Glenn Greenwald: Journalists Celebrating Cronkite Ignore What He Did

Salon:

[...] So, too, with the death of Walter Cronkite. Tellingly, his most celebrated and significant moment -- Greg Mitchell says "this broadcast would help save many thousands of lives, U.S. and Vietnamese, perhaps even a million" -- was when he stood up and announced that Americans shouldn't trust the statements being made about the war by the U.S. Government and military, and that the specific claims they were making were almost certainly false. In other words, Cronkite's best moment was when he did exactly that which the modern journalist today insists they must not ever do -- directly contradict claims from government and military officials and suggest that such claims should not be believed. These days, our leading media outlets won't even use words that are disapproved of by the Government.

Read the whole story: Salon

Comments

[octopi]

Rachel Maddow has done that several times, and each time suffered for it from her viewers. It is a risky business.

[iridium53]

Chuck Todd and others have drunk the Obama kool-aid to the max.

Long ago they stopped being neutral and became White House cheerleaders - the anti-Fox. No doubt that helps ratings with the public who is so enthusiastic with Obama.

They should remember, however, how enthusiastic the public was with Bush' actions after 9/11 - and how the public views them now.

The President of the United States swore support and defend the Constitution. It is his duty to enforce the laws of the U.S. There is always prosecutorial discretion - but to choose to not investigate and prosecute on blatantly political grounds is a violation of that sworn duty and a clear demonstration of the man's integrity (lack of).

Supporting and enabling POTUS' dereliction of duty is despicable and incompatible with open, democratic government.

[Budokan]

Cronkite never would have talked about Clinton's c*k 24/7 like Tim Russert did, that's for sure.

[oceanofconsciousness]

The opening quote by Cronkite, followed by the one by David Gregory says it all.

[MNTom]

I agree. The media was suppose to be the forth branch of Government. Or at least investiagate what the government is doing and not just reporting their bullet points, bullet point from both sides.

[SharpDressedMan]

I see David Gregory as Cronkite's antithesis.

Gregory worked in the field as a reporter but not enough to be considered field tested and battle hardened. Gregory was only 29 years old when assigned to cover George W. Bush during his 2000 campaign. He was then appointed to the White House Press Corps at age of 30 after Bush was selected as President.

Although Gregory traveled with the Bush entourage around the country and the world, he was and is for the most part a beltway TV journalist and now the Meet the Press moderator embedded in a climate controlled studio with all conveniences.

When Walter Cronkite was 30, he was still in Europe covering the aftermath of WW2. Cronkite established his career by finding and reporting news. Cronkite didn't migrate to studio work till 1953 and kept moving between the studio and the field. His field reporting included Vietnam and other trouble spots around the world.

[Jazzman323]

It was Walter Cronkit who decided when America lost the Viet Nam War. Whanks Walter.

[JFair]

Not one of the “journalists” featured on the 60 Minutes tribute to Cronkite address the most pressing problems facing our country. Where are their reports on campaign finance corruption and the corrosive effects of corporate lobbying on our government? At one time I had respect for Charlie Gibson – it was entirely lost when he spent hours covering Michael Jackson’s funeral. Bill Moyers, John Stewart, and Bill Maher seem to be the only personalities that speak truth to power – two of them, comedians – it would be almost humorous if it wasn’t so pathetic.

[SharpDressedMan]

profit baby profit !

That's why I believe news organizations should be non-profit like NPR, C-SPAN and PBS.

[1dogs2]

I was as appalled by the media's hagiography of Tim Russert after his death as I have been by its failure to comprehend what Cronkite did that it doesn't.

Keep up the good fight, Glenn. Our democracy depends on it.

[Lilly-G]

Glenn Beck? That's the biggest laugh I've had in a week.

[madfigs]

I think 1dogs2 meant Glenn Greenwald, the author of this article...

[Billar]

I grew up watching Walter Cronkite from the Korean conflict up through Vietnam and his retirement. He was and will be remembered as a great news reporter. He was one whom I trusted fully.
Today we are left with news parrots!

[jones]

...."but we'll always have the web".

[GHARDY]

When I heard Mr. Cronkite had died I, knew journalism as we once knew it went with him. Today's news is made up of superstars and pundits, they all fell us during the lead up to the Iraqi war, and they are now felling us with the health care bill. Not once have I seen any real reporting on this subject, who's telling the truth. Isn't that what journalism is, finding the truth. With that said Mr. Cronkite you will be sorley missed.

[Melissa]

There is no integrity left in the media. MSNBC is absolutely liberal except for Morning Joe. Olbermann, Matthew, and the rest of the shows lean soo far left, you really don't get news just opinions. FOX leans to the right, except for Shepard. Hannity, Beck, O'Reilly, are way far to the right. I don't know what CNN is I just can't watch them. All the network news has an agenda to support Obama at all costs. I haven't watched them since the election. With the passing of Walter Cronkite the media as we once knew it is dead. Can you image Walter spending two weeks covering Michael Jackson?

[aramos]

The integrity of journalists has steadily declined since Cronkite left the news full time, and it ill only get worse!

[CarolinaDem]

We've had a cart-horse change. Corporations are not engines to make money. They are engines to get things done. Profit is the inducement by which to raise the capital to finance the job. Doing whatever you can find to do to make a profit is a dangerous distortion of the nature of a corporation.

The news corporation existed to do journalism. It earned profit to repay its borrowing to pay expenses. It used its power to publish to make money publishing ads.

When that horse got behind its cart, the news operation became a sales item, responsible for drawing an advertiser's audience and not much else. No difference, in principle, between msm and the supermarket press. "The love of money is the root of all evil." There really are other purposes in life, but the msm has not gotten that memo in decades.

[Tyrione]

The Education system in the US has bottomed so badly that high school students don't even learn the Vietnam War, Korean War and much more.

In the 80s my US Government class spent 9 weeks on Vietnam [1986] which today isn't part of the curriculum. Truly pathetic. Hell, the War of 1812 and the American Revolutionary War are practically footnotes today.

[CarolinaDem]

In a college freshman course I taught two years ago I asked the class together to name the five most important events they could remember in the 200 years of American history. They could only come up with six, of which two were sports events. One, the 'miracle on ice', I thought deserved some respect. The other was a stock car race. They missed WWI, Vietnam, the Civil War, the Great Depression and the civil rights movement. Simply never heard of them.

[MarcusT]

Thank you Mr. Greenwald. I don't have the credentials to write that but it is an ugly truth. It was THE ugly truth that inspired me to start a web project which ultimately interested Walter and became The Cronkite Channel-we didn't make it. While working on this I was able to meet and speak with many bold face "journalists" who's work I was very familiar with. I was struck not only by their lack of broad based knowledge but by the celebrity that seems to now be what "journalism" is all about. Very few had any trouble admitting that access trumps inquiry. A sad state of affairs.

[JScott]

When CBS showed the WC rememberance in lieu of 60 min. I noticed NOT ONE person was from Fox News or even ANY of the Cable news channels.