[Steve_Seattle]

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."

Translation: Cronkite fears that the blogosphere and cable TV are now letting people hear conservative opinion as well as liberal opinion, which undermines the monopoly on information/propaganda that the MSM used to enjoy in Cronkite's heyday. Like everyone else on the Left, Cronkite believes that the flow of information should be strictly controlled and centralized in order to insure that only the "correct" views are disseminated. The election of Bush in two consecutive elections tells someone like Cronkite that there is a problem with the information flow, because proper control of the information would have prevented Bush from being elected.

[Wolverine]

Walter Cronkite and the Media Lost the US the Vietnam War

CBS' Walter Cronkite, appeared for a standup piece with distant fires as a backdrop. Donning helmet, Cronkite declared the war lost. It was this now famous television news piece that persuaded President Johnson six weeks later, on March 31, not to run. His ratings had plummeted from 80 percent when he assumed the presidency upon Kennedy's death to 30 percent after Tet. His handling of the war dropped to 20 percent, his credibility shot to pieces.

 

Even Giap admitted in his memoirs that news media reporting of the war and the anti-war demonstrations that ensued in America surprised him. Instead of negotiating what he called a conditional surrender, Giap said they would now go the limit because America's resolve was weakening and the possibility of complete victory was within Hanoi's grasp.