Posted on 10/03/2005 5:06:51 AM PDT by InvisibleChurch
Monday, Oct. 3, 2005 6:56 a.m. EDT Walter Cronkite: U.S. Too Ignorant to Vote
The man once known as the most trusted journalist in America no longer trusts Americans to vote for their own leaders, saying average citizens are just too ignorant to cast their ballots wisely.
"We [as a nation] are not educated well enough to perform the necessary act of intelligently selecting our leaders," CBS News legend Walter Cronkite told the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication last week.
In quotes picked up by the Los Angeles Times, Cronkite said journalists need to find a way to better inform the public, suggesting they pressure their employers to replace the current roundups of celebrity profiles and personal health and finance pieces with "the news of the day."
"If we fail at that," Cronkite warned, "our democracy, our republic, I think, is in serious danger."
The CBS legend also said that he fears that the blogosphere could threaten the standing of the mainstream media, adding that news consumers are already confused by cable TV's "opinion journalism."
Cronkite was obviously NEVER as trusted as he thought. He was the most viewed of the three propaganda media, when there was only three.
If anything is shows that Cronkite FAILED to impose his personal BIASED view upon the public.
Crokite needs to be studied with other historical FAILURES like Jimmy Carter.
Certainly schools that pay more attention to educating children about two mommies and condoms bear some of the responsibility for the public's ignorance about government. However, I believe public ignorance is also largely due to the lock the legacy media had on reporting what "they" decided was news.
Cronkite has always said that people should not rely solely on TV news but shoulod also read a newspaper. However, I advocate that interviewers use a senility test. Before they proceed, they should ask these old farts if they can remember what they had for breakfast. If not, move on, and don't bother me.
I know exactly what you mean. I agree with him for different reasons as well.
Those examples come more from poor efforts on the parts of the Republican party than from an uninformed electorate. Remember, that same electorate had no problem electing Ronald Reagan.
Excellent statement!
Instead of a vineyard of educated and informed voters we have "target groups" rooted in political muck, fertilized by socialistic dung, climbing an emotional trellis towards historical oblivion. Hanging by tenuous precepts they are easily swayed by every prevailing wind, back and forth, swelling larger and growing ever weaker. When the fullness of the sun comes to bear on them they can only tear free and fall to the ground. With no enduring truth, redeeming virtue or just endurance they cannot yield nor perpetuate the fruit of liberty.
Cronkite said journalists need to find a way to better inform the public, suggesting they pressure their employers to replace the current roundups of celebrity profiles and personal health and finance pieces with "the news of the day."I hate to be in a position of agreement with Cronkite, but he's right in this instance. Where I work we have 70 employees. Only three, including myself, have a clue what's going on politically. The rest don't know and don't care. They just parrot what the MSM tells them. Sad."If we fail at that," Cronkite warned, "our democracy, our republic, I think, is in serious danger."
The fallacy lies in equating "what's going on politically" with "the news of the day" as defined by establishment journalism.Establishment journalism has two defining characteristics, indeed two besetting vices:
Establishment journalism is superficial because it is nonfiction entertainment, complete with its own version of "the show must go on" known as "deadlines." Even when establishment journalism does not lie, it systematically tells half-truths by its emphasis on the most unusual reports since the previous deadline. Build a hundred houses over a period of years and you will not make the news, but a single house burning down will make banner headlines. If a glass is half full - and what glass is not? - establishment journalism will always report that it is half empty, if it says anything about it at all.
- superficiality, and
- arrogance
And then there is the other characteristic of establishment journalism, the part with which Uncle Walter is snowing us in this piece - arrogance. Establishment journalism is arrogant in claiming that its product is objective. The thing speaks for itself: in identifying "the news of the day" with "what's going on politically," Uncle Walter is claiming that establishment journalism (with which he is identified, and vice versa) is virtuous. And arguing from your own claim of your own virtue is inherently arrogant.
And what is more arrogant that telling, and standing behind, a bold-faced lie when the contrary evidence is staring us in the face? 60 Minutes put on its own version of the October Surprise last year in its infamous hit-piece touting four fraudulent "memos" purportedly from the Texas Air National Guard circa 1972. The "memos" were poor-quality copies, whereas only an original signature can be verified with any reliability, and the memos had mistakes consistent with their having been concocted recently and inconsistent with the conceit that they were genuine, 1972, TANG memos. Not only so, but all characteristics which were conveyed in those poor quality copies were consistent with the theory that they were made on a machine which did not come into existence until almost two decades after their purported date of composition.
Those documents were frauds. And since the message in those documents was one which Republicans considered irrelevant but the Democrats proclaimed to be a smoking gun, the very publication of the "documents" even had they been genuine was a partisan act. Yet CBS maintained, via an "independent" commission which CBS itself created for that purpose and no other, that the "memos' authenticity or lack thereof could not be ascertained and that the publication of them had not been politically motivated.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, that is an absurd conclusion, and CBS News is tainted by it. But CBS is not alone. I have spoken of news outlets like CBS as "establishment" journalism. And the plain fact is that establishment journalism in its entirety - CBS and all the rest - swallowed CBS's "independent commission" hooey whole, and expects the rest of us to do likewise. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, so-called "objective" journalism is a self-identifying establishment which arrogantly proclaims itself the arbiter of "the news of the day" and "what's going on politically."
No, Uncle Walter's supposed lack of "the news of the day" is no danger to the Republic. Broadcast journalism, however, is.
Why Broadcast Journalism is
Unnecessary and Illegitimate
So does he want a POLL tax or does he want a TEST to vote... Hey Walt baby Been tried. YOUR LIVING IN THE WRONG CENTURY.
Whatever you say Mr. Cronkite, now its time for your medication and a nappy nappy so say goodnight to the potted fern in the corner of the room you've been talking too for hours on end.
Uncle Walter has always believed this way
Then what is his solution? An IQ test before voting? Wouldn't that be just like a Poll tax? How does he account for all of the people who voted throughout American history? I wonder if he feels like people were ignorant when they voted Clinton in for a 2nd term? Are we only ignorant when a Republican has been voted in? I have so many question......
He became infallible after making Pope at CBS.
He wants to control the news like they did in his day
Those days are over and Uncle Walter ain't happy about it
he fears that the blogosphere could threaten the standing of the mainstream media.
he fears it and I'm praying for it.
And brainwashed parents who don't take the time to see the schools and MSM for what they are: purveyors of leftist propaganda hell-bent on bringing America down.
Also, voting is voluntary in the USA. In most other countries, you are required to vote by law. That your choices usually stink is a not exclusive to the US either.
What I think is upsetting this has been more than anything else is the reality that people are starting to wise up to the antics of the MSM and the reality that a lot of these news organizations are completely and totally in bed with the Democrats.
And as such are turning them off and bypassing them for other sources.
Clearly there are far more sources now available to the general public to turn to for news and information that are more to the genreal public's liking and this is what has Uncle Walter urinating in his pants right now.
And the thing is he has beureacrats in Washington who seem to be at work to try to regulate these alternate news outlets out of business.
This is why there's so much animosity between congresspeople and the constieuents they swore to represent in some places.
The battle here is not just to try and put these news organizations out of business but to also try to get those who are choosing to take their sides instead of working with their constituennts like they're supposed to out of office.
We'll just have to see how it all comes out.
I often hear lines directly from campaign ads repeated as Gospel Truth.
Really? In what way?
Carolyn
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