Walter Cronkite, CBS News Legend, Reported As “Gravely Ill” – Be Well Walter



2009 June, 19th
Phil Butler
Phil Butler
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Walter Cronkite, perhaps the greatest icon of broadcast journalism, has been reported to be gravely ill. A story in the LA Times, and others responding to various sources at CBS News, suggest that Cronkite, at age 92, might be in a fight for his life. Cronkite, who anchored the CBS Evening News for nearly 20 years with Dan Rather, has had a career unsurpassed by any modern journalist. This news, if reports are true, makes this writer saddened, not only because a great celebrity is ill, but because Cronkite, form many of us, was for so long the voice that brought the world to our door.

The news of Walter Cronkite’s condition appear to be conflicting, and CBS appears to be denying reports of the network going so far as to update Cronkite’s obituary. Regardless of the accuracy or timing of these reports, Cronkite has been very ill for some time. So, perhaps now is as good a time as any for this writer to pay tribute to one of the most influential people of the 20th Century.

My earliest memories of Cronkite were not actually fond ones, as I think back. The 60′s were a vibrant, though tumultuous and difficult time for Americans. Cronkite was actually the newscaster credited with reporting the death of John F. Kennedy, not exactly the harbinger of good news even back then. Cronkite had been one of the top reporters during World War 2, and one of only eight journalists selected to fly B-17 bombing raids over Germany. During the 50′s Cronkite was the host or anchor of innumerable programs and news casts. His career path taking its natural course, Cronkite was chosen to anchor what was to become, “the most trusted news show” of its time, The CBS Evening News. In competition with Huntley-Brinkley Report, Cronkite, and later Dan Rather would become household names.


Walter Cronkite-JFK – For more funny videos, click here

Cronkite, was during this time, the voice and face that brought the most gavitous news to a waiting world. No story, no event during this interesting and pivotal era was completely disassociate from Cronkite as far as the public was concerned. If for no other reason, this simple truth puts Cronkite’s career, its impact, and his place in the history of journailism in the 20th Century, firmly in contrast.

cronkitenam

One Dark Spot No One Talks About

I cannot dutifully comment or report on Walter Cronkite without interjecting a view which must be propagated. Cronkite, as a limb of CBS and other journalism during the Vietnam War, cannot walk unscathed for a part he played which many choose to forget, or worse ignore. My brother and 3 cousins were in this war at various stages, so our family’s intent anticipation of news every day was, as it was so for many families, a daily routine with fairly dark implications. My earliest memories of Cronkite are vivid, as if they happened yesterday. The CBS Evening News, like the others, reported for a long time as if the public were watching some kind of morose sports contest. For Cronkite’s part in this, and as “the most trusted” newscaster we hear about, bought into this “body count” score keeping journalism perhaps moreso than any other. You cannot imagine watching such an eloquent and credible figure calling out the numbers of Viet Cong and American casualties in such a clinical way.

For those of you reading this, who are old enough, I know many will recall the anger, and sometimes sorrow, which came on the heels of these daily reports. At the beginning, with this view, CBS, Cronkite and TV news in general, followed precisely public opinion, and in effect, what the military, the administration, and a sort of “cowboy” mentality which could have only made matters much worse. Just so the readers know, I spent 3 hours simply trying to find even one Cronkite broadcast from these hundreds online, and not one appears to be available. What is available in the way of commentary or even the slightest mention is, to be honest, somehow woefully (and unbelievably for me) gone. A few comments and some scattered video “bits” are discoverable, but that is all. I will let the reader do their own thinking in this regard, but even Cronkite’s touted Tet Offensive video on YouTube is not available for embed. For the record, General William Westmoreland filed suit against CBS for their program “The Uncounted Enemy: a Vietnam Deception.” The implications of this suit, I will also leave to the astute reader, but one thing is certain, Cronkite and CBS were not in my view the staunch anti-war heroes they have been portrayed as. In a report via The Myth of the Media’s Role in Vietnam, the author recollects this view in the following quote:

“Any alert journalist should have known the official count was grossly inflated, in large part by adding in dead civilians — yet Walter Cronkite and the other network anchors dutifully read it straight faced week after week.”

Walter Cronkite After The 1968 Tet Offensive

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdOb_183d1o[/youtube]

Getting Past Skeletons

For my part, any news person (or anyone for that matter) is better than their darkest moment. For Cronkite it must be said that he was not in control of what a whole network or industry was about back then or now. A career as bright as his, with so much wealth of content, can never, nor should it, be minimized. Please understand that, coming from someone who actually despised these Vietnam propaganda bits, it says a lot about Walter Cronkite the man to have balanced these issues for me.

I am sure that Cronkite’s part in the reversal of opinion about Vietnam was instrumental in saving American and Vietnamese lives in the end. This is important to remember. As for his later exploits, those too provide a backdrop of excellence in as far as what people can come to expect from excellent journalism. Cronkite, even after his retirement, has been a key voice from the isle of “in the know” people. You know what they say about opinions. But, enhanced wisdom like that of this journalist must be more heavily weighted than youthful exuberance in the end. For us at Pamil Visions, we hope that he is “okay”, as the latest from CBS claims. He will be in our prayers, and for this writer, an inextricable part of my recollections, good and bad. For any reporter, what more can be asked as a legacy? I leave you with still more video of the times.

Perhaps The Bravest Thing A Reporter Ever Said

Be Well Walter

About the Author

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Phil Butler is editor-in-chief of Everything PR and senior partner at Pamil Visions PR. He’s a widely cited authority on beta startups, search engines and public relations issues, and he has covered tech news since 2004. Phil wrote in the past for ReadWriteWeb, Mashable, Profy, SitePoint, Search Engine Journal, AltSearchEngines. Follow Phil on Twitter or send him an email at phil [at] pamil-visions [dot] com.

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