The Saga of Uncle Walter

ESPN has a program called “Dream job.” The show focuses on a group of aspiring journalists vying for a shot at an ESPN anchor job. Most recently, ESPN invited past NBA players to compete for a NBA analysis job. The one thing that becomes obvious. It is not the knowledge of the subject or for that matter, journalistic skills that matters. It is how one looks on camera and read the cue cards.

Television anchoring is simply a job that emphasis style over substance, which has been the Achilles heel of television journalism. With the demise of Dan Rather’s career, my thought shifted to Walter Cronkite or Uncle Walter. For many of my father’s generation, Cronkite was the representation of what journalism was suppose to be. He was the most trusted man in television. However, the illusion behind the throne reveals something else.

Wall Street Journal best of the web recently ran a presentation that Cronkite gave at George Washington shortly after 9/11. Quite frankly, the man sounded like a loon, calling for world government and basically bad mouthing the United States as if the United States was the reason for all the world ills. His rant was no different than a Michael Moore movie.

One of the biggest news stories during the Vietnam War was the Tet offense. From a military perspective, the Tet offense was a disaster for the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese. From this point, the Viet Cong cease to be a significant military force and the brunt of the fighting fell to the North Vietnamese regulars. But for Americans listening to Walter Cronkite, they heard the complete opposite.

Lyndon Johnson supposedly quipped that "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America." Cronkite was wrong but yet his words had impact. Lucky for Cronkite, he was living in an era of just the three news networks and most journalists at that time essentially agreed with Uncle Walter. There were no blogs or independent media specialist to challenge Cronkite version of the Vietnam War or his conclusion of the Tet Offense.

A year ago, I wrote that one could get a more accurate view of Iraqi war through reading the various websites than reading the New York Times or listening the evening news. As the event has unfolded over the last 12 months, websites such as Strategypage.com have shown to be accurate when distilling the truth about Iraq, especially when compared to the so-called mainstream media. If Cronkite sat in Dan Rather’s seat, I suspect that he wouldn’t have behaved any differently when presented the Bush National Guard story nor would his coverage been any better than his present mainstream colleagues.
I am being hard on Cronkite but in some ways, I view Cronkite as symptom of what was and still is wrong about the mainstream media, in particular television. Having a deep understanding of world event has little to do with the anchor job but being reassuring in front of a camera does. That was Cronkite secret. It was as if your father was giving you the news and you hung on every word as Gospel truth.

Article Author: Tom Donelson

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