ 11:35AM

Turk,

I agree with what you said except for the part about the NVA and Viet Cong. According to documentation from both the NVA and Viet Cong (located in the Vietnam Archives @ Texas Tech University), the Tet Offensive all but destroyed the Viet Cong. It was poorly planned, poorly executed and a disaster both strategically and tactically for the communists. However, it was a brilliant propaganda coup for them because of 'uncle walter' and his ilk. The American Fighting Man won the Vietnam Conflict - congress lost it.

David Govett| 7.20.09 @ 11:40AM

Krankheit ist tot. Aber schade...nicht.

Liberal Reader| 7.20.09 @ 12:05PM

Many of the comments here -- as well as the initial post -- unwittingly reveal exactly what it is we've lost.

Setting aside idiotic remarks calling Cronkite a "communist sypathizers" (where do you people get YOUR news?) I'll just respond to Cronkite's famous Viet Nam commentary.

Cronkite did NOT "editorialize" from his news desk. He had a "special report" segment, and dutifully refrained from criticizing war policy while acting as anchor.

Cronkite, unlike the legions of boobs who sit in their air conditioned radio and television studios giving uninformed opinions today, actually REPORTED news. He was a journalist. He rigorously fact-checked information.

When he spoke out against the war, he did so after months of reporting that revealed a situation on the ground that TOTALLY CONTRADICTED the endless lies of the government.

Cronkite finally stepped outside of his role as anchorman and as a good citizen told the truth.

The government of the US repeatedly lied to the American people about Viet Nam.

Some of those lies are repeated in the piece above, including the notion that the "communists" were somehow coming from outside Viet Nam. The country was embroiled in a civil war; the vast, vast majority of the Vietnamese wanted us the hell out.

Furthermore, Cronkite's "editorializing" has been repeatedly confirmed by subsequent reporting -- the essence of journalistic success.

Consider just the Pentagon Papers, which reveals a pattern of lies being told about that goddamn war for almost two decades (including lies being told by LBJ).

You guys have got to learn to separate the stupid, smarmy, cynical idea fed to you by right-wingers who never reported a news story in their lives (Limbaugh and the rest).

And you all -- including the writer of this piece -- clearly need to inform yourselves better.

It's a shame and a disgrace to read this sort of trash endlessly published by a so-called "conservative" source.

Bram| 7.20.09 @ 12:30PM

Dear Liberal Idiot,

Please read a bit about the Tet Offensive - even Wikipedia will tell you it was a crushing defeat for the Communists. The NVA suffered massive losses and the Viet Cong ceased to exist as an independent force. It was very much like the German surprise attack that turned into a rout at the Battle of the Bulge. Yet, Cronkite the "journalist' declared it a defeat. Those of us in the know wondered who exactly he was pulling for.

All the liberals had made up their closed minds by the time Nixon was President, but the military did in fact win the war by the end of 1971. The useful idiots in Congress refused to accept victory and betrayed South Vietnam in ’75 – letting them fall to a Northern invasion by cutting off all support.

I'm not sure which is worse - a glorified new reader, or an incurious liberal video columnist.

Michael Tomlinson| 7.20.09 @ 12:49PM

I'm glad to see other patriotic Americans who are not mourning the death of a Democrat/communist progandist.

Defeat for the US in Vietnam and the subsequent genocide in Southeast Asia were part of Cronkite's legacy along with a belief that it is the "journalists" job to tell us serfs what to think. All in all a failed life being glamorized. What BS!

Turk| 7.20.09 @ 12:52PM

The only accuracy in the 12:05 posting was in its title. As is the current leftist rants its Limbaugh's fault. To the contrary oh leftist one, my information comes from observing and listening to the leftist/defeatist(ala Harry Reid) media and democrat politicians while serving in a combat ready reserve flying unit as a grey haired pilot. Combat ready or not we were not activated by LBJ/mcnamara. That would have given the lie to their policies. I witnessed the grungy, long haired, drugged out pals of the n viet military in person. I didnt need Rush---in fact he didn't exist then. You guys created the atmosphere that layed the ground work for his later fabulous success.

A couple of questions:
+ In re the govt lied--who was the govt then? You guys!
+"cronkites' editorializing' was "repeatedly confirmed by subsequent lying (sic)" Repeat a lie often enough it becomes the truth?? Didn't goebbels say that???

Liberal Reader| 7.20.09 @ 1:04PM

Turk --

You're right about one thing. The Democrats -- especially LBJ -- were the ones who were doing the lying on Viet Nam. Until Nixon was elected and did the lying about Viet Nam.

That's the whole point, you bunch of imbeciles.

Cronkite was NOT a shill for the Democrats -- nor were all the other journalists who actually covered the war and came back to report how the government was LYING about it.

And I don't need to do anymore research on the Tet offensive.

It's true: it was a limited military success. But that's hardly the point!

The whole goddamn country wanted us the hell out of there. They wanted to fight their own war. It was a NATIONALISTIC war, not an ideological one. That's something you people still can't seem to fathom.

This site has some good articles, but the lack of critical thinking and the lack of historical awareness on the part of the readership is mind boggling. You people get all your news from Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh.

Well guess what, you preposterous jackasses. Glenn Beck is NOT a reporter.

Idiocy is NOT a sign of authenticity. Inarticulate rambling is NOT a sign of down-home simplicity. Fist-pounding rage and irrational outbursts are NOT a sign of moral superiority.

What a pathetic and debased squalor conservative political discourse has become.

Bram| 7.20.09 @ 1:22PM

"The whole goddamn country wanted us the hell out of there. They wanted to fight their own war. "

Really? You surveyed ARVN units and found they would rather fight the NVA without us? And the Hmong, I suppose you asked them too?

JimmyMac| 7.20.09 @ 1:38PM

Seeing the announcement of Cronkite's death took me back to my youth and memories of my father referring to him as, "that old Commie". Dad sure hit the nail on the head.

Cronkite was an awful man. I don't think any of us realized how awful he was until he retired and we began to hear his public pronouncements.

Good riddance.

Liberal Reader| 7.20.09 @ 1:53PM

Bram --

It wasn't the NVA we were fighting, primarily, for one thing.

The Hmong, it is true, helped us.

But the numbers were not close to being on our side.

Besides -- the whole domino theory was PROVEN wrong. Viet Nam DID fall to the communists, and the rest of South East Asia did not, with the exception of Cambodia. And Cambodia's government was massively destabilized by our invasion and bombing.

Old Texican| 7.20.09 @ 2:27PM

Hey Liberal Twerp

You weren't even a twinkle in your unknown father's eye when Viet Nam was going on. You were not "drafted"....YOU WERE NOT THERE!

I WAS.

Every thing you have watched and read has been strained through the kaledioscope of your lying hippie-boomer idiots like Obama's ghost writer ,Bill Ayers.

How many MILLIONS OF INNOCENTS BEING SLAUGHTERED CREATES A "DOMINO EFFECT" IN YOUR EXCUSE OF A MIND...ARSEWIPE?

(Vietnamese, Thais, Cambodians, Maylays etc)

You are reading liars...uncritically...and becoming a liar in the process.

FOOL! we are going to have to bail your silly arse out along with our own...to avoid a US domino effect.
And you will STILL be whining and looking at your navel and bitching at us for saving your arse.

From now on you are a scroll button.

Bram| 7.20.09 @ 2:31PM

1. As we talked about earlier, after Tet, the NVA was the only force we were fighting - what little was left of the VC was taken over by the North.

2. Cambodia was destabilized by the NVA invasion and our counter attack.

Marc Jeric| 7.20.09 @ 2:41PM

OK - for a bit of clarity: when I read somehing written by a Democrat, liberal, progressive, environmentalist, socialist ot other such creeps, I translate that immediately as commie-nazi and all becomes clearer. Cronkite spent 2 weeks in Vietnam and declared a huge Vietcong victory in their Tet offemsive, spelling future US defeat. In fact, Vietcong suffered a terrific defeat, lost 75% of their forces so that the rest of the communist war effort depended 100% on the regular NV army supported by the Russian and Chinese communists. Stupid rules of engagement and domestic commie-led protesters guaranteed our eventual defeat. The real testament he left us with is that cheat Dan Rather; imagine if those phony documents had been produced by ancient typwriters instead of modern Internet type!

Grzmlyk| 7.20.09 @ 3:12PM

Bravo, Old Texican.

You deserve our gratitude, both for your military service and for putting Liberal Reader in his place.

He and bob and SL Toddard all share one classic liberal trait: they all think they are intellectually superior and therefore ipso facto "objective" - "above" the bias that infects lesser mortals.

None of them is, of course; they are each merely mouthing tendentious opinions while accusing conservatives of mouthing tendentious opinions.

Ain't no such thing as being objective when people are so emotionally invested in proving that they're above those they deem as "inferior." It's human nature. The very fact that these guys troll this site proves what they're all about. It isn't objective truth.

Thus they prove, once again, the central hubris that is liberalism - as if we needed further proof.

Old Texican| 7.20.09 @ 3:27PM

Gryzmlk
I must thank you, but having been drafted...as a young self paid for pilot/college senior, I volunteered for med-evac choppers/warrant officer training.

While awaiting my orders to train, I joined a company of CBs (civilian builders)...heh and wound up on the ground instead....(oops)

The gubmint liked that and did not call me to train in choppers. They seemed to think I was doing more for their effort as a civilian.

(Yeah, we ducked a lot, but we were paid better. heh).

Michael| 7.20.09 @ 5:36PM

No, Walter. You were not middle America. You were just part of the NY-LA Axis of Egos.

Anonymous| 7.20.09 @ 6:35PM

Now that he's dead, to quote Rambo, "Do we get to win this time?"

Big J| 7.20.09 @ 8:12PM

"It's a shame and a disgrace to read this sort of trash endlessly published by a so-called "conservative" source. "

Do I dare to hope that you will be parting our company Liberal Twerp? (Sorry in advance, Tex. I liked it - stole it).

I think I speak for many that post here when I say.......

Don't let the door hit ya where the Good Lord split ya!

Old Texican| 7.20.09 @ 9:13PM

Big J
Just make yourself at home. I am honored to be copied by you.
A lot of the kids just don't know any better.

Sometimes I wish I could take Liberal Twerp and his millions of buddies fly-fishing in the mountains just to sit around a fire and talk.

Most of them are pretty good kids. They simply grew up lied to. Pretty hard for them to see the reality now, after umpteen years of brainwashing.

I take some comfort in the fact that MOST OF THEM will keep their heads down when the ka ka hits the fan.
Only the true scumbags will take up arms against tax-paying Americans. Those... are fair game ENEMIES!

hmmmmm...I started to say "law abiding tax-paying Americans"...but soon we may not be able to abide by unjust laws, and survive.

Just where along here do we define the line..."self defense"?

Charles Romer| 7.20.09 @ 9:13PM

After all the sound and fury above, I comfort myself with knowing that Cronkite will now be judged in the highest court of all. I wonder if the millions who perished at his words and as a result of his 'works' will feel that justice has been served.

Solo| 7.20.09 @ 9:27PM

Liberal Reader Wrote:

" This site has some good articles, but the lack of critical thinking and the lack of historical awareness on the part of the readership is mind boggling. You people get all your news from Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh.

Well guess what, you preposterous jackasses. Glenn Beck is NOT a reporter. "

Well...gusee what, you imbecilic asshat...? Either was Walter Cronkite!

You complain about others not having reviewed history while you simply parrot the propaganda served up by the ultimate propagandist: Walter Cronkite!

Unbelievable!

You sanctimonious , self deluded asses are the very reason the American people eventually failed to support our action in Viet Nam.

THAT'S THE "WHOLE POINT"!

Say what you want about Fox News or Glenn Beck or Limbaugh, but know this:

We are NEVER going back to the "glorious" days when lefties could write history any way they damned well pleased. Those days are O-V-E-R! And THAT'S what it is that gets your goat!

It's "ON", punk! Get used to it!

Patriot| 7.20.09 @ 11:48PM

Jeff @ 11:35AM--Correction: LIBERALS lost the Viet Nam War!! Whiny, bitcher liberals like LiberalReader/Jeremiah.

Hey, LibReader/Jeremiah, why didn't you post on any Obummer tanking approvals' threads today? Huh? You crying big tears for your wimpy ass thug president? Big chicken, yellow bellied liberal. LOL!

Patrick| 7.21.09 @ 12:14AM

Walter stands in trial before the Just Judge, and the D.A. happens to be the greatest lawyer in all creation. Every act, every word, and every thought are evidence for all to see.

Whether we are liberal or conservative, remember you are mortal. Also, pray with fear and trembling, your day will come too.

SongBird| 7.21.09 @ 1:09AM

I DO remember that I am mortal, and I DO pray--both are reasons why I am a CONSERVATIVE. I also have FAITH so that I don't have to fear and tremble before my God, dope.

Speak for yourself when you cr@p in your pants in fear. UGH!

PCP Smoker| 7.21.09 @ 7:24PM

I 'm surprised. I was expecting a "fair-and honest-benchmark-of journalism" tripe, but it was not to be. Good stuff brother.

OldSkeptic| 7.21.09 @ 7:36PM

I still remember... sitting at a bar in a Chicago German neighborhood listening to the news on TV. Walter's voice was trembling a little as he anounced with tears in his eyes... and regreate in his voice that .... "our president lied to us". I almost fell of my stool, but didn't want to spill my beer. What a stupid remark to make... and make it in such a dramatic way... No, I did not cry with Watler because I figured he was just acting for a bigger salary when it came time. What president didn't streach the truth, or would not try to hide some facts... Remeber the U2... Ike tried to save the pilot, ... Kennedy and his... Camelot, an unblemished house of fiction. Nixon was probably told the least lies.... He was not very adapt at it. Walter sure was... with those croak tears... and a sobbing interlude.... Pure trash, but I had to listen to him. I could not change the channel to Huntly and Brinkly...

Unbeliever| 7.21.09 @ 10:18PM

Jeez, reading what you guys write here is frightening. The common propaganda uttered, the narrow-minded focus, the paranoid attitude, and most of all the hatred. This blog is so full of hate. You think such negativity will help to solve anything? Why not try understanding your fellow citizens instead of just calling them useful idiots because they see things differently? And the mindless association of progressive views with socialism reveals an appalling lack of clear thinking. I do not support many of your "conservative" views, but neither do I blame you, or those who differ from me, for ruining the whole world. Real life is more complex, folks.

CG| 7.22.09 @ 1:18AM

Hey Unbeliever;

Thanks for your condescending remarks. With minimal editing they are just right for the likes of Obama, Emmanuel, Clinton (H&B), Ragin' Cajin, Pelosi, Reid, Kerry, Kennedy, Sotmayor, Algore, Fonda, Frank, and any other 'Crat that may come to mind.