Posted on 11/04/2006 3:21:48 PM PST by Borges
`Uncle Walter' says he could cover news today, and that's the way it is
Walter Cronkite turns 90 years old today, and the renowned broadcaster has lost none of his lust for the news business.
``I would like to think that I'm still quite capable of covering a story,'' he told the New York Daily News this week.
After anchoring the CBS Evening News for nearly two decades, his voice can now be heard introducing one of his successors, Katie Couric.
Asked for his reaction when he was invited to do the introduction, he replied without hesitation: ``I would like to be doing the whole broadcast.''
Still, he said: ``I was honored to be asked and I must say rather surprised. I'm very pleased to have my little signature out there at the beginning of the broadcast.''
Cronkite, of course, was the first anchor of that broadcast -- which was also the first nightly news program. Having him introduce Couric, said Sean McManus, president of CBS News and CBS Sports, was ``in retrospect, obvious.''
``It speaks volumes about what CBS News stands for,'' he said. ``It says so much about our tradition and our foundation.''
Cronkite helped build that foundation through his work during a particularly transformative time in American history. He was there to interpret for attentive audiences (undistracted by today's dizzying array of news sources) major world events like the Cuban missile crisis, Vietnam, the Watergate scandal, the Apollo 11 moon landing and the assassination of President Kennedy.
Cronkite is proudest of his coverage of the civil rights movement, the peace talks between Egypt's Anwar Sadat and Israel's Menachem Begin in the 1970s and the space program.
``The (moon landing) was certainly one of the greatest stories of the century and perhaps will be the greatest story of many centuries.''
Television news has changed since Cronkite and Huntley-Brinkley ruled the evening news roost. But Cronkite said the anchor's job hasn't changed much.
So which broadcast does ``Uncle Walter'' watch?
``I bounce around a little bit,'' he said. ``I think all the three major networks do a good job. I'm particularly fond of Jim Lehrer's report on public radio.''
And Couric?
``I think Katie's doing very well,'' he said. ``I would like to see just a little bit more hard news on the broadcast.''
These days Cronkite spends his working hours doing documentary narration and voiceovers, as well as some writing, although he gave up his syndicated column last year. A leg injury has kept him off the tennis courts for the past few years, but he still enjoys sailing. He does have one regret.
``I unfortunately have not been to Iraq,'' he said. ``It's the first war since (World War II) that I have not covered.''
correction:
"Cronkite is proudest of his ability to convince the US public and government that the so-called TET offensive by the Viet Cong was a catastrophe for the USA, when in fact the Viet Cong were slaughtered by the tens of thousands and never recovered from the fiasco. By the time a Demagogue Congress had cut all funding and support for Free Vietnam (the south), the NVA was able to waltz into Saigon and turn millions into slaves."
There - fixed it.
He not only led the cheer section against the War in Vietnam, as a result he is indirectly responsible for the deaths of two million Asians after the withdrawal.
In addition he took a big part in covering up the murder of President Kennedy. Oswald couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with a canon. Cronkite lied for LBJ, Hoover, and the other murderers who killed Kennedy.
Is this like one of those Jon Carry banners?
I'm not going to comment on any conspiracy theories because I do not believe in 99.9% of them.
Cronkite is a very old America hating communist.
it was exactly this time 2 years ago (just days before the 2004 election) that Cronkite showed up on Larry King's program...
Larry King Show...
(START VIDEO CLIP)
OSAMA BIN LADEN (through translator): Your security is not in the hands of Kerry or Bush or al Qaeda. Your security is in your own hands. Any nation that does not attack us will not be attacked.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY KING: OK, Walter. What do you make of this?
CRONKITE: Well, I make it out to be initially the reaction that it's a threat to us, that unless we make peace with him, in a sense, we can expect further attacks. He did not say that precisely, but it sounds like that when he says...
LARRY KING: The warning.
CRONKITE: What we just heard. So now the question is basically right now, how will this affect the election? And I have a feeling that it could tilt the election a bit. In fact, I'm a little inclined to think that Karl Rove, the political manager at the White House, who is a very clever man, he probably set up bin Laden to this thing.
you're lucky NOT to have seen Cronkite during Vietnam and Watergate. People thing the press is poisonous today?
I have not watched 1 second of NBC, CBS, or ABC news since mid 1969. Nor have I listed to Paul Harvey since December 1973 when he dropped his support for Nixon because his son got drafted.
Thanks, now I'm impotent.
btw, I have NEVER seen the mainstream media so blatantly cheering for the Democrats as they are now. They've always been extremely left wing biased since Edward R. Murrow, but this year it's just crazy.
Of course, I don't actually watch it. I only hear what they say from listening to Rush Limbaugh, or reading NewsBusters.org. I'd have a brain aneurism if I did.
I can hardly even stand watching Brit Hume on Fox since he just covers he media spin generated by the left anyway.
Thank goodness we have alternative media or I'd go nuts.
The absolute worst person out there is Keith Olbermann. Sheesh. (I only know that from reading Olbywatch. How they can stand watching this is beyond me. It's like watching an al Queda beheading tape every night.)
If it weren't for the alternative media, talk radio, Fox News, and the blogosphere, the entire rest of the media CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS, NPR, CNN, MSNBC, AP, Reuters, UPI, NY Time, Washington Post, all our news would be coming from straight from the Democratic Central Committee, the forehead, James Carville, and Bob Shrum. It's amazing how they are in perfect lockstep, all the time, using the same buzzwords and pushing the same anti-GOP propaganda all the time, ready each morning not with the news, but their own version of Democratic "campaign ads" that masquerade as news.
Who needs Air America? They're amateurs compared to the MSM.
Just look at 60 Minutes for example. How many anti-Bush books have they had big segments on every election eve in the last 8 years? How come all the people who come out with anti-Clinton books are never interviewed before an election? They totally ignored the Swift Boat Vets, even though every word the Swift Boat Vets said about Kerry was true and easily documented. Instead, they issue fake documents from 1966, typed with Microsoft Word 2003, saying Bush was AWOL and run that on primetime.
The national media is at war with the Republican Party and everyone in it. They spend all their time and energy trying to destroy them.
Unfortunately, no.
It's just too bad Brinkley isn't celebrating his 90th.
Just a little meat in the pirogies. Like it used to be done in the Old Country.
Examining the Myths of the Vietnam War
A Conference, under the auspices of The RADIX Foundation,
which took place at Simmons College,
300 The Fenway, Boston MA, 26-29 July 2004
Check this video for a surprise you didn't know!...about 23 minutes into video
Download for best viewing: http://www.vnmaps.net/videos/session12S.wmv 36mb.
http://www.viet-myths.net/Session12.htm
Also interesting about the media.
The Impact of Media in VN
Be sure to review Walter here: The Media Distortion http://www.viet-myths.net/AimImpact.wmv
http://www.viet-myths.net/Session08.htm and http://www.viet-myths.net/session08S.wmv
So are the DINOSAURS.
He's a dried up old fool. CBS-made legend.
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