Senator Cronkite

Walter Cronkite was a liberal and no, he didn't have a problem with that.

Reporters can be wary of being pigeonholed by an ideology or a political party. There are even those like Mike Allen, who refuses to cast a ballot at the end of a campaign -- too guilty to let the candidates he covers know that he's made a choice.

But Walter Cronkite didn't have that problem. He was not afraid to express opinions when the situation called for it; he just insisted it be marked an editorial. There were critics, yes, but perhaps they never considered that it was their ideology getting in the way of them seeing things clearly. After all, even Richard Nixon didn't think Cronkite worthy of his enemies list. The famously paranoid president is said to have thought the anchorman 'the best of a bad lot.'

Even Lyndon Johnson, whose presidency came to an end in part because of a Cronkite editorial, did not harbor ill will. As the Tet Offensive was unfolding in 1968, Cronkite left for Vietnam... he simply had to see it for himself. Briefly trapped in Hue, he was evacuated in a helicopter with the bodies of dead Marines. Still, a 'Bigfoot' anchorman like him was treated far differently than the average combat reporter. He would dine with generals who told him how swimmingly everything was going. It was harder to make the conclusions that others could come to sooner. And though he could tell the younger reporters in Vietnam were "engaged in a contest among themselves to determine who was the most cynical, who the most confrontational in their rude challenges to the appointed [military] spokesmen," he could see there was no way forward.

Cronkite returned to America and publicly concluded that the Vietnam War would only end "in stalemate" (a clearly-labeled editorial). At that moment, aides recall that President Johnson turned off his set and sighed something like, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America." Yet Johnson still chose Cronkite for lengthy retrospective CBS interviews after he left the White House.

It was probably the Tet editorial that led Robert Kennedy to invite Cronkite to lunch later that February of 1968. Sure, they were there to discuss whether or not he would run for president, but as all of Kennedy's interaction with journalists, he was interviewing them as much as they were interviewing him. At one point the Senator asked whether Cronkite was registered to vote at his home in Connecticut.... New York, actually.... "Then you aren't registered as a Democrat."... An independent.... "Well that doesn't matter," Kennedy said. "We want you to run for Senate this year." Republican Jacob Javits was up for reelection and Kennedy didn't have a decent candidate to oppose him. He explained what kind of support Cronkite could expect, but it wasn't enticing.

When Cronkite returned from lunch, he found out that Roger Mudd had uncovered a big story on Kennedy holding presidential powwows with his top political advisers. The piece had to air but Cronkite was afraid Kennedy would think he violated his trust. So he called the office and told press secretary Frank Mankiewicz what was happening. Frank relayed Kennedy's reply for that evening's broadcast: 'Senator Kennedy said that he was contemplating running for the presidency just as Walter Cronkite is contemplating running for the Senate from New York.'

In all likelihood, Kennedy knew that Jacob Javits wasn't going to be defeated that November. He was sizing Cronkite up to be his replacement were he to run for and win the presidency.... Even if that had happened, it's doubtful Cronkite would have taken him up on the offer. He would never have been that influential in the Senate, nor was he the type of transactional politician you have to be in order to keep your job in a state like New York.

No, he was a journalist. A journalist who had opinions.

"It's not the journalist's job to be patriotic," Cronkite once told a secretary of defense. "How can patriotism be determined anyway? Is patriotism simply agreeing unquestioningly with every action of one's government? Or might we define patriotism as having the courage to speak and act on those principles one thinks are best for the country, whether they are in accordance with the wishes of the government or not?"

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Comments

[drkazmd65]

I am old enough to remember Mr. Cronkite doing the evening news, but not old enough to appreciate what he did in that position. I was 15 or 16 at the time he left the anchor position in 1981 and was far more interested in girls, working behind the scenes with my local theater group, playing AD&D, and did I mention,... girls?

But I remember him from numerous 'special' reports he did after that point. He was largely off the scenes by the time I became a political and news junkie.

A class act. My grandparents loved the guy. Too bad other than Bill Moyers, the Daily Show & Colbert Report, and a couple of people on MSNBC (Maddow & Schultz), you can't get a real news report that pulls few punches any more. And - editorial is no longer declared as such.

[ProfessorDuh]

Real reporters have always tended to be "liberal," meaning sympathetic to the poor and the oppressed and mistrustful of the powerful and the well-heeled, because they get to see undeserved individual suffering and privation up close and personal, as well as the pious hypocrisy of the government and the cruel, exploitative indifference of the rich.
They're in a position to see just how much sheer plutocrat propaganda BS is peddled by people like Fox News reporters.

[Weirdwriter]

Good point. Cronkite was old-school Liberal -- not, necessarily, as a member of any political party or set, stereotypical thinking.

This was a man who could attend an Episcopalian church for years and volunteer for an organization that promoted the separation of church and state.

[SCG]

Agreed. He gave you the facts of a story, dryly ,without interjecting feelings or viewpoint. The rare occasions he did editorialize, it's was clear he was giving his opinion, not presenting the news. A class act.

[karma13612]

Yes, I remember him from all those years ago.
Truely a class act. But, there is no reason other 'journalists' can't still be inspired and do the right thing.
When you are stating your opinion, make sure everyone knows its just your opinion.
What do they teach in journalism school anyway? How to sensationalize EVERYTHING??
What happended to integrity??

[drhunt]

And he was a LOT less opinionated and liberal then Huntley/Brinkley.

[DinkSinger]

Here is a great quote from a 2003 Cronkite interview with Richard Zoglin of Time Magazine.

"I do not consider a liberal necessarily to be a leftist. A liberal to me is one who--and it suits some of the dictionary definitions--is unbeholden to any specific belief or party or group or person, but makes up his or her mind on the basis of the facts and the presentation of those facts at the time. That defines what I am. I have never voted a party line. I vote on the individual and the issues."

[nogurunomethodnoteacher]

Amen, Uncle Walt.

[DinkSinger]

Robert Kennedy was looking for someone to oppose Paul O'Dwyer in the Democratic primary for senator. O'Dwyer was a supporter of Eugene McCarthy's presidential bid. The candidate Kennedy finally settled for was Eugene Nickerson, the Nassau County Executive. I was a college student in 1968 and worked in the McCarthy and O'Dwyer campaign. The presidential primary process in New York at the time presented a lot of problems because the voters had to select delegate slates instead of the candidate to whom they were pledged. The New York Primary took place two weeks after California's and the assassination of Robert Kennedy. Those of us in the campaign considered it a great handicap to be running against the martyred hero, but even so O'Dwyer and the McCarthy delegate slates won big. A major reason for our victory was that Nickerson was not a very attractive candidate.

No one can say what would have happened had Bobby Kennedy lived, but if he had lost in his home state to the McCarthy/O'Dwyer ticket it would have certainly been a huge setback.

[Weirdwriter]

Yes, in the end, this was a principled, decent, intelligent journalist who made Liberal a positive word.
RIP, sir.

[drhunt]

Cronkite was a "Kennedy" liberal. But by todays standards, Kennedy woul be a conservative. JFK believed in the free market system, lowered taxes and stated at his inaugural, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country". He's probably turning over in his grave.

[luckynewman13]

Because he lowered taxes from 91% to, GASP 74%?

You're right, Kennedy would be turning over in his grave, because this is now seen as a green light to cut taxes to 36% and all that revenue lost from American economic royalists has been replaced by communist Chinese economic royalists.

I hope you're happy.

[ARonHenry]

I'm amazed when conservatives claim JFK. His famous "Ask not what your country can do for you. . ." was neither liberal or conservative, it was a call to service. Kennedy's record shows him resisting hard-line advisors and military aids. They asked for 30,000 troops for Viet Nam in 1961 he gave them 9000, later upped to 16, 000. He refused to be stampeded into direct attack by the US during the Bay of Pigs. He pushed back against those who wanted to invade and bomb Cuba during the missile crisis, saving us from nuclear war. Revisit his September, 1963 interview with Cronkite where he expressed doubts about whether the US could help the Vietnamese if they did not carry the burden of the fighting. He annouced the withdrawal of 1000 troops from Viet Nam at his last press conference, less than 2 weeks before he was killed. He sought detent with the Soviets and got the Test Ban Treaty passed. The right hated him, calling him "soft on communism." Additionally, he busted the heads of the big steel companies when they betrayed him on a labor agreement, pushed for a higher minimum wage, expanded health coverage, and came out strong for civil rights, becoming a hero to African Americans. And can you imagine a conservative concieving and implmenting something as idealistic as The Peace Corp? Jack Kennedy was a classic 20th century liberal. Attempts by the right to claim him are typical of the propoganga they indulge in.

[drhunt]

Cronkite was a Kennedy democrat, but by todays standards, JFK would be considered a conservative. JFK believed in the free market system, lowered taxes and stated at his inaugural, :ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country".

[Weirdwriter]

Good try at spin, but nonsense. Conservative doesn't mean what it used to, either.

But Liberal and Conservative were different then, from today's general definitions.